Admospheres Media and Marketing

AdMospheres is a marketing solutions company serving both advertising clients and advertising venues.

The Scenario:

Lisa Johnson, Project Manager, was a new hire tasked with creating order in a new company tied to old methods of production, while buried beneath a desk full of stacked file folders and outdated computers. Her daily routine consisted of wading through hundreds of mixed emails. Once she determined what was relevant, she would make lists and notes on a notepad based on assumptions from the emails. Many times her manager would send an email to a client about a project in the middle of the night, and he expected her to interpret a directive based on her carbon copy. She had to guess what needed to be done and when it was due. Without clear action steps and guidance, she was often on her own to devise a method to complete the project on schedule. Even greater problems occurred with file attachments and version control, as many times an advertising graphic document would have 10-15 versions, and her manager would make vague directive and contradictory changes on previous versions of the document. This confusion wasted time as steps were repeated or deleted in previous versions, but not in later versions.

Once a project had begun, all pertinent information was isolated in various locations. Many times crucial business data were kept on her manager's computer, or in an email folder in multiple email accounts, a project file on another computer, or a hard copy filed away in a filing cabinet. To locate information or files associated with a particular project, a search would have to be done in all of these various locations which wasted time and money and threatened deadlines.

Her manager often assumed she had completed a task and became angry when she asked for clarification, assuming he was being challenged. Both were extremely frustrated about the miscommunication, scattered directions, and general confusion mixed with constant tension. Soon Lisa dreaded coming to work, distressed by the inefficient process she knew she must endure each day that took a heavy toll on her morale and dropped her productivity.

PlanDone Solution and Results

With the addition of PlanDone, the working process and daily routine changed drastically. Communication between Lisa and her manager was streamlined as project task related comments within the application, resulting in a more productive and friendlier working relationship. The miscommunication and tension were eliminated, and Lisa enjoyed working again. Estimates for time saved ranged between 2-3 hours per day between Lisa and her manager, which translated into cost savings of more than $20,000 per year, the saved time was used to focus on closing new business. This dollar and time amount made a big difference for a small, struggling ad company in a limited area with highly profitable competitors.

PlanDone's process allowed the company to grow revenues by 50% and hire additional staff within 6 months. The manager stated that his profitability and performance were tied directly to using PlanDone.