Alix Papeloux, Managing Director of OOTI, reflects on the company’s journey

As the year draws to a close, Alix Papeloux, Managing Director of OOTI, reflects on the company’s journey, its major successes, and future development.

Hello Alix, it’s been 8 years since OOTI was launched. Where does the company stand today?
Today, OOTI has over 700 clients worldwide. While our offering was initially designed for architects and interior designers, it has since expanded to include all their partners in construction, such as engineering firms.
It’s an immense source of pride to have positioned ourselves as partners in their digital transformation. It hasn’t been an easy journey; we’ve had to work hard to demonstrate the benefits and explain the daily operational advantages.
Now, the need for vision and management is recognized across the entire sector.

Your client base has diversified, as have the countries where OOTI operates.
Yes, while France remains at the core of our activity (about 90% of clients), we are also expanding into Benelux, Switzerland, and Canada. These are key areas for the company’s development.
We’re particularly focused on our presence in Canada, where we’ve sent a team member to operate on-site. It’s still early days, but things are looking promising, with 5 well-known agencies trusting us since our launch in August 2024. We have great confidence in this market and its growth potential.

Are the needs different for a French architect compared to a Canadian architect?
There may be slight differences, which the software handles well, especially in billing, project management, and the usual functionalities of our platform. However, the main difference lies in the fiscal framework. For instance, we’ve adapted to Canada’s multi-tax system, which is somewhat different from France’s VAT. Apart from that, the product is perfectly suited to their needs!

You mentioned that the digitalization of French agencies happened gradually. Did COVID change things?
Yes, absolutely. The process was already underway in agencies—most of them were already using tools like AutoCAD or Revit for design.
However, agency management didn’t always follow this logic. Sometimes there was even resistance to viewing their activity as a more traditional business with considerations like margins, profitability, etc. For architects, nothing is more important than the project and its success, so they’ll see it through at any cost.

With COVID, digitalization became obvious and natural. It enabled agencies to manage organizational and administrative tasks remotely. In this way—and only in this way—the pandemic was beneficial to us. Another factor that advocates for solutions like OOTI is the increasing internationalization of architecture and its competitions. Competing with structured firms makes it essential to automate and optimize management processes.

You initially created OOTI to address issues with billing and financial visibility for agencies, didn’t you?
Yes, many architects are part of our network, and we were always surprised by the lack of indicators in this area.

The very first version of OOTI addressed basic questions like “What can be billed at this stage?”, “To whom?”, and “What’s my margin on this project?”
We quickly realized that to be relevant, we had to speak the language of architects—referring to phases and their associated billing, discussing project roles, and so on. Since then, the platform has evolved to consolidate all necessary information: tasks, the cost of a team member, an overview of the entire project, workload planning, recruitment needs, or even the necessity of finding new projects.

How many people are now part of the team?
We’re 25. It’s incredible how quickly the team has grown! We’ve reached a size that feels coherent. We’ll continue growing as opportunities and developments arise.

Any new features on the horizon?
We’re always working on developing new functionalities. Among the upcoming updates, we’re integrating applications like Google Meet and construction management software directly into OOTI.

We’re also working on incorporating Artificial Intelligence to automate certain tasks and suggest optimizations based on the agency’s specific data.Our philosophy remains the same: automate what can be automated and assist with management. And, of course, we continue to prioritize feedback from the 700 agencies we work with, which leads to new small features being developed every month!

And the team is still present at major architectural industry events…
Always! This year, we were at “Materials and Lights” in Paris and the major agency soirée organized by d’a magazine. Recently, we also attended the 2024 Prix Femme Architecte Ceremony, which was awarded to Maud Caubet, a client of OOTI, whom we warmly congratulate!