89 Degrees East (89DE) is a full-service strategic communication agency, with services and solutions that cover digital strategy, content creation, community engagement, brand management, design, policy development, virtual engagement and AI. With an integrated approach to communication strategy, 89 Degree East is in the business of driving change - in opinions, behaviours, knowledge and reputations.
As 89 Degrees East has grown significantly it wanted a platform that would support them as they scale.
With a team of 30, a score of complex communication projects on the go at any given time, and a portfolio of clients ranging from ASX-listed companies, to Federal and State Government and Not-For-Profits, the team needed a way to better monitor, track and report on their projects.
89DE wanted to improve its real time visibility on who was working on what, and when. They also wanted live functionality to determine how they were tracking to budget or what they needed to do to drive the profitability of their projects.
The team needed visibility on all their projects in one place, and they needed the ability to easily monitor their budgets and forecasts against their actual time and costs, so they could identify where they were going over their budget, and make adjustments fast.
BlueRock Digital, led by Digital Specialist Josh Licence, took an advisory approach to implementing WorkflowMax into the business, facilitating a number of workshops to align on project and business goals, and provide guidance and advice on best-practice configuration of the platform.
With extensive experience in all things WorkflowMax, BlueRock Digital guided the 89 Degree East leadership team in setting up and aligning WorkflowMax to the language, brand and ‘89DE way’ of doing business, helping them to use this new cloud-based business system to support their day-to-day.
Using a ‘prototyping approach’, BlueRock Digital and 89DE imported real projects into the system to ensure the setup and reporting metrics were fit for purpose and that no client-specific project needs were left unaddressed.
When WorkflowMax was confirmed to be the right solutions for 89DE, BlueRock Digital successfully migrated all open job data to the new platform and undertook comprehensive and tailored training of 89DE staff based on each staff member’s role and individual needs, including admin, reporting and finance training, project lead and manager training, junior and contractor training, and reinforcement training after the new system went live.
“In 2 to 3 months, all 30 team members are religiously using WFM for quotes to conclusion of project, and...can at any point monitor progress versus work to be done”
Post-project delivery, Josh and the BlueRock Digital team meets with 89DE every month to discuss new challenges and identify any opportunities to further support the staff, leadership and clients of 89DE.
WorkflowMax has given 89DE the ability to proactively monitor their projects, and take action on particular jobs to drive profitability.
The team uses WorkflowMax to manage projects from quote right through to delivery and with better visibility on budgets for each and every job, 89DE can put the right people into the right jobs to maximise their margins.
By tracking actual time and cost against their targets on a job-by-job basis, WorkflowMax empowers 89DE to make data-driven decisions about the profitability of their business.
“Josh has been excellent in implementing and training our staff of over 30 in WorkflowMax. It has been a very smooth transition and we now have a much broader understanding of our financial and resourcing position, which is proving to be invaluable.”
If you have poor visibility on your projects, productivity or profitability, our business systems experts can help.