Synergist is the best agency management investment we have made as an agency, and I would absolutely recommend it to any marketing services business that wants to understand exactly what is making them money, and where all the time is being spent.
The Marketing Practice is a leading, global B2B agency that delivers growth right across the funnel. With over 500 B2B specialists globally, they fuse the best in data, technology, and creativity to help marketing leaders prove their impact on growth.
The Marketing Practice used manual systems, which proved time-consuming to navigate and slow to produce data. They now generate accurate data to inform their decisions and help the business grow.
Agency type: B2B marketing agency
Services: Brand, demand, ABM, channel, media, digital
Size: 500+ people
Location: Oxford, London, New York, Seattle, Munich, San Francisco, Denver and Sydney
David van Schaick
CMO, The Marketing Practice
David was part of the leadership team that grew The Marketing Practice from a small local agency to a global, £20m B2B superpower and category leader.
The problem
A lack of data clarity
“When we set up the business our initial project management systems were very much a home-grown affair. We employed the usual Excel spreadsheets for time recording and project information and tried to extract deeper management information from the composite results."
“This clearly had its downsides, the least being the time it actually took to bring together all the data. It became very obvious that we needed a ‘proper’ agency project management system.”
“We put our agency management system requirements out to tender and unsurprisingly we received a lot of responses. We narrowed this list down to three, of which one clearly stood out as the obvious and immediate choice for a B2B agency. This was Synergist."
The solution
Powerful reporting to inform decision making
“We selected Synergist primarily for its agency capacity management and job costing capabilities, which, when combined with its powerful management reporting system, enabled us to clearly identify areas where time had been spent and use the information to improve productivity."
“The extreme flexibility of the reporting system and its convenient front-end dashboards enabled us to see far more detail and to make many highly beneficial adjustments to the way the agency operates. The direct link to our Sage Accounts package makes life simpler still.”
“Synergist and their implementation partners Agency Works have both played a big part in our sustained growth. Jason Neale really understood our business and what we were trying to achieve. His grasp of the commercial logic behind running an agency ensured we got the intricate detail and processes absolutely right from the outset when the system was initially set up for the company.”
Synergist is the best IT investment we have made as an agency, and I would absolutely recommend it to any marketing services business.
David van Schaick
CMO, The Marketing Practice
The return
Focus and profitability
“I can confidently say that within just three months of use we were able to identify key areas in the business which needed attention, and to make positive changes which impacted both on profitability and increased client satisfaction.”
Synergist was installed by Agency Works and all users were trained by their team over a six-week period, giving everyone plenty of time to understand the system and to run sample projects.
"With the help of Agency Works staff the entire process proved to be completely painless, and our agency users were very happy to adopt the system."
“The key to success has been the fact that it is so easy to use, therefore people actually use it rather than put off filling in their timesheets.”
"This means we have significantly better, more accurate information available far earlier in the job cycle than ever before and we can forecast and plan our business far more effectively.”