Cref

Introduction

For CREF, information is the business.

As a strategic advisory firm providing owner’s representation services, CREF is hired to ensure clients can make informed decisions. Every meeting matters. Every detail counts. And every missed insight can slow down projects involving millions of dollars, strict timelines, and multiple stakeholders.

Over time, however, CREF began to feel pressure in a familiar place: meeting documentation capacity.

While the firm’s work relied heavily on structured notes, agendas, and follow-ups, the internal ability to consistently produce high-quality meeting records was declining.

The result was clear:

• More time spent recreating context after meetings
• Slower operational decision-making
• Increased risk of critical details being lost in complex conversations

Challenges Before Spiky

CREF’s challenges weren’t about selling faster. They were about thinking clearly and executing effectively in an increasingly complex environment.

Key Challenges

• Inconsistent note-taking quality
• Heavy administrative workload per meeting
• Slower operational decision-making
• Information loss in complex conversations

Historically, junior team members learned the business by taking detailed notes. Over time, that expectation eroded. Newer employees were less inclined to take structured notes, and documentation quality varied widely across projects.

This inconsistency created gaps in how information was captured and shared—especially when compared to competitors who were more operationally organized.
The Administrative Burden of Every Meeting

Each client meeting triggered a long chain of work:

• Agenda preparation
• Live note-taking
• Drafting detailed meeting minutes
• Circulating notes for validation
• Organizing and filing documentation

For a single meeting, this process could take up to four hours.

CREF operates as a collaborative advisory firm, where decisions require alignment across teams. Without clean, shared understanding from prior meetings, teams frequently revisited the same topics—slowing momentum.

Understanding, the prerequisite for agreement, became harder to achieve without structured, accessible documentation.

Adding to the challenge, CREF works on technically dense projects, including hospital construction and infrastructure initiatives. Important context, risks, and next steps were easy to miss in long, complex discussions.

Discovering a Smarter Way to Work

When CREF began using Spiky, the appeal was immediate: AI-powered synthesis, not just transcription.

Unlike basic recording tools, Spiky could:

• Capture conversations
• Extract key insights
• Summarize discussions clearly
• Track decisions, next steps, and action items

This allowed CREF to leapfrog a staffing and process challenge—without adding assistants or junior project managers dedicated solely to note-taking.

Spiky allows us to collect a lot of information, synthesize that information, and do our job better.
Patrick Murphy

Regional President, CREF

Instead of recreating conversations after meetings, teams could focus on advising, aligning, and executing—the work clients actually hired CREF to do.

What Changed for CREF

Key Outcomes

• Administrative time cut in half
• Faster, higher-quality operational decisions
• Greater accountability and transparency
• Stronger client engagement

By automating meeting documentation and synthesis, CREF reduced the administrative workload tied to each meeting by approximately 50%.

What was once a four-hour process—preparation, note-taking, drafting, validation, and organization—became closer to two hours total.

With structured summaries and clear documentation:

• Teams entered follow-up meetings aligned and informed
• Prior discussions didn’t need to be rehashed
• Momentum shifted toward agreement and execution

Spiky eliminated ambiguity, and with it, unnecessary back-and-forth.

A Cultural Shift Toward Accountability

One unexpected shift was cultural.

With decisions, next steps, and ownership clearly documented, there was far less room for ambiguity or “plausible deniability.” While initially overwhelming, this transparency helped teams focus on the right priorities and work more deliberately.

CREF’s consultants could revisit conversations with full context, ensuring accurate responses to client concerns—even when discussions were complex or emotionally charged.

As Patrick noted, Spiky allowed the team to listen fully in the moment, knowing critical details wouldn’t be lost afterward.

The Results: Metrics & ROI

• ~50% reduction in administrative time per meeting
  (From ~4 hours → ~2 hours total effort)
• Faster internal alignment and decision-making
  Teams arrive informed, reducing repetitive discussions
• Improved documentation quality across the organization
  Structured summaries replace inconsistent manual notes
• Higher accountability and follow-through
  Clear tracking of decisions and next steps
• Better client responsiveness
  No lost context, even in complex, technical discussions

A New Rhythm for Advisory Work

Today, Spiky is embedded in how CREF works.

Meetings are no longer followed by hours of reconstruction. Teams don’t scramble to remember what was said or what was agreed upon. Instead, they move forward with clarity, confidence, and shared understanding.

What began as a solution for note-taking evolved into something much bigger:

A way to work smarter, not harder.

We don’t just talk about working smarter—this proves that we actually walk the walk.