The biggest return is clarity. Now we actually have clarity on what we’re doing, I can take the strategic role of properly growing our business using data.
B2B storytelling agency Rooster Punk shifted from spreadsheets to strategic control with Synergist
Rooster Punk are an award-winning B2B marketing agency that helps humanize complex business brands through creative storytelling. Unleashing the power of heart, humanity and humour in the world of B2B marketing.
Rooster Punk were operating using mainly manual systems, which meant they were struggling to achieve managed growth. Here’s how Synergist transformed their day-to-day practices, elevating the organisation into a smoother, clearer and more productive way of working.
Agency type: B2B marketing agency
Services: Creative, thought leadership, brands, strategy, advertising, social, media, ABM, campaigns, content
Size: 15+ people
Location: Bristol and London
Andrea Allen
Commercial & Operations Director, Rooster Punk
The problem
No reporting, no clarity, lots of spreadsheets
Andrea’s last project before leaving her previous agency was installing Synergist – chosen for its reporting.
When she joined Rooster Punk, it was back to spreadsheets, which meant no reporting and no clarity.
“Nine months down the line and I was asking for Synergist. I knew we were not going to grow if we didn’t have proper data.”
“I needed a tool that does the majority of the work, so I could focus on looking at the data and taking on a strategic role.”
“Synergist has a huge chunk of the agency market, so it must be doing something that works.”
“You can look at loads of project management systems but they need to work in an agency with a unique business model. Synergist does what I need it to do, it’s logical and it makes sense. It’s tailored for agencies but is also intuitive... because it’s been designed that way.”
The solution
Gaining control and automation
Installing Synergist has given Andrea, and the agency as a whole, much greater control when managing complex projects. “The phases, stages and tasks mean you can break down a really long job, and you can even have multi-company and different currencies."
Andrea says that they’re now more focused on profit. Knowing how much time they were spending on jobs to work out whether they were charging enough was a big benefit. “Quote vs estimate vs actuals reporting means we can look at what’s charged vs what it should cost vs what it actually cost. And the DataViewer lets us look at jobs and phases to see who has spent time doing what. It’s about continuous improvement, so if a job overruns we can learn from it and change our estimate for the next time.”
“My favourite report is last month’s forecast vs actual. What did we say we would do vs what we are doing. Something we couldn’t pull before.”
“Synergist is the most logical system I’ve seen for revenue recognition, which is very important and something you can’t do well on a spreadsheet.”
Additional value for Rooster Punk was the fact that Synergist integrates with Xero, which Andrea says "takes out a whole heap of pain!"
Synergist has also taken the guesswork out of resource and utilisation, as Andrea says they aren’t going with gut feel anymore as “that only takes you so far”.
Onboarding excellence
“The biggest hurdle was really about people’s time, getting people to understand they need to spend the time doing it. We had a lot of training and regular refreshers for the team to get the most out of the system.”
“The training and onboarding were very good, you learn not only how to use system, but actually how to use it well.”
“It was 100% valuable to have Agency Works configure the system the way we need. They helped set it up for us, which we don’t have time or expertise to do.”
”The Synergist Helpdesk are also very responsive.”
Synergist has made a massive difference to the way we work. We don’t have spreadsheets with circular references that don’t add up. Now I have the information to hand, so I can look at the business with more of a commercial focus.
Andrea Allen
Operations Director, Rooster Punk
The return
Clarity and growth
“Now we actually have clarity on what we’re doing.”
Growth is a big factor, too. Andrea says of 2022: “between last year and this year we’ve grown by roughly 70%. Part of that has to be the structure we’ve put in place.”
“We’re winning new clients and keeping them happy. We have a good contribution to the profit because I have this insight and can have more meaningful conversations as a result.”
“The biggest return is clarity. I can take the strategic role of properly growing our business using data. I can have a conversation at another level.”