| FullSIX
The UK office of Italy-based marketing agency FullSIX is a web development group of approximately 100 employees with clients like Proctor & Gamble, Sky, Alpha Romeo, L’Oreal, Orange, and Hertz.
| Why We Chose @task
We’ve outgrown everything we used to use. In the last eight months we’ve gone from 30 to over 100 employees. I knew that with our organization’s growth, we needed a real solution that had sophisticated tools and could scale.
Before @task, our process was mostly managed with whiteboards and scraps of paper. We also had some homegrown tools to help us create job numbers and keep a log of employee skills. We had a self-built extra-net solution that the company had used for five years previous, but it had no way to create job numbers, or assign tasks to resources.
It was primarily a financial tool, and consequently didn't have any of the resourcing functions necessary for the management of a busy web development studio. @task changed all that with their resource allocation grid, and from that point on I haven't looked back.
Some within our company wanted to upgrade our system to do what we needed, but I knew that this wouldn’t work with our resources and expertise. @task is this already. Before committing to @task, I tried a thing called OfficeTracker, which is kind of a room booking scheduler, for the length of their 30-day trial. It had a few things—I mean different people could enter information into it—but it wasn’t what we needed.
I also tried MS Project and about 30-odd other solutions. We even went with eProject first before switching to @task. eProject doesn’t have a built-in reporting engine, like @task does. Instead, the reports are done through Crystal reports; I had to learn another application just to get what I wanted out of the application I just bought.
@task is beautiful in how it tracks time; it’s like three clicks and your time sheets are up-to-date.
| Why @task was the Right Choice
We do design work, so we needed a solution that would work on a Mac. And our development team had a field day when they heard @task would work on Linux and any database. We had excellent reception to the @task implementation. You’ve got something where people see results straight off the starting block.
Once I understood the customization tools, I set it up so people would see what was important to them. It was very simple to use for people doing the work. I also created custom filters for the consultants, and custom tabs and reports, which I send to my financial boss; everyone sees what they need. My information architecture is clear; it’s very simple.
We’ve also had great results with the forums—very responsive.
