Team Autonomy and Operational Efficiency: How Elevo masters its Workflows with Forest Admin

Elevo, an HR SaaS, has been working with Forest Admin from its origins. Both companies actually launched in 2017 and have grown in parallel. Since then, Elevo has scaled their operations and the tools used by most of its teams by relying heavily on the Forest Admin platform.

Let’s dive in now!

Elevo, an HR startup scaling operational excellence

Elevo is a fast-growing HR SaaS startup founded in 2017 by three engineers. Its platform offers a 360° approach to talent management through four key pillars: Performance, Development, Engagement, and Compensation. With a customer team of seven members, managing more than 400 customers with high satisfaction levels (4.5 stars on Getapp) requires operational excellence and efficient internal tools.

We spoke with Gustavo Zanoni, the Engineering Director, who joined Elevo in 2019. He shared with us how Elevo brought their operations to the next level with Forest Admin.

The Challenge: Growing tools from basic Support to complex operations

In its early days, when Elevo first started using Forest Admin, it served as a straightforward CRUD interface for database access, helping the founding team handle basic support tasks. But as the company grew, they needed their support infrastructure to level up.

“We've kind of grown up together," says Gustavo, Engineering Director at Elevo. "When I joined in 2019, Forest Admin was already deployed for basic database operations, but we quickly realized we could do so much more with it.”

As it grew, the startup needed to:

• Scale their support operations beyond basic support and database queries
• Give each team the right level of data access to avoid security risks
• Cut down time spent on repetitive support tasks and automate
• Create smooth workflows for the tech, support, sales, and product teams

The Solution: Building a custom operations stack with Forest Admin

Supercharging support with Forest Admin actions

The Elevo team began by identifying patterns in their support requests and turned to Forest Admin's Actions feature to automate them. “It started saving us tons of support time once we identified the most common requests and added smart actions to automate them,” explains Gustavo.

A classic example? The password reset flow. Instead of support agents manually triggering console commands, they built a simple button using Forest Admin's Actions feature that automatically generates and sends reset links to users. “What used to be a multi-step manual process became a one-click operation,” Gustavo adds.

Building a secure data access system

Elevo created a robust data access system by combining three key Forest Admin features: Teams, Views, and Filters. “We use Teams to create different access levels for Tech, Customer Success, and Sales,” Gustavo explains. “Then we fine-tune what each team can see using Views and Filters. Our tech team controls these settings, making sure everyone has access to exactly what they need - nothing more, nothing less.”

Creating custom testing environments

The team got creative with Forest Admin's Environment feature and Smart Actions to build their own testing infrastructure. “For each new feature, we spin up a preview environment in Forest Admin where our tech and product teams can run their tests,” says Gustavo. “Our product team doesn't need to bug developers for test scenarios anymore - they just hop into Forest Admin and do their thing.”

The sales team got in on the action too. Elevo built a system so the sales team can create demo environments for their prospects on their own. “We've set up Actions salespeople can use to generate fake data and showcase our modules to prospects.” Gustavo shares. “They don’t depend on Tech for demo setups!”

The Results: Very autonomous teams & fined-tuned operations

Support Team Independence

Forest Admin has become the backbone of Elevo’s support operations. It works hand in hand with Zendesk, giving the Support team quick access to the data they need to handle tickets. “When an agent needs to check something, they don't have to ask tech - they can find it themselves in Forest Admin,” Gustavo notes.

The Tech Team's Go-To Tool

Even when the Support team escalates a request to Tech, their first move is to check Forest Admin. It's pretty rare that the IT team needs to dive into the database. Gustavo explains “Forest Admin has become our default interface for everything data-related.”

A Game-Changer for Testing

The custom testing environment they built with Forest Admin changed how teams work together. Product teams run their own test scenarios, while sales teams create and manage demo environments independently. “It's huge for our workflow - teams can move fast without creating bottlenecks,” Gustavo emphasizes.

Rock-Solid Data Control

By combining Forest Admin's Teams, Views, and Filters features, Elevo maintains tight control over who sees what. “We've got different teams accessing different views of our data, all managed through Forest Admin,” explains Gustavo. “The tech team keeps control of the permissions, but everyone else can work independently in their space.”

What’s next?

As both Elevo and Forest Admin continue to grow, their partnership keeps evolving. The platform's flexibility has allowed Elevo to build exactly what they need, from automated support workflows to custom testing environments.