In private as well as in professional life, the new technologies are widely spread these days and the number of apps and software solutions to simplify your work life continues to increase every day.
In the environment where competition is tough, a creative agency should be able to be distinct so as to keep attracting new clients. Competent co-workers, brilliant ideas, impeccable service and tools that perform well are all assets that will allow your agency stand out from the competitors and to thrive.
Necessary to achieve success, project management software enables you to boost your productivity, to effectively manage your day to day tasks, to meet the deadlines, to share the documents, to communicate easily with your colleagues and to efficiently track the progress of your projects.
How to pick a project management solution adapted to your creative agency? Firstly, take into the account different criteria such as the size of you agency, your needs, your work methods or even the type of projects that you manage. Next, the software should offer functions impossible to be overlooked that facilitate your work and prioritise collaboration.
Here is some advice on how to make a right choice.
1) Data sovereignty
Since the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018, security and confidentiality of data have been in heart of all preoccupations.
To secure your projects’ data, which is also your clients’ data, opt for a software that has high standards regarding this matter, like our project management platform Wimi. Data sovereignty (it means their accommodation at the French territory), allocation in a private cloud or on-premise one, secure authentication and even data coding are all aspects that you should take under consideration while making your decision.
Your clients will be reassured if they see that you take the security and confidentiality of their data seriously.
2) Invite your external collaborates for free.
An advantage of a project management software is to prioritise communication and collaboration between all people involved in the project, be it your employees or external contributors.
In fact, your creative agency collaborates with a significant number of people on top of your clients: your suppliers, your service providers, your partners and your journalists. This is the reason why it is necessary to choose a solution that allows you to invite all participating parties for free and that allows them to take advantage of the same functions as registered users.
Of course, you can manage the access rights of every person directly as well as define the workspaces that they can access.
3) Opt for a solution all in one.
These days, there is a wide choice of applications and software to facilitate your work. However, playing around with different tools can be a real waste of time. You would have to get to know every app, train yourself and your collaborates and your clients to use it, know which app to use for which task… Well, it can easily become tiring and time-consuming.
Project management software protects you form such situation by including all needed functions in one tool:
- Calendar,
- Task manager,
- Upload/download platform to centralise and share your documents,
- Instant messenger, video calls and screen sharing,
- Reporting tool, etc.
By adopting a project management solution, you can make life more simple and boost your productivity!
4) Choose simple and intuitive software
Introduction of a tool to manage your projects may meet some disapproval of your collaborates. The fear of change may constitute as a big barrier. In order to avoid this kind of a situation, unpleasant and counterproductive, pick software that is intuitive, simple and accessible for everyone. Your collaborates will be reassured and will appreciate working with a new tool – its adoption will not make them waste their time.
5) Integrate your favourites tools
Majority of project management software offers possibility to integrate tools that you use on a daily basis in your agency.
Do you work with Microsoft, Dropbox or Google Drive? No problem, your favourite apps can be directly integrated into the project management software that you will choose. What is more, you will find your files immediately and you are fully operational straight away!
6) Facilitate image processing
The visual aspect is very important to creative agencies that work with images on a regular basis: creation of illustrations, graphics and other visuals, downloading and editing of images and photos, etc. Hence, it is necessary to introduce project management software that will facilitate managing, processing and sorting this type of files.
For instance, some software allows you to sort your images by IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) attributes or to show an overview of an image on the task. Are some photos too heavy to be sent by email? Simply send a download link directly to the recipient via your project management software!
Conclusion
Do you want to lead your creative agency towards success? It’s high time to introduce a project management software so as to be more productive, better manage your projects and automate some tasks (such as reporting) so as to concentrate on your client’s needs and on the creative aspect of your project.
Find perfect project management software by taking into consideration different criteria such as needs of a creative agency, your collaborates’ personality as well as your different processes.
Lastly, remember that it is possible to try most of the management solutions out, for free, in order to make sure that they meet your needs.
