Teamwork Project Management Software is igniting collaboration for the marketing department at Integris.
While we’re only a 10-person unit within a 450-person MSP, this project management platform only took a few weeks to make an immediate impact.
I’m not exaggerating – I’ve never felt more organized and empowered to thrive in our culture of accountability. (I’m also a lot less anxious about missing critical details.)
My former manager (not an easy sell on anything) heard me talk about these details for less than a minute and requested a demo.
While the project managers within Integris already have a deep stack of integrated project management tools for IT projects, my emphasis on simplicity struck a chord with him.
Now that the marketing team has used the tool for about six months, I’m sharing four high-level Teamwork features that may benefit your department. Or your entire company.
#1 – Teamwork project management software simplifies the delegation process.
Teamwork project management software simplifies project management by automating the assignment of tasks and subtasks.
For instance, every month, our project manager assigns me the following general marketing deliverables:
- Write educational blogs about cybersecurity, cloud, compliance, and company culture
- Review and approve website edits for various Integris services
- Edit the cybersecurity tips for our monthly email subscribers
- Create landing pages and email campaigns for events and webinars
- Develop longer form pillar content for sales enablement, which is part of my Quarterly Rock
We use Teamwork to organize everything into six simple buckets:
- My projects
- Activity
- Dashboards
- Unread comments
- Messages
- Events
Every task has a title, a start date, a due date, time tracking, tags, reminders, a team or channel association, and instant messaging to notify team members to jump in as soon as my work is complete.
For instance, once I approve edits for web pages, I instantly notify our webmaster to update the production site, automatically copy our project manager, and close the task.
When I close the task, a little check appears to let everyone know I “Get it done right” – which is one of our core values.
#2 – Teamwork prevents critical activities from slipping through the cracks.
Teamwork’s visually compelling interface keeps critical activities front and center.
The following exhibit is a new Teamwork feature added after we had been using the application for a few months.
Small changes make a significant impact. This quick summary appears in the upper right-hand corner of the program, and it’s perfectly positioned to prompt creative types who get easily distracted.
Although this article isn’t due until the close of business today, Teamwork has flagged it as late. That’s fine with me. I love their proactivity.
The other late task relates to a project with more than one contributor. Although my work is complete, the last person in the chain is responsible for completing one more action before closing it out.
Since I am super self-conscious about looking like a slacker, I will ask them about this during our next meeting. And will count on them to reciprocate on projects where I’m the last contributor in the chain.
This personal reinforcement empowers the team to “Own it” – another Integris core value that inspires accountability.
#3 – Teamwork project management software handles high-volume marketing requests.
Teamwork software helps Integris manage a large volume of marketing requests.
This feature is a lifesaver since we have 450 employees, all of whom worked for several 30-40 person MSPs that merged to form Integris.
Everyone is adjusting to a new operating mindset and the formality of a full-service marketing department.
When I played a dual sales and marketing role in our Atlanta office, colleagues would always walk into my office and say, “I need a new piece of collateral.” Or they would email me a PDF with a few copy changes, and the subject line would say, “ASAP, PLEASE!”
There was never a shortage of great ideas buried in a tidal wave of one-off emergency demands. How I managed to hit my sales numbers and create quality marketing assets is anyone’s best guess.
With twenty offices, this old-school approach is out of the question.
Thankfully, Teamwork has an easy-to-use web-based form that processes several dozen requests weekly and cues them as tasks via the app and Outlook if you link them.
Each “Marketing Request” includes the following fields:
- Your email
- Location
- Request subject
- Request details
- Preferred due date
- A form to drag and drop, paste or browse to send attachments
Each request gets a thoughtful, strategic review, so every employee has a voice. This approach allows us to incorporate another Integris value: “People first.”
#4 – Teamwork adds structure to meetings.
The Teamwork platform adds structure to marketing meetings with a single source of truth.
We follow this agenda every week in our “Inbound Marketing” Teams meeting:
- Inbox (new requests/submissions)
- Headlines
- Quarterly Rocks
- Identity, Discuss, Solve
- Completed
Our meetings never run longer than an hour. All seven attendees get equal presentation time. And everyone unites around one more critical Integris value: “Do the right thing.”
How does “Inbound Marketing” do the right thing? We stay committed to providing education, thought leadership, and problem-solving multi-channel content to inspire like-minded SMBs and IT departments to engage in sales conversations with Integris.
And we’re evaluated (and compensated) on two key sales metrics:
- Monthly Recurring Revenue
- Sales Opportunities
The entire company is counting on us! And Teamwork provides the perfect forum to keep us on track.
Your Project Management Journey
As the marketing department continues to grow with Teamwork, I’ll create follow-up blogs that delve into more granular details. We’re still in the early stages of our engagement and not using all the features.
Confession: I learned many new tips and tricks while preparing this review. This realization underscores the need for everyone to commit to training.
I am blessed to have a very patient “left brain” project manager with advanced competencies providing just-in-time supplemental training to “right brain” people like me.
We use Teamwork because one of our team members has a long history of success with the application. However, there are a host of project management solutions to consider.
I encourage you to conduct research and explore a few trials. Teamwork and most of their competitors have free versions with limited features. It never hurts to take a few for a no-risk test drive.
If you have any questions about software and IT, schedule a free consultation.
