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| Creating the real-time agile agency |
| New advances in agency management systems offer fresh opportunities to align agency resources with agency strategy. |
Executive summary
Having gone through several years of client cutbacks and cost controls, growth in marketing spending is on the horizon. However, advertisers are also demanding increased accountability, financial stewardship, and better ROI from their marketing partners.
To address these issues, agencies are investing in technologies that will add to the quality of their offerings, automate routine processes, ensure responsive client service, and allow for increased profitability of projects and campaigns.
Typically, stand alone agency applications including project management software, professional services automation software, collaborative extranets, business intelligence software, time entry, and accounting software have been to costly for many agencies. In addition, they are cumbersome and lack integration, resulting in a pervasive duplication of information.
Today, a new breed of browser-based systems provides for an affordable convergence of these technologies into one easy-to-use, and universally accessible agency management solution. This new enterprise agency management system can turn agencies into agile agencies by better managing existing workloads, planning for growth, and handling downturns in the market.
A quality enterprise agency management system has several common denominators, and a few outstanding characteristics including:
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• A platform for growth: The technology allows for cross-platform deployment and use in any web-browser. Plus, it has the ability to support multiple concurrent users without comprising speed.
• Behind the scenes technology: The system is secure, user-friendly, and allows for automation of processes across agency departments while increasing project-related and company-wide communications.
• User specific views: User dashboards are well-conceived and provide relevant and actionable information specific to the needs of the staff, manager, or executive user.
• Accountability and controls: A complete audit trail on jobs and financials is kept in tact in the system for future needs.
• Real-time information: Users can access up-to-date information needed for responding to clients, negotiating with vendors, guiding projects to profitability, and gauging the firm’s strategic plans.
• A partner in your success: The vendor listens to users and rolls out productivity enhancements to keep your firm ahead of the times.
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| Introduction |
In recent years marketing and communications services firms watched as clients cut back on spending, imposed strict cost controls, and demanded greater financial accountability and responsiveness from their marketing partners.
In the face of these mounting financial pressures, agencies must create new operational efficiencies, maintain customer loyalty and make better business decisions faster. New advances in agency management systems offer fresh opportunities to align agency resources with agency strategy… using operational insights for predictive planning… thus creating a more agile agency that can respond proactively to changing times.
This agile agency will leverage creative technology solutions to gain deeper strategic visibility into agency operations and improved profitability. Agile agencies need real-time technologies with room for growth, streamlining processes that improve client relationships even as they provide executives the information they need to make rapid, informed business decisions.
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| Today’s real-time technology promise |
Clients are investing in marketing programs again. Accordingly, agencies must respond appropriately by investing in themselves. Placing project management software, professional services automation software, collaborative extranets, business intelligence software, time entry, and accounting software under one integrated system is the ideal investment. Yet, paying for that solution, in the past, has often made CFOs cringe.
A cost-effective alternative does exist! Browser-based technologies now provide for low-cost convergence of all of these functions into one easy-to-use, universally accessible, agency management solution. The result: a fully-integrated system that increases staff productivity, automates repetitive tasks, adds new levels of client service, and allows the enterprise to benefit from best practices - in real time - driving increased profitability and creating satisfied, loyal clients.
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| Determining the need for an enterprise agency management solution |
| An agency’s greatest assets are its people, processes, and products. An integrated system that gives people the right tools, streamlines workflow, and enhances the finished product is essential. The system that doesn’t maximize these assets must be replaced. If you are reevaluating your company’s need for new technology, the logical starting point is a hard look at your agency’s current project management system. Start by asking a few simple questions: |
• Do executives have secure, self-serve access to real-time tactical information?
• Are all project related assets, such as digital media, client and team communications, and job reports, stored in a central, electronic job jacket?
• Can up-to-date status on job information be accessed over the internet?
• Do individuals know the status of their projects on a daily basis?
• Do project managers have immediate access to staff allocation plans?
• Are routine tasks, such as updating a project schedule, easy?
• Is accurate billing occurring on a timely basis?
• Are complete audit trails on financial activities and projects readily available even when jobs are closed?
• Can the current technology support business growth and diversification?
• Are all employees in compliance with time entry?
• Are all company offices or divisions on the same page?
• Are managers alerted automatically when jobs are going behind schedule or nearing the budget?
• Can staff quickly gauge their performance against company benchmarks?
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| If you answered “No” to four or more of these questions, investing in a robust enterprise agency management solution will produce better returns on your technology investment. A new system can fuel the growth and profitability you desire for your agency. |
| What to evaluate in an enterprise agency management solution |
Look for departmental productivity alerts and company-wide communications.
Full-featured agency management systems saves time by automating processes in all departments across the agency. The right solution must enhance communication across all departments, allowing teams to communicate with each other, viewing shared schedules, shared digital assets, and real-time project management information.
Seek function-specific “Dashboards” that align people with strategy.
In a total agency management system, the “Dashboard” view of the system is comprehensive. It is designed to provide users with timely, strategic insight. Outstanding dashboards have two things in common. First, they are user friendly, intuitive tools, allowing users to focus on their core strength’s. Second, information is customized to individual staff, managers, or executives while allowing team access to common information such as company weblogs (or “Blogs”) and shared financial or management reports.
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| Staff dashboard view – Staff dashboards provide information and tools for guiding the project to maximum profitability. The system provides at-a-glance access to project assignments, real-time project alerts, to-do assignments, and scheduled meetings. Staff should also be able to view snapshots of project profitability as needed. |
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| Manager dashboard view – An effective management dashboard allows agency managers to oversee teams inside and outside the agency. Managers must have real-time access to department billable and non-billable hours, approval of time sheets, and team productivity and client profitability reports. With strategic information at their fingertips, managers can better motivate their team, negotiate with the supply chain from a position of strength, and inform clients and prospects on team or project progress.
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| Executive dashboard view – Executive dashboard views allow company leaders to gauge the success of their strategic plan. They provide big picture financial snapshots with mouse-click drill-down to details if desired. The system enhances executive decision-making with immediate access to all aspects of financial management. |
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| Evaluating your technology requirements |
| Look for a secure, browser-based system developed using platform-independent tools offering support for a variety of web software (Safari,TM Firefox,® Netscape, ® and Internet Explorer, ® etc.). Make sure the desktop software is written “native” to all platforms including Windows®, Macintosh®, and Unix® and that the database system supports Client/Server Relational Database Management (RDBMS) platforms. To plan for future mobile deployments, the technology must adapt to thin-client devices such as wireless phones, BlackBerrys, ® and other PDA’s. |
| Ask about the company behind the product. |
| Best of breed agency management solutions have a sound company behind them with a record of predictable product upgrades and sensitivity to user-driven product enhancements. The software vendor knows the agency business and develops real-world productivity and business intelligence solutions that span from the front lines to the board room. They should understand the challenges faced by the executive team and employ seasoned agency veterans. A roster of longtime, satisfied users is the hallmark of stellar customer care.
Today, as in the past, the client/agency relationship can be either fleeting or long-term. By implementing a total agency solution, having all departments meshing in real-time, agencies can gain new insights into their operations that will allow them to better serve the needs of clients while profiting from the experience. |
| About The Médi Group, Ltd. and SilentPartner® |
| Every day, hundreds of service-centric organizations rely on SilentPartner® software from The Médi Group to manage their projects better, faster, and smarter. Comprised of both browser-based and desktop access, SilentPartner is an innovative, fully integrated client-server solution that enhances productivity and profitability by seamlessly managing project tasks and financials throughout the organization. SilentPartner solutions are focused on improving project workflow and accounting for marketing communications firms, consulting firms, and in-house services departments of corporations, non-profit organizations and educational institutions. Since 1988, The Médi Group has built a loyal roster of SilentPartner clients throughout the United States, Canada, and Central America. |
| © 2005 The Médi Group, Ltd. SilentPartner is a registered trademark of The Médi Group, Ltd.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. OpenBase is a registered trademark of OpenBase International, Ltd. Safari and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Firefox is a registered trademark of the Mozilla Foundation. Netscape is a registered trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation. Microsoft and Internet Explorer are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. BlackBerry is a registered trademark of Research In Motion Limited. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the US and other countries. |
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Every day, hundreds of service-centric organizations rely on SilentPartner® software from The Médi Group to manage their projects better, faster, and smarter. Comprised of both browser-based and desktop access, SilentPartner is an innovative, fully integrated client-server solution that enhances productivity and profitability by seamlessly managing project tasks and financials throughout the organization. SilentPartner solutions are focused on improving project workflow and accounting for marketing communications firms, consulting firms, and in-house services departments of corporations, non-profit organizations and educational institutions. Since 1988, The Médi Group has built a loyal roster of SilentPartner clients throughout the United States, Canada, and Central America.
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