The quest for organization is by no means limited to creative service firms. Many people are on the very same quest in their personal lives as well. About.com, includes “10. Get Organized” on it’s list of “Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions.” There’s even an organization (no pun intended) dedicated to the very concept — The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

A critical step when organizing your agency is implementing a project management system. It should be user-friendly and accessible to everyone on your team, including clients and vendors, albeit in a limited capacity.

There are several important things to consider when choosing the right system:

1. “What are my ’sources of pain’?”

Take a step back and carefully look at your agency. Determining where its inefficiencies lie will better enable you to narrow your search. The most common “sources” I hear about revolve around haphazard time sheet entry, no one knowing where the job is and consistently going over budget.

2. “Can I afford a full-time IT person or will a system with IT support be enough?”

A full-time IT person is certainly a consideration when attempting to build your own project management system. Caveat: While it may sound good to “just build what you want,” it can become a very long, costly and arduous process. I recommend researching available systems before re-inventing the wheel.

Once you find the right system, consider the costs associated with both in-house (if an option) and remote hosting. Would it make more sense, financially and long-term, to have someone else securely host your data?

3. “Do I have to worry about upgrades or paying an annual maintenance fee?”

Ideally, the system you choose will include upgrades and maintenance at no additional cost. There’s nothing worse than spending thousands of dollars for a program and then finding out, next year, it’s been overhauled and you have to pay even more to upgrade. Upgrades and maintenance, in my opinion, should be seamless… and included.

4. “What are the customer service and training costs?”

This can be a huge factor in choosing the right project management system. Many vendors offer a set number of initial training hours with your subscription. That’s great, if you can learn the entire system, inside and out, within a window of “x” hours. Let’s be realistic, that’s not always feasible, especially if the system isn’t as user-friendly as initially believed.

Consider how your employees will be trained and how many hours they’ll each require. Some will learn more quickly than others, some will be more receptive, and so on. If you feel you’ll need 20+ hours, ten isn’t going to work. What’s the fee associated with additional training? Who will train new hires over the coming months?

Once your employees are on board, how will they receive customer support? Ideally, your vendor will offer unlimited phone and e-mail options, with a response time of no more than 24 hours. Beware of vendors that charge by the phone call, after you’ve reached your “x” limit.

5. “What’s my budget? What can I really afford?”

The ROI associated with a system is difficult to determine. A good benchmark is billable hours. If I spend an hour running around trying to track down materials and figure out what’s going on, that’s an hour I could have potentially billed. If the system saves me even half an hour by making information easily accessible, I’ve recovered valuable time. Weigh its dollar value against the per user/monthly fee, for example.

Regardless of which system you feel best meets your needs (and budget), you must have a solid understanding of your agency’s situation. Do your homework and while you’re at it, be sure to organize your notes!

“…. Much of the content that we want to share with our clients and prospects is also accessible to our competition. I can tell you that the sky has not fallen. If anything, it has made us work a little harder to keep company with some of the great agencies that we admire.”

I’ve recently entered the rabbit hole, Facebook. Simultaneously, I’ve become enthralled with Twitter and TweetDeck. Within these applications, I’ve connected with existing Clients, begun following agencies with which I hope to make contact, shared war stories with my fellow Traffic Managers, and sought information on my foremost competitors.

These tools, along with a host of others, enable me to hear chatter about our products and those that are available on the market. They give me an incredible advantage in that I can better determine what’s working and what’s not. I equate feedback such as this to, “being given the answers to the test.”

It’s the comments of daily users, prospective Clients and even proponents of my competitors that further my development as a business owner and “Traffic Guru.” Along the way, a strong sense of community is fostered and, ultimately, a better way of doing business.

Let’s tweet.

In his 2004 bestseller, “The World is Flat,” Thomas Friedman explores the convergence of technology and events that have enabled countries around the globe to compete in the same marketplace. This blurring of geographic lines becomes more evident to me daily.

In my current position as CCO (Chief Customer Officer) of a web-based software company (Developware), I support Traffic Managers in, predominantly, the United States. Additionally, each new web site inquiry crosses my desk at some point in the process.

[It’s the Traffic Manager in me. I have to know everything that’s going on.]

In the past month, Developware has received inquiries from Canada, Poland, Iran, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey, India, Angola, and Malaysia. Though separated (somewhat) by language, the creative agencies of these, and other, countries share a common desire –- to better manage their workflow. They, too, want to instantly know the status of their projects, to carefully monitor budgets and to quickly gain client approval.

Isn’t it amazing to think that a Traffic Manager, not unlike yourself, is moving at warp-speed to push a project through the pipeline; reviewing an employee’s Time Sheet to make sure everything was entered correctly; fielding requests for, “just one more day” to work on the layout?

The Creative Brief, however, is written in Arabic.
The budget is displayed in Medicals, not dollars.
The client meeting is “in the city” — Istanbul, to be exact.
There are only three radio stations — in the country — to air the spot.
The copy reads from right to left.

The world really is one big, flat marketplace. We’re ALL trying not to fall of the edge.

When is a project management system truly needed? Simply put, when you don’t know what’s going on in your agency. Whether you’re a creative team of three or 15, if you can’t immediately tell where every job stands, you need a system.

Are your projects deadline-based (and every job is “on fire”) or budget-based? If deadline-based, you need a system.

Is information entered in a single place or shared across multiple desks, e-mail accounts, Post-it notes, and megaphones? If the latter, you need a system.

Are your Clients frustrated because no one seems to know when (and where) the job will deliver? You REALLY need a system.

Do you know exactly how long it took to write the copy or does “a couple hours” sound fair? If guesstimating, you need a system.

If you were to get hit by a bus tomorrow, would anyone else know the critical business data that’s stored in your head? You need a system.

My point is this… in order to more efficiently (and profitably) run your agency, you need some form of project management system; ideally, one that’s web-accessible.

Or, you could just invest in fire extinguishers, earplugs, flowers, a crystal ball, and a crossing guard.

Without the ability to carefully control workflow, even the most creative agency of all may find itself in a state of chaos.

You have to meet deadlines. Period.
You have to stay within budget. Period.
You have to know who’s doing what (or nothing at all) and when.
And, most importantly, you have to have the right tools.

A central traffic system, overseen by someone whose sole responsibility is its ongoing maintenance, can save your agency valuable time. By making client information available to everyone, from the convenience of their desktops, you make possible increased billable time.

Task, time and expense management, client access to materials posted via the Net, and instant retrieval of job information, are among the many indispensable features of a good traffic system.

Every employee on the agency team plays an integral role in its workflow success. Through the combination of an efficient traffic system, managerial commitment and team member dedication, your organization can experience unparalleled efficiency and profitability.

["BLOG" because it's just plain fun to say and "6" because it's a nice round number.]

One day, I hope to contribute something really “techy” to their conversation. Maybe they’ll even let me move up to “BLOG 8.”

[BLOG 7 just wouldn't be round enough.]