Working from home before the 2020 coronavirus outbreak was a luxury. However, due to the pandemic, workflow and teamwork were disrupted. Babatola Awe, co-founder and CEO of Flowmono, had the luxury of commuting between her house and office because they were not far away. But he knew that other entrepreneurs and companies were not so lucky. Nevertheless, the companies had to keep running. They had to find a way to get things done.
In the midst of this dilemma, Awe and Akintayo Okekunle – Flowmono’s co-founder and CFO – began looking for tools that will facilitate online collaboration and productivity. Digital tools for e-signature, document manager, process builder and e-invoicing.
The available solutions were software programs created by international companies. However, these solutions had three problems; an expensive budget, complex architecture and disjointed. Expensive because they required top dollar to gain access. The technology was also difficult to set up and they could not be found in one place.
Babatola started building Flowmono with his team in 2021 and the first version was launched in March 2022 as a solution to this crisis. Now, one year later, Flowmono 2.0 will be launched in March 2023. The document management software helps individuals, freelancers, small and medium-sized businesses and larger companies transition to remote work and move to a paperless process.
It is “Docusign for Africans.” “We are trying to bridge this gap by completing business workflows in five minutes or less,” says Babatola Awe. “With the app, you can set up your workflow very quickly and start running your business in one place.”
The progress of digitization and the shift to a more knowledge-based economy has made the possibility of remote work possible for employers and employees. The world has changed. Currently, the ability to work remotely has become a crucial factor in making employment decisions.
But the critical challenge companies face when transitioning to this work model is finding the right tools that will increase productivity and collaboration and automate all processes. Tools that help organizations sign contracts, share, store and store documents.
These are the tools Flowmono is trying to build. Its e-signature service is a data management and processing tool built for Africans by Africans. The app helps your organization automate data processing, document workflows and collaborate effectively with your team and third parties.
The name “Flowmono” is two different words put together. “Flow” means enabling seamless collaborations between teams and “mono” in one place.
The document management and workflow automation tool helps organizations and small teams connect their documents, data and people. As a user, you get a common drive to share documents across the organization, all safe and secure in the cloud.
You also get access to the process management tool Flowmono is building. This feature will help you configure and standardize your business processes. For example, employees can easily configure their leave request, assessment and contract signing processes; with the relevant people who easily set these processes in motion.
According to Faruq Olaseni, Product Manager at Flowmono, the startup is also building API tools to integrate with external apps; these would enable users to bring e-signature capabilities to their own custom apps. “It’s great for KYC purposes, signing in-app agreements, etc. These tools would only be available to our enterprise users.”
Data protection is at the center of everything that is done at Flowmono. On the app there is a feature called Flowmono drive which is similar to Google drive. On this drive you can upload and save your critical data, documents and certificates.
You will be able to add security so that even if someone hacks your data, they cannot open it unless they know the OTP that comes to your email.
“As a subscriber, you can only see what belongs to your organization. Permission sets, security layers, everything is at the top, even as a super admin you can’t access customer data,” Awe added.
Growth plans
Flowmono 2.0 is about to go live, and it’s driven largely in response to customer feedback from the minimum viable product. It becomes lighter, faster, more seamless and comes with more functionality.
After gathering a lot of feedback from large companies, said Babatola Awe, we are releasing version 2.0 with API tools that allow you to drag and drop your form builder, documents and other process management tools.
“We’re simplifying the whole idea of being able to create workflows,” added Babatola Awe, “You don’t need to be a developer to configure workflows and simplify your business process.”
Currently, Flowmono has deployed over 10 paying companies and 300 users so far. You can sign up today on Flowmono as a basic user with ₦3,000 per month. The professional plan is ₦4,000 and the enterprise is ₦6,000. You get a discount when you pay for one year in a row.