Synergist is the cornerstone of the business, we have all our information and data in there. We just open the dashboard to see where we are.
How Spike moved from spreadsheets to Synergist to support their growth
Spike help perfect digital experiences for the biggest retail brands. From strategy to build engineering, performance testing and analytics, Spike ensures the experience for businesses and customers is fast and secure, and performs above expectations.
While spreadsheets can work in a smaller agency, Spike found that what had previously worked was quickly becoming obsolete as they grew. Installing Synergist has given them the data, streamlined systems, and transparency to understand where they are at any given time.
Agency type: Digital technology
Services: Quality, Testing and Performance
Size: 12+ people
Location: London, Manchester, Cape Town
Darryl Kennedy
Executive Director, Spike
The problem
Outgrown spreadsheets
Spike were using spreadsheets, with different projects on the go and different people delivering them. Tracking sales, planning and estimating were done using Excel.
A new sheet was created for each client, a new estimate or a project plan, another was created for billing times, and another to manage resources.
“Spreadsheets meant more admin, duplications and inconsistencies. One person in the team could be working on one sheet for one client and another working on an old version from the team’s shared drive. Working on live projects with too many basic spreadsheet calculations that were always refactoring and on the edge of breaking. The team were so heavily reliant on data that could so easily be incorrect.”
Plus, growth had also meant they were no longer fit for purpose. “When you’re in a team of 2-3 people, spreadsheets are an ideal tool but Spike had grown to a size that meant it needed a platform to accommodate this.”
The solution
A timely arrival for Synergist
Synergist’s arrival came at the perfect time as Spike had won work with a large retailer and managing timesheets, holidays, costs and who worked when, on what and their fees, would have been impossible to manage on Excel. It would have been a permanent job for someone.
“There were lots of things we wanted to bring to one place, and Synergist was the answer. We needed all the agency and project management features it provides. It was an absolute no-brainer. The system is simple and easy to use, with no huge overheads. It just made sense.”
They were drawn to the multi-level job costing and flexible quoting that Synergist offers. "Things like that work really well for us as it allows us to deliver flexible pricing models to our clients and manage our internal costs.”
Spike were also attracted by the ability to configure Synergist to their business needs. "There were lots of tweaks we could make to suit us."
Working with the Agency Works team through the onboarding process, Darryl says they’d discover more configurations they wanted so the software could work just for them. The Agency Works team would “tell us to leave it with them, and they’ll make the changes”.
"The insights the Agency Works have brought have been fantastic. They understood where we were, what we were trying to achieve, and how the system could be configured to help this."
“It never felt like we bought a product and it was over to us. With the support we’ve received, we never felt like we were on our own – something that could be really daunting.”
"Having someone with so much experience that understands your business and Synergist to say that you’re on the right trajectory; just a couple of tweaks will help improve utilisation, really gives you confidence we are doing things the right way.”
It’s certainly one of the best decisions we have ever made as a business. It’s helped us enormously, and I couldn’t talk highly enough about the difference it’s made for us.
Darryl Kennedy
Executive Director, Spike
The return
Full transparency
"The reporting gives us a view of our capacity, based on sales estimates, on what types of resources we need, when we need them and how long for. It has given us the opportunity to look three, six, nine months down the line in terms of where we need people, where projects are dropping off and things are starting up."
“We know what runway we’ve got left on what purchase orders, we can see how far through projects we are, where resources are, where they’re costed and scheduled etc."
Billing plans allow Spike to forecast their income, something they could do previously but would be mining data from three or four different places for a single view that is already out of date within 15 minutes. “Now it’s in Synergist, we just open the dashboard to see where we are.”
The business has also written a lot of custom reports in the data viewer that allow them to see what their burn down is according to billing plans and where their revenue is going to drop. Darryl says these insights are invaluable, especially when it comes to making the right business decisions.
"We didn’t realise how much easier our lives could have been until the conversations about Synergist started."
"As a small business, money can be tight, and you’re always thinking should I spend that money elsewhere? But I would tell anyone to get off Excel, to get the features, functionality, and automation that Synergist agency management software provides – it’s an absolute no-brainer."
“We haven’t seen the pain we would have probably ended up in had we not transitioned over to Synergist agency management software. It was 100% the right decision and 100% the right time to do it.”