Questions to ask before investing in ad agency management software

Juggling multiple tools to manage your ad agency projects? Tired of endless email trails and scrambled audit trails? Difficultly ascertaining where your jobs are at any given moment? More ad agencies are implementing agency management software for greater transparency over their creative projects. Nonetheless, it?s easy to invest in the wrong agency management software.

Here are ten questions to ask before investing in ad agency project management software to ensure you select the right tool for your ad agency.

1. What are our objectives? 

It?s one thing to realise you need to implement an ad agency management solution but you have to identify exactly what you want it to do. Do you want to simplify the process for setting up and managing projects? Do you want to streamline your approval workflow? Do you want clear audit trails of work to check off marketing compliance requirements? Do you want a resource management feature to plan and schedule your resources?

2. Do we need a tool that is customisable?

There?s no point implementing agency management software only to find it can?t do what you want it to do. Do you need it to offer customisable templates for briefing and quoting? Do you need it to offer shortcuts for setting up urgent projects? Do you need it to include specific metadata fields for certain projects? Do you need specific reporting tools?

3. Does the system manage all file types?

Today, ad agencies are working across multiple media platforms so you need to make sure that the agency management solution you select can manage the file types you work with everyday.

4. How easy is the system to use?

This sounds like an obvious question because no doubt you want greater ease in your workday. Nonetheless, you might spot a comprehensive solution that looks great but is complex to learn and use. Check out whether the system has a user-friendly dashboard that is easy to navigate and provides a summary of all work in progress. Does it automate much of the approval workflow? Can you generate a WIP report in just seconds?

5. Can the system evolve with our needs?
Keep in mind that your reasons for investing in software may well change over time. For example, you might want to implement a solution to provide greater transparency and control over your creative projects. Down the track, you might also want the solution to offer resource management to plan and track resources more effectively.

6. What features does the software have?

Make sure that the system you select has exactly what you need. It might be great that it simplifies the job of creating projects, but will it reduce the amount of emails and administration that come with managing creative projects? Will it help you to manage your approval workflow better? Can you set automated reminders so that the system follow ups stakeholders for you? Can you generate audit trail and WIP reports? Be sure to  learn your business requirements.

7. Can the system be accessed remotely?

Today, with so many stakeholders working offsite, from home or in another office, agency management software that can be accessed online anytime from anywhere is going to provide an expedient pathway to gathering feedback and approvals.

8. What training and support are offered?

It?s imperative that, no matter what agency management software you select, the vendor offers comprehensive training and support. While you can select the right tool for your ad agency, the success of the implementation ultimately comes down to people actually using it. If it all seems to hard, your staff will simply revert to their old ways of managing ad agency projects.

9. How much does it cost?

Make sure you ascertain whether the cost will be a once off or monthly fee, and whether training and ongoing support are included in this. You don?t want to be stung by additional fees later on that you weren?t aware of.

10 Should we get buy in from other stakeholders before investing?

Yes, yes, yes. The more your team and stakeholders are on board with the decision making, the more chance of them adopting agency management software when you finally implement it.

Keen to learn if your ad agency is ready to consider adopting agency project management software? Get some help, download our free guide today!