I could set up an event in iCal to remind myself to call him. No thanks, that takes too much time and can you imagine how cluttered my calendar would look if I added every follow up call? Yikes. I’ll pass on that.

Maybe I should add a dated task to my favorite to-do list app (Wunderlist). Ok, that could possibly work, but what about the notes I have recapping my conversation? And where will the notes go when I complete that task? Pass.

How about I just jot down notes in my trusty notebook or notebook app? But that won’t remind me to call on a certain day will it? No, no, that won’t work either.

If your business development workflow includes a hodgepodge of office suites, to-do list apps, calendars and Moleskine® notebooks, perhaps it’s time to consider acquiring a CRM system for your agency.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems come in a variety of flavors, but all are designed to keep sales teams organized. Regardless of the system you choose, the guiding principals are the same — to provide a centralized place to capture all relevant information about a prospect and keep a record of associated communications. Most CRMs are structured in an Account -> Contact -> Activity hierarchy. It’s simple for me to store general information like company names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, and social media accounts in the Account record. I can also add my own fields if I’d like to capture other relevant information like industry, company size or even the lead source. The more information you capture about your prospects the better; for example, you can use this metadata to build targeted lists to share a press release detailing the results of a recent campaign.

In addition, I can track the contacts I’ve made at each prospect and record activities and events which include phone calls, emails, demonstrations, and meetings. In the case of the prospective client who wants a follow-up after the new year, I can quickly make a couple notes recapping our conversation and schedule a follow-up task for mid-January. Each morning, I log in to my CRM and get a sense of what I’m responsible for that day. It’s not dissimilar to a traffic management system like CurrentTrack®, but it’s contact- rather than project-focused. Here at Developware, we make a distinction between business acquisition efforts and traffic management — not cobbling the two together. After all, account services’ sales efforts are decidedly different from project management.

Since I prefer to access my day’s work from any location, I use a web-based CRM system, Salesforce®, but many options exist to suit any workflow. Successful business development starts with a carefully considered strategy and a CRM system to enforce it.

Executing this concept is tough. On the one hand if a system lacks table stakes functionality the marketplace will pass on a product when they complete their feature comparison grid. On the other hand if too much is added, you might earn those check marks at the expense of usability; a cluttered, difficult-to-learn system will slow adoption and end users will hate the product. Finding the right mix is like getting the water temperature just right.

Other industries have experienced this as well. Remember when fast food chains seemed to offer an ever growing menu of options to the bewilderment of their customers? Go to Jack in the Box and you can purchase egg rolls alongside your french fries and tacos. Besides confusing the customer about what exactly defines Jack in the Box as a brand, none of the food was executed very well.  Then along came Chipotle with it’s minimal menu of just a few interchangeable ingredients. It not only enhanced their brand but it also let them focus on their core competency: delivering consistently fresh tasting food at fast food prices. They accomplished this by keeping their menu and list of ingredients “lean.”

When looking for a solution (agency management or otherwise), before getting hung up on feature comparisons, consider thinking about which system will complement and enhance your existing workflow while not disrupting your employees’ day. Select the solution that addresses your explicit needs most efficiently and cuts the clutter. While a taco with fries can be tasty, sometimes all you’re looking for is a burrito.

At Developware, we often tout CurrentTrack’s universal accessibility through an array of browsers and devices as a significant benefit. Our clients tend to agree!  Access to information about your business when you need it most is one of the marquee promises of cloud based software services and we’re proud we chose to develop in this direction a decade ago.

We’re in good company too. Google has experienced tremendous success with their cloud-based office suite and in what is perhaps a more significant move, Microsoft just introduced Office 365, a web-based version of their bread and butter Office package. This is a move in the right direction but there are still applications that haven’t made their way to the web just yet. I’m talking about the myriad creative tools we use to create great work for clients.

While InDesign and Photoshop are terrific tools, it’s still up to us to figure out a way to store and share the files we create.  One solution a number of our clients have mentioned is Dropbox.  Dropbox, if you’re not already familiar with it, is an app that resides on your computer as a folder. Simply place your project files into the designated ‘Dropbox’ folder and your data is backed up to the cloud while you continue on with your day. You also have the ability to share folders with your teammates so you can easily collaborate internally. It’s also a relative bargain compared to some of the pricey storage hardware solutions in the marketplace. Dropbox doesn’t solve all problems, however. You still need a method to share data with your clients and vendors which is where a solution like CurrentTrack’s Client / Vendor Portal shines.

CurrentTrack allows you to post your creative files, task lists and calendar events for review and comment by your clients. The data resides in the job folder in CurrentTrack, which makes this functionality a seamless part of your workflow. You can also use CurrentTrack to post completed work for vendors to access when ready; it’s an intuitive replacement to maintaining an FTP site.

Cloud services are reducing the headache of data management and with the right approach and solutions your agency can leverage cloud architecture to make information more open and accessible.

For more information about Dropbox visit www.dropbox.com.

In the early days of business computing, terminals were used to access applications and data that were resident in mainframe systems.  The mainframe was a large computer capable of serving many users while centralizing the operations in a single box. Users accessed the system through inexpensive, low-powered terminals.  This architecture was used mainly to keep costs down and maintenance simple. Then PCs got cheaper and more powerful, capable of running business apps locally. We went from the green screen terms of the past to Windows and to a lesser extent Apple, computers that had the juice to power our computing experience in the towers under our desks.  Of course, the client-server architecture still existed in the form of mail and file servers but applications were typically something we installed locally.

The PC model expedited the adoption of computers globally. It meant that we no longer had to rely on a byzantine combination of keystrokes and incomprehensible menu systems to accomplish meaningful work in a computing environment. The machines were powerful enough to deliver a rich and intuitive interface and we simply pointed and clicked our way to productivity.  It also brought along with it a new set of problems. Users had to understand a file system, a task manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del and End Task) and how to install and update the Operating System and Applications they used. This model was great for adoption since users were insulated from the technology driving their experience. But they weren’t removed from the equation enough.

Cloud computing helps solve some of the remaining problems. Applications can live in the Cloud so users don’t have to constantly remember to save their files, update their software or maintain applications.  Web technology continues to improve so the applications developed for residence in the cloud bear a striking similarity to the experience of desktop apps of the PC era.  Trusting that your data is where you need it, safe and sound in an accessible web service across myriad devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones) is the core of the Cloud concept. The more we move the consumer’s focus away from how to make software work, the freer they are to be productive and creative by using it.  It’s been said that the best designs aren’t noticed by people at all and the Cloud pushes us all closer to blue skies.

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.