In a competitive business world, finding the right tools to streamline operations and make informed decisions is crucial. We spoke with David Strobbe, Senior Business Intelligence Manager at Screenpilot, about how his team adopted Accelo to improve their project management and client services. Screen Pilot is an award-winning marketing agency and consulting firm specializing in the development of full-spectrum, digital brand experiences. In this conversation, Strobbe shares key insights into why Accelo became their platform of choice and how it has helped elevate their business performance.
Q: To start, please introduce yourself and share a little bit more about your company.
A: My name is David Strobbe, and I'm the Senior Business Intelligence Manager at Screenpilot. We are a digital marketing services company that works mostly with the hospitality industry, based in downtown Denver.
Q: What were some things that prompted you to start searching for a Professional Services Automation (PSA) platform, a software solution designed to improve service delivery and efficiency?
A: A lot of factors went into the search. Mainly, we realized that we were relying on feelings and assumptions instead of making data-driven decisions. Backing up business decisions by numbers is important to us, so we looked to find a new platform that could more accurately track time, better keep track of our projects, and better forecast and utilize our employee's available time.
Q: Did you compare any other platforms to Accelo? Are there places where those other platforms may have fallen short of the solutions you were looking for?
A: We did look at a couple of other platforms. There were things we liked about both of those, but we found that Accelo offered features they lacked. Throughout the sales process, we felt quite a bit more rushed by the other competitors, whereas Accelo valued taking us on as a partner instead of just as a client. There are also more tools available within Accelo, integration-wise. Accelo had the most elaborate recurring work or project setup, which is not something that we found in others. Recurring work is the main source of business for Screenpilot, so having that ability within Accelo was a huge piece for us.
Q: That’s a common problem that we hear a lot. How are you planning on using the retainer billing feature? Can you tell us a little more about how retainers are set up for your business?
A: The vast majority of our clients sign on for a year at a time. They give us a marketing budget allocated for month-to-month management of traditional digital channels, like Google, Bing, Facebook, etc. Our job is to work within those budgets, spending them as we see fit, to try and get them the best return. Having a retainer built out in Accelo that covers a monthly management fee, tracks against the amount of time that we're able to dedicate to the client based on the fee they're paying us, and then not only recreates the project each month but also recreates the tasks within the project to make sure the people managing that account have the tools they need to check all the boxes and stay on task in an organized manner, is something that we didn't have with our previous software or find with others on the market.
Q: Can you talk more about how you were tracking time before using Accelo, and did you notice anything wrong with how you were previously tracking time? If so, was that one of the factors in searching for the platform?
A: For each employee’s first 6 months with the company, we track both their billable and their non-billable time. Once they're more comfortable with the way we do things and we're comfortable with them as an employee at that 6-month mark, they only track their billable time. So, when we switched to Accelo, most of our employees were already comfortable with active time tracking. In the past, I think employees had gotten lax with the way that they tracked their time because it wasn't an emphasis for us - which all ties back to reporting. We weren't getting the information we needed out of reports before Accelo. Employees didn't feel like it was important to be accurate with their time tracking. As a result, we were putting bad data in and making poor decisions based off of the bad data.
Q: Along the same lines of making business decisions, can you talk a little bit about how you expect Accelo to change your role and your day-to-day efficiency?
A: As a business intelligence person, I think Accelo will change my life just as much, if not more, than anyone else within the company. Now, my goal is to spend a lot more time creating plans and processes that make the company better, rather than spending excess time working with messy data and trying to get important insights.
"With Accelo, insights that used to take hours are now available within a few clicks. Those are hours we can spend making informed decisions on what the next steps would be instead of simply getting the numbers to do a simple evaluation."
Q: How do you think this will help some of the individual contributors on the team or anyone else tracking their time? What kinds of tangible changes do you expect from them?
A: Like we touched on with recurring projects, I think automation will go a long way. Our previous platform required significant manual effort just to establish a project structure to make it organized. With monthly recurring automation, employees can focus on the work and tasks they need to complete, rather than spending additional time setting up recurring work manually.
Q: Can you give us a couple of examples of ways you're already using Accelo and a few things you plan to expand, or the parts of the platform that you hope to be using in the future?
A: Something we've already seen benefits from is recurring projects. At the start of each new year, we build out new projects for all of our clients, which is something we won't have to do as much going forward. We will save a ton of time because recurring tasks are automatically generated. The fact that we can use templates to build new projects goes a long way because the vast majority of our clients receive the same few kinds of recurring work, month over month. Now, we can build out a workflow in a template, apply it to all of our clients, and then individual account managers who know more of the nuances of their specific clients can build more targeted tasks or time entries within those projects. Having the structure built out to apply a “one size fits all” recurring work approach will go a long way for us.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about the partnership that you have found with the Accelo team, whether that's sales, implementation, support, or anybody else that you've interacted with?
A: From the first time we made contact with Accelo, what stood apart was the fact that it felt more like a partnership than a sales process. It felt like each person was invested in teaching us about the product and the way that the product can help us improve as a company rather than just pitching an idea. From our first sales demonstration, it felt like Accelo was focused on educating us on what the platform can do and how that can help us rather than just giving us the “hot-button” points about why we should pay for Accelo. Also, the implementation process was a lot more elaborate than what the other competitors had to offer. This gave us the chance to make sure we were building everything out exactly the way we wanted as well as make those of us on our internal implementation team feel like we were internal experts on Accelo before we rolled it out to the whole company, rather than having to figure it out as we went along.
Q: What would you say to someone really interested in Accelo but not quite convinced that implementation is worth it?
A: Adopting Accelo and having implementation support is probably the best decision that we made when selecting a new software. I think it's because we had the guidance to understand what we can do within Accelo and how to use it efficiently. Plus, because the implementation team helped us become experts on the platform, we're already set up for success the day that we roll it out to the team, rather than waiting to see what works and what doesn't, hoping for the best.
Q: Have you had to handle any change management as a result of trying to roll out a new software? Did you encounter any issues with that, and how did Accelo team help navigate the change?
A: With anything business-related, especially when you make a major change in people's day-to-day operations, there is going to be a little bit of persistence necessary to manage the change. But, I think the majority of our company has been complimentary and excited about the change to Accelo. Even if there are a few learning curves in getting to know the new system, the team can tell that Accelo is going to save them a ton of time down the road. They can tell that this platform has a lot more to offer than the system that we were using before.
Q: As a finance professional, what kinds of benefits can you see in terms of profitability, revenue, utilization, and other metrics that matter to you?
A: Like any successful business, the goal is to be more efficient and more profitable. For Screenpilot, having the ability to make data-informed decisions because of the Accelo platform, and coming into a conversation equipped with real numbers or tools to make the proper decisions on a per-client or project basis, is just as important as actually having those numbers.
With Accelo, Screenpilot is not just managing projects but is poised for sustainable growth and success because of transformed operations, helping them work smarter, not harder. By automating processes, improving decision-making with data, and fostering a true partnership with the Accelo team, Screenpilot is positioned for long-term success. Are you ready to elevate your business operations? Book a demo with Accelo today and see firsthand how our platform can transform your workflow.
