Creative firm says SaaS companies "Central login is gold"

With New Zealand’s creative industries booming, and demand for creative services coming from around the world, many in the sector have been looking for smarter, value-added solutions to help them more easily manage the thousands of projects they are delivering each year.

Whilst only a few years ago the standard industry approach was either an Excel spreadsheet, a complex Microsoft Project run by the accountant, or, more commonly, brown paper “Job-Bags” with ‘client’ and ‘job’ details hand written on the front. Times have changed and creative firms are rapidly turning to “centralised” online applications which offer specific tools and functionality for the tracking of their complex project information, as well as providing accessibility for geographically diverse project teams.

New Zealand owned and operated ProActive Software Ltd, is a leading provider in this rapidly expanding market.

“We have been satisfying the needs of many creative businesses, globally, for the past four years”,says ProActive CEO Julian Stone “having cost effective and time saving project management systems is vital for companies in creative industries, many of whom work on international projects with tight deadlines our flagship solution, ProWorkflow has become an essential tool for many industry leaders”.

With more than 15 creative clients in Wellington alone, many of whom signed-up after receiving a word-of-mouth recommendation from a friend or business acquaintance, ProWorkflow is quickly becoming a creative industry standard for project and resource management.

“We know the Wellington creative sector have always been very quick to adopt new technology and solutions, and are also great supporters of other New Zealand businesses. It has still been a surprise how fast word spread through the capital’s design firms about the benefits of using ProWorkflow”

Among ProWorkflow’s nationwide client base are Doubleclique and Chrometoaster, both at the forefront of the creative industry. Between them, they boast a myriad of clients with household brand names including (Doubleclique) Telecom New Zealand, New Zealand Affordable Art Show, Aangel Messaging, (Chrometoaster) TAB, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, SPARC, Weta Workshop and the RNZAF.

Doubleclique was looking for a better way to track time when Luke Pierson, Creative Director at Doubleclique, found ProWorkflow. Previously Doubleclique had been using spreadsheets and in his search for a management solution Pierson found www.proworkflow.com and was impressed enough by what he found to sign up for the program online.

ProWorkflow had shown massive improvements for Doubleclique and “gives us really good visibility of where our projects are at.” Pierson also attributed credit to the team at ProWorkflow for being “supportive” and “responsive” to any needs Doubleclique have had.

“At the start ProWorkflow was a good solution and some really neat features have been added along the way,” Pierson highlighted two major selling points; “good value and the product works really well. We’ve been very happy with the performance, and it’s nice when it comes from New Zealand.”

By contrast Brendan Jarvis, Group Account Director of Chrometoaster began using ProWorkflow after looking at many other products across the world and found ProWorkflow to be easily adaptable to their business.

“The main reason was because the company had under gone quite a rapid growth and we needed something to tie the systems together,” he said. “We definitely feel it helps with the efficiency, it is really easy to use for the staff and the project managers themselves.”

“The reports we can generate from it gives us what we need without information overload. It’s good to see how much we’ve invoiced against projects and we can immediately see if a project is overdue or over budget.”

Jarvis has been impressed with the access for his staff and managers and said the SaaS model was a big advantage.

“I really like the SaaS model. And having that central login is gold.”

While Jarvis had some initial concerns about integration he has since seen a smooth transition which has reaffirmed his decision to go with ProWorkflow.

“The very personable follow up has been great. Julian and the team have been quick to reply and really helpful. It’s been really good.” he said.

Stone says the days of Excel and Word Documents as sole project planning lists are over as the ProWorkflow server stores business documents and spreadsheets which are accessible anywhere, anytime, and can be shared by any number of specified people.

Online project collaboration reduces the risk of costly mistakes by having all the necessary information in one place, helping users make informed decisions on the spot. This saves time, creates accountability and enables profit.

“Robust systems such as ProWorkflow also allow customers to build up a valuable store of data which can be analysed and used to streamline processes, benchmark future performance, and pin-point any problems in the work flow. It’s introducing a new level of smart business tools to our customers at an attractive value proposition.” says Stone.

“We deliver real benefits to real customers, what customers want today we build into our product tomorrow and all our customers benefit as we release better and better tools, better value and it is no surprise we are seeing creative companies get more aggressive in their adoption of web solutions. It’s signalling a change towards trust in the Internet as a business tool,” he said.

http://www.doubleclique.com/

Doubleclique is a digital design company focused on design-led, brand-true online experiences. Doubleclique have a seven-year track record delivering online and offline design for their broad client base. Doubleclique’s breadth of capability includes web design and development, interactive, multimedia, and application interface design.

http://www.chrometoaster.com/

Chrometoaster are leaders in creative technology services and offer a wide variety of opportunity to business including interface development, interactive presentations, website and usability consultations, motion graphics, 2D and 3D animations, 3D product visualisation along with traditional design services, such as brand identity and logo development.

Contact Information

Julian Stone

CEO

ProActive Software Ltd

Contact via E-mail