In this case study, find out how web development agency DotSee is using Teamwork Projects to plan and manage their projects, improve communication with clients and coordinate billing.
“I needed a uniform way of communicating with clients and recording their requirements, comments, observations and even change requests. Of all the products I evaluated, Teamwork Projects proved to be the fastest, simplest, and most cost-effective.”
Sotiris Filippidis is a developer, consultant, and the founder of DotSee, an agency specializing in Umbraco CMS and DNN Community Platform development. He has 20+ years of experience and has worked for various companies as developer, project lead, project manager, and CTO.
The Challenges
“I work with end clients, project managers and developers, and each one has their own communication habits. Some love voice communication, some others enjoy creating endless email message threads and others send me spreadsheets with things to do on Dropbox. I even had clients discuss specs with me on Facebook Messenger!”
Before using Teamwork, Sotiris was finding it increasingly difficult to manage communications with multiple clients across multiple platforms — a headache many growing agencies are familiar with. Sotiris knew that he needed to find a single platform that would allow him to do two things: 1) manage his agency’s web development projects and 2) streamline client communication. However, once Sotiris began evaluating options, he found that the tools he tried either had feature limitations or were too expensive because of their per-user pricing structure.
“For people like me, it’s very important to be able to add anyone, to any project, with any role, at any time. I work with different people per project and I could not possibly afford prices of other apps that charge per user per month.”
Sotiris knew exactly what he needed — a tool with a user interface (UI) his clients wouldn’t find overwhelming, yet robust enough to meet his needs as both a developer and a project manager. After trying at least a dozen options, Sotiris heard about Teamwork from a client who was in the software business and was using the tool to manage his own workload. Unlike the project management tools he previously explored, Teamwork won him over because of how it is “faster, more intuitive and more feature-rich than any other platform. And being able to add unlimited users at no extra charge is definitely a big plus.”
The Solution
DotSee now uses Teamwork Projects to plan and manage their entire workload, communicate with clients and coordinate billing. The built-in, multi-functional time tracking feature not only logs time spent on tasks, but can be used to generate invoices and reports for clients. One of the biggest benefits of using Teamwork Projects for DotSee is that it has streamlined client communication without Sotiris having to invest time, money or energy in convincing or teaching clients to use the software.
“I leave the choice of using Teamwork to clients – if they don’t want to use it, they can just reply to emails notifications sent from Teamwork Projects and those get added to Teamwork automatically. I can track everything because even if the client sends me a plain old email message with a request, I use the Chrome plugin to convert it into a Teamwork task and track time.”
While Sotiris doesn’t force his clients to use Teamwork Projects, he does admit that he gently reminds them how much information is available to them with just a few clicks.
“Usually clients get on board when they understand that organizing information in Teamwork Projects with its powerful search feature actually saves them a lot of time compared to searching through endless email threads. It usually just takes ONE login to be convinced!”
Teamwork Projects has also streamlined billing for DotSee, making invoicing and payment more simple and accurate for both Sotiris and his clients.
“I always export time to a spreadsheet when finished and send it to the client so he/she can see how time was spent and charged in detail.”
The Results
As an agency owner, time is money for Sotiris, and Teamwork Projects saves him time every day. The time-tracking feature helps create instant reports and invoices, while the powerful search feature lets him locate crucial information in just a few moments. Best of all, communication with his team clients is centralized, so he never has to wonder where an important message is.
“When a client asks me about something that was done a couple of years ago, I search Teamwork for a thread instead of combing through emails and/or chats. I almost always find what I’m looking for and I’m ready to answer the client in a fraction of the time I needed before Teamwork.”
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