Focusing on the clients and projects that deliver the most

The Marketing Practice

The Marketing Practice is a global B2B marketing agency established in 2002. They have offices in Oxford, London, New York, Seattle, Munich San Francisco, Denver and Sydney.

We met up with David van Schaick, their CMO & Chief Digital Officer, who talked about managing an agency's time, projects and information.

“Synergist is the best IT investment we have made as an agency, and I would absolutely recommend it to any marketing services business."

 

The Challenge

“When we set up the business our initial project management systems were very much a home-grown affair. We employed the usual Excel spreadsheets for time recording and project information and tried to extract deeper management information from the composite results."

“This clearly had its downsides, the least being the time it actually took to bring together all the data. In a very short time-frame it became very obvious that we needed a ‘proper’ agency project management system. We did become involved in a new system development project, but it proved to be unwieldy and far too complex for our needs.”

“The decision was taken to put our agency management system requirements out to tender and unsurprisingly we received numerous responses. This list was quickly narrowed down to three, of which one clearly stood out as the obvious and immediate choice for a B2B agency. This was Synergist, implemented and supported by the Agency Works”.

Clients of The Marketing Practice

Technology clients of The Marketing Practice

The solution

“Synergist was selected primarily for its agency capacity management and job costing capabilities, which, when combined with its powerful management reporting system, enabled us to clearly identify areas where time had been spent and use the information to improve productivity."

“The extreme flexibility of the reporting system and its convenient front-end dashboards has enabled us to see far more detail and to make many highly beneficial adjustments to the way in which the agency operates. The direct link to our Sage Accounts package makes life simpler still.”

“Synergist and the Agency Works have both played a big part in our sustained growth. Jason Neale really understood our business and what we were trying to achieve. His grasp of the commercial logic behind running an agency ensured we got the intricate detail and processes absolutely right from the outset when the system was initially set up for the company.”

The Marketing Practice's locations

Locations of The Marketing Practice

Results

David revealed, “I can confidently say that within just three months of use we were able to identify key areas in the business which needed attention, and to make positive changes which impacted both on profitability and increased client satisfaction.

"Synergist was installed by the Agency Works and all our users were trained by their team over a six week period. This allowed ample time to understand the system and to run sample projects to ensure everything was absolutely right for the business."

"With the help of the Agency Works staff the entire process proved to be completely painless, and our agency users were very happy to adopt the simple-to-use, online software for job costing and resource management."

Team members of The Marketing Practice

Team members of The Marketing Practice

Feedback

The key to success has been the fact that it is so easy to use, therefore people actually use it rather than put off filling in their timesheets to another day.

"This means we have significantly better, more accurate information available far earlier in the job cycle than ever before and we can forecast and plan our business far more effectively.”

“Synergist is the best agency management investment we have made as an agency, and I would absolutely recommend it to any marketing services business that wants to understand exactly what is making them money, and where all the time is being spent. The software is perfect for a multi-discipline B2B agency.”

Time to see it

Whatever your agency looks like – 10 to 500 people, design to digital –
Synergist can be shaped to the way you work.

See it for yourself.

Synergist consultants, Agency Works, will be in touch to arrange your bespoke demo. Their experience working with hundreds of agencies means they can help you work out what's right for you.