Now the data is there and easily accessible, so we have our finger on the pulse. We can see any changes coming, and we don't get caught by surprise.
How Something Big turned three days of reporting into two hours
Something Big is a Strategic People & Culture Communications Partner, working with large and complex organisations, often with global or distributed workforces, to move people and culture challenges forward through communications that build trust, shift behaviour and support business performance.
As the agency scaled to a team of more than 30, Chief Operations Officer Helen Flanders needed real-time visibility across the business, something the agency's previous system couldn't provide, however much data went into it.
Agency type: Strategic people & culture communications consultancy
Services: Business transformation, culture programmes, inclusion, wellbeing and safety communications, employee engagement
Size: 30+ people
Location: Surrey, UK
Helen Flanders
Chief Operating Officer at Something Big
The problem
No real-time business visibility
"Being a sustainable and profitable agency has always been our goal, so it's crucial I know what's happening across the business at any given time. But with the agency management system we had, pulling out business-critical insight was impossible despite inputting reams of data. It was time-consuming too, creating reports could take days: multiple reports needed exporting into Excel and formulas adding to convert into insight."
"We didn't have real time visibility of what was happening or where the challenges were. We were missing critical shifts in the business and making decisions based on assumption rather than data."
Running separate reports, often compiled by several different people, made it hard for Helen to get a full picture of the business in real time.
"Understanding where what we were doing was impacting other areas of the agency was very difficult. Without real time visibility we were always looking backwards; we couldn't see today's challenges and changes or plan for tomorrow. We were missing shifts in the business that we should have been spotting."
The solution
The right fit, properly implemented
"We researched agency management systems and found Synergist was considered one of the top for medium-sized agencies, so we brought them in for a demo. A lot of our wish list was around reporting, so Synergist's flexibility to build and tailor the reports we wanted was a big tick. We also went through our top five difficulties with our current system and quickly found that Synergist would do what we needed. Its visual appeal felt more user-friendly for our creative team too."
“Alongside identifying the best agency management system, we were looking to change our accounting system and briefly considered a couple which managed both. However, when we discovered that Synergist integrates with Xero we decided to go with the two best systems for the job rather than compromise on capability."
Implementation went beyond simply installing new software. "It was clear from our conversations that the implementation team not only understood Synergist inside out but also had an in depth understanding of how the different agency models work. I could see they were agency management experts, and with financial backgrounds, operational understanding and commercial insight, I knew they could add value to our business beyond an agency management system."
The team met with Helen and the agency's financial director several times at the start of the process. "They asked some important questions to understand how to set up the system to work best for our agency. They gave us a lot of food for thought and prompted us to think about things from a different perspective. I liked the fact that they didn't just take what we were already doing and replicate that in Synergist. They helped us understand the implications of the choices we were making. The knowledge and understanding we gained around how inputting the right information would impact reporting was invaluable. We wouldn't have known any of it if we hadn't talked it through."
Training was tailored to what each team actually needed to know. "The small group training was really effective. For example, our account handlers need to understand more about the system than a creative who wouldn't get involved in the finance parts of the system. So we were all trained only on what we need to know, and as a result, the team didn't spend hours unnecessarily away from paid work."
"It's saving us so much time too, where one particular report used to take us three days to create, now it takes me two hours!"
Helen Flanders
Chief Operations Officer at Something Big
The return
A finger on the pulse
"Even with a very capable system, we couldn't have got to this point without the expertise of the implementation team. What I loved about their approach was how they questioned why we did things and the benefits of doing them that way. If they knew there was a better way, we talked it through and implemented the changes. They gave us a good chance to reset and look at what we were doing with our data from different angles, so we could get more out of Synergist and ultimately our business."
With real-time data readily available, Something Big can now see problems and opportunities as they happen, rather than after the fact. "Traditionally we looked at the overall profitability of a project. Now we can see whether each piece of a project is actually profitable rather than the whole job. This level of reporting is likely to change our service offering, it has been a real eye-opener."
"I can see the volume of specific activity we're doing in real-time, which areas are growing, and which are declining, even month by month. And I can spot trends, something I've never been able to do. It gives you confidence that you're on top of what's happening."