Creative agencies that wish to remain competitive look to cut costs, increase revenue, better employee retention, and provide excellent customer service - this is just scratching the surface. The ones that truly stand out also offer branding, communications, digital marketing and graphic design - and sometimes much more. A digital-first mentality has allowed agencies to take on more work, more projects, and more clients. With so much going on, though, it’s easy for information to get lost. Not cc’ing your team on a client email will hurt the business in that project, but it is a sign of a much bigger problem that can hurt the business more in the long run.
That’s why Accelo exists - to help creative agencies run and manage their business more efficiently. Our team has first-hand experience of how chaotic agency life can be. Our platform provides us with the tools and resources needed to better run business operations but don’t take our word for it! We gathered five of our top digital agency focused case studies that show real life examples of how Accelo can help your business improve:
Jen Farrell, the Project and Agency Operations Manager at Muhlenhaupt + Company, knew she had to find a platform that could handle the increased client load the agency was dealing with. When Jen first found Accelo, she was impressed with the user-friendliness of the platform and the amount of accessibility it came with.
“Accelo, as a tool, is light years ahead of what other companies are doing,” Jen said. “There are a ton of agencies who are still using Excel to do status sheets and project planning to make sure they’re on time. What sets us apart is that we have a technology that assists us with that, so we have more time to dedicate to the client."
Since implementing Accelo over a year ago, the company has seen a 30% increase in efficiency. Even with a reduction in team size, the company continued to complete the same amount of work and bring in the same amount of revenue. Jen can also foresee staffing issues, which prevents employee burnout.
Dean Oakley, who founded Thrive Digital, has been working in web design and development in Australia and London since 2004. He oversees all technical aspects and design of company projects. Prior to using Accelo, the company relied on a New Zealand-based project management system that ended up costing the company time rather than saving it.
Dean originally started looking for a new ticket management system, and, during his research, found that one of the company’s very own IT providers used Accelo. “We asked him what he thought about the platform and he was raving about it,” Dean said. “We had to try it. And once we saw what else Accelo could do, it just seemed like the perfect fit for our business.”
Since implementing Accelo, Dean has seen the company change for the better. With the amount of time Accelo has saved, the business has been able to increase billable work and create more retainers. With all of their work in one place, they’re able to take on clients with more confidence than before.
3) Impress!ve
A majority of agencies operate on a "churn-and-burn" model, but Impress!ve Digital - a leading boutique digital marketing agency in Melbourne - aimed to be different. Brett Gorlin, the Operations Manager, used several tools that were meant to make operations run seamlessly, but he quickly found that it did the exact opposite. He began his search for a new solution, and that’s how he first heard about Accelo.
"By the end of the day, I realized Accelo was so far ahead of any other option I had on my list," Brett recalls. "Rather than running the other seven bits of software that we were running, I now had a solution that included everything - Sales, Retainers, Projects, Service, and ServOps. Accelo gave us the entire thing."
Brett noticed immediate changes. Once all of the information was consolidated into one system, there was an increase in accuracy and more transparency between departments. Another benefit was reducing technology cost. Overall, Impressive Digital saved 30% in licensing fees over managing the previous 6 different platforms and eased the burden of having to integrate these disparate systems.
High 5 Media Partners is a full-service marketing and media agency located in Houston, Texas. Like many businesses, High 5 Media was using SalesForce, and while good for selling, it wasn't great for running their operations. Without a system to manage the workflow in the business, Jason and the team were stuck - they couldn't really scale because everything was so manual.
"Accelo has been the centralized source for ad operations to get tasks, as far as what you need to do, what you need to do today, what you need to do tomorrow," Jason said.
The company then decided to implement Accelo and saw almost an immediate difference. Within the first 9 months, High 5 Media Partners more than doubled their revenue. Additionally, the employees now have a system that manages their workflows and tracks their business performance in real time.
5) HDMZ
When Rebecca Angelos, Senior Vice President at this full-service branding, digital and integrated marketing communications agency, first showcased Accelo to HDMZ, their project management team immediately loved it. In an agency, it’s important to make sure your team is working efficiently and communicating with each other constantly.
This was not the case when Rebecca joined Zoomedia (which was later acquired by HDMZ). A lack of an all-in-one-system caused a breakdown in collaboration and communication. That’s why, when Rebecca found Accelo one year before the company was acquired by HDMZ, she knew that the entire organization could benefit from it.
“It’s the centerpiece to what we are trying to do,” Rebecca said.
Let Accelo handle your business operations so you can focus on the work that matters. Sign up for a demo today for a first-hand look at how Accelo can help eliminate the chaos in your company.
