Nicky Daly, Author at Blog Wrike
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Nicky Daly

Nicky Daly

Nicky is a former Content Marketing Manager of Wrike.
The Ultimate Guide to the Phase Gate Process
Project Management 10 min read

The Ultimate Guide to the Phase Gate Process

Master the phase gate process and streamline key project decisions. Create a phase gate review process that leads to more successful product management.

What Is a Use Case?
Project Management 7 min read

What Is a Use Case?

What is a use case, and how can it help you align technical and business stakeholders? Learn more about how to write a use case with Wrike.

How To Use Wrike as Bug Tracking Software
Wrike Tips 7 min read

How To Use Wrike as Bug Tracking Software

Bug tracking systems and software are incredibly useful during software development. Find out why you should use Wrike as you core bug tracking software.

Wrike's Ultimate Guide To Marketing Management
Marketing 5 min read

Wrike's Ultimate Guide To Marketing Management

Learn about the role of marketing management and its philosophies and processes. Plus, discover why Wrike is the best marketing management software available.

What Is Remote Work?
Remote Working 10 min read

What Is Remote Work?

What is remote work and how does it benefit employers and dispersed teams? Learn about the challenges and benefits of remote working with this detailed guide.

Exploring the Brave New World of Hybrid Team Management
Collaboration 7 min read

Exploring the Brave New World of Hybrid Team Management

Research shows that post-pandemic, hybrid team structures may be the “Next Normal.” But what are hybrid teams and what will hybrid remote working look like?

9 Steps to a Successful Brand Guide
Marketing 10 min read

9 Steps to a Successful Brand Guide

A brand guide should establish a clear and consistent identity for your company. Create brand guidelines and build a brand book for your business with Wrike.

The Importance of Corporate Branding
Marketing 7 min read

The Importance of Corporate Branding

What is a good corporate branding strategy and how can rebranding impact your business? Learn about Wrike’s rebrand and how to get started on yours today.

Working Across Borders: How COVID-19 Shattered The Confines of Physical Locations and Work
Remote Working 5 min read

Working Across Borders: How COVID-19 Shattered The Confines of Physical Locations and Work

For many global employees, work has traditionally been a physical location upheld by norms around attendance, communication, and collaboration. Over the course of the COVID-19 crisis, as swathes of global office workers transitioned from physical to remote work attendance, many attitudes around work have evolved.    From reigning in an out of control “always on” culture to prioritizing workplace flexibility, employees are exploring new ways of managing work. As organizations pay special attention to hybrid and remote-first hiring, it has become clear that our collective understanding of where work can take place is changing, too.  Distributed work before the pandemic  Though COVID-19 significantly increased the number of people working from home on a regular basis, remote work has been on the rise for years.  Improved infrastructure and work management innovations have enabled digital nomads to travel while working or connecting with teams from decentralized office locations.  Remote-first organizations are hardly a COVID-era phenomenon, either. Companies like Hubstaff, Doist, and Zapier have been remote-first pioneers for years, highlighting the cost and talent acquisition benefits of distributed hiring.   “We can hire people wherever we want to. We don't have to compete for Bay Area talent, and instead, we get to hire the best people all over the world,” wrote Zapier co-founder Wade Foster back in 2020. “Not only does it increase the size of the applicant pool, but it adds a layer of diversity into the company.” The steady rise in remote work has also made the modern workplace more accessible overall, allowing workers with varying needs and backgrounds to access opportunities they might otherwise have missed out on just a few years ago. The structures that make distributed work possible have been a long time coming. However, if 2020 taught businesses and their employees anything, it’s that “making it work” could also mean “making it work remotely.” [caption id="attachment_466235" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash[/caption] Reconsidering work and where it happens  “Effectiveness can’t be measured by the number of hours people spend in an office,” Spotify wrote in an announcement for their distributed-first work policy, Work From Anywhere. “Instead, giving people the freedom to choose where they work will boost effectiveness.” In February 2021, Spotify outlined their decision to allow employees to choose “whether they’d prefer to work mostly at home or in the office — as well as their geographic location.” Spotify’s WFA policy is by no means the “norm” for enterprise or even the company’s industry peers. Still, it does underscore the idea that work potential and effectiveness are not tied to a physical location. Employees know this, too. Many have spent the last year doing jobs they were previously told could only be done in an office. Now that tools like Slack, Zoom, and Wrike have empowered digital workspaces, organizations are adapting their approach to hiring in an environment where workplace flexibility (geographic and otherwise) is a top priority for jobseekers.  Distributed hiring LinkedIn data offers additional insight into how organizations are approaching remote and distributed hiring.  As of May 2021, the career networking site said that the percentage of paid “remote work” job listings on their platform was up by 457% from the previous year. The industries that saw the greatest percentage of remote work growth, according to their data, include media and communications, IT, and corporate services. Presumably, these jobs won’t just disappear once the pandemic is over, signalling a shift in how companies are thinking about talent acquisition over the next few years. In one survey of US-based HR professionals, one-quarter of respondents said they’d be willing to hire fully remote workers anywhere in the country (up from 3% pre-pandemic), with 7% saying they’d even hire globally for open roles (up from 2% pre-pandemic).  Even as global vaccine rollouts see more and more office workers returning to in-person and hybrid attendance, the last year has certainly tested the strict geographical limitations of the pre-pandemic office. Looking beyond local  As with any complex conversation about the ever-evolving workplace, there’s much to consider beyond changing attitudes. COVID-19 may have impacted the way we think about where work gets done, but experts warn about the tax implications of an increasingly remote workforce. Even Zapier’s Wade Foster calls this the “compliance and regulatory elephants in the room,” noting that hiring, payroll, and taxes for teams in multiple jurisdictions can be a huge undertaking.    Still, we are witnessing a real-time evolution in how organizations and employees view work and where it happens. Gradually, many are moving away from the idea that you have to travel each day to a physical location to achieve work goals or connect with colleagues.  By revisiting ideas about strict in-office attendance and creating more remote opportunities, organizations can access a wider talent pool of workers and increase opportunities for diverse and more inclusive hiring.  Building the workplace of the future with collaborative work management The tools we use to meet objectives, collaborate with co-workers, and manage tasks are more important than ever.  Wrike’s collaborative work management features empower an increasingly hybrid and dispersed workforce to manage tasks, collaborate in a flexible environment, and build systems and workflows that reflect how they achieve their goals. Learn more about how Wrike helps teams adapt to the evolution of work by creating digital hubs for innovation and enabling work management from anywhere. Try a free two-week trial and discover why 20,000+ teams trust Wrike.

The Real ROI of Wrike
Project Management 5 min read

The Real ROI of Wrike

How much can Wrike save you in time, money, and productivity? To understand this fully, you’ll need to consider how much inefficiencies, process breakdowns, and poor collaboration can cost your business.  In 2017, one study found that businesses lost an average of $11,000 per employee each year because of ineffective collaboration and communication. Yes, that means siloed email threads, outdated spreadsheets, lack of task accountability, and poor resource management can cost companies like yours thousands each year.  Smart work management is critical as we enter the future of work. Research shows that many of us are looking for ways to maximize our workdays and eliminate the broken processes that make us less productive. In fact, 92% of workers say that having the tools they need to do their work effectively has a positive impact on their job satisfaction.  An effective work management solution like Wrike doesn’t just make teams more efficient. It can speed up time to market, save critical project hours and budgets, streamline processes, and impact your company’s bottom line. The real ROI of work management solutions like Wrike is all about what they help you reclaim in hours, productivity, and even costs. How Wrike removes productivity roadblocks What are your team’s productivity killers? Does an unwieldy request intake process add hours to your workweek? Does the constant switching between apps make completing certain tasks time-consuming and inefficient?  Optimizing request intake  Making Wrike a centralized hub for information and collaboration has helped companies like House of Design save 1,100 hours annually. House of Design gave up “messy, overwhelming, and inconsistent” spreadsheets for work intake and started using Wrike requests.  “Before Wrike, when up against the clock and determining which of his tasks to tackle, we’d speak to each engineer individually to understand which parts requests were critical. Spending hours of time and getting a dozen different opinions wasn’t up to our standards of efficiency,” Ryan Okelberry, COO of House of Design, explained. By leveraging Wrike requests, House of Design makes “strategic decisions” and reclaims 20+ hours each workweek. Here’s how:  Get the complete story on tasks and requests by gathering information through a custom request form. Ask dynamic questions of your requester so your team has exactly the info they need to start (and complete) the request. Requests are then auto-assigned to the appropriate person or team, eliminating confusion over intake details and responsibility. Details such as due dates, subtasks, folder organization, and other custom information and automation can also be set up to streamline work. Streamlining feedback and cutting approval times There’s no getting around it. If you’re not using a work management solution like Wrike to streamline feedback and review cycles, you’re losing time in your approvals process. Whether that’s a messaging doc that needs approval, a design that requires feedback, or a webpage that needs to be proofed before it goes live. Take OSF Healthcare, for example, who used Wrike to get out of “messy” email inboxes and speed up asset approval by 50%. Similarly, Moneytree cut their average approval cycle from seven days to four using Wrike. Create an approval process that works for your team by using Wrike’s proofing features to reduce complexity and drive efficiency.  Centralize and contextualize feedback in one location Mark up documents directly, so feedback is clearer Set approvers and make it simple to sign off quickly  Collaborate with external stakeholders and incorporate their feedback No two teams are exactly alike. Wrike’s versatile proofing and approval features make it easy to create a review process that works for your team size and workflow.  Cost savings, automation, and reclaiming billable hours  As the team at Tipton Communications explains in their customer case study, “before we adopted Wrike, we were losing somewhere between 5% and 10% of billable hours to unnecessary project administration: chasing project statuses, getting people to fill out forms, looking for documents, etc." They’re certainly not alone. Over a third of managers say they spend three to four hours a day on administrative tasks. That includes processes that could be automated or otherwise made more efficient. Automation has been heralded as a critical component of work management, but what does that mean in practical terms?  For telecoms company Arvig, automation of some HR processes unlocked significant time savings to the tune of an estimated 900 hours a year. In addition to that, Arvig also estimates an average cost reduction of 20% per project just by optimizing their resource allocation with Wrike.  From automation to resource management, Wrike customers can optimize the way they work, reduce costs, and take back more of their time.   Curious about how much Wrike could save your team? Check out our savings calculator to see where your productive hours are being lost and how Wrike can help you get them back. The ROI of Wrike: 360° work management that saves more across the board When businesses choose Wrike, they can address the inefficiencies that cost them time, money, and productivity.  In their individual case studies, our customers told us how they reclaimed significant costs and hundreds of hours of productive time through features like our request forms, proofing and approvals features, automation, and resource allocation.  Choosing a versatile work management platform like Wrike empowers teams to deliver value across any area of their business — from operations and creative to HR, sales, and marketing.  Want to learn firsthand how Wrike can save you more by reducing complexity and removing productivity roadblocks? Try our free two-week trial and join the 20,000+ companies who trust Wrike to do the best work of their lives. 

Customers Share How Much Time and Money They Save With Wrike (Infographic)
Productivity 3 min read

Customers Share How Much Time and Money They Save With Wrike (Infographic)

Wondering how much companies save when they choose Wrike? By empowering their teams with the most versatile work management platform, companies like Fitbit, Nickelodeon, Siemens, Aerotek, and Arvig see huge gains in productivity, project speed, and cost savings. An effective work management platform can do more than just help you manage your to-do list. Wrike customers are leveraging the power of automation, resource management, and 400+ integrations to embrace agility and scale across global teams and departments.   Wrike saves companies thousands each year and hundreds of productive hours Wrike helps teams communicate effectively, collaborate from anywhere, and accomplish more in less time — but what does that look like in practical terms? For some of our customers across industries and sizes, that’s: 250% more projects managed (Arvig) $832,000 saved over three years (House of Design) 400 hours of meeting time saved (Fitbit)  Wrike customers can amplify time savings, supercharge team productivity, and unlock speedier project delivery no matter their size or industry. Still need more convincing? Check out our infographic below to learn more about the ROI of Wrike and how companies save more, do more, and grow more with our flexible work management tools and features.  Ready to discover the productivity benefits of choosing Wrike? Try our savings calculator to see how much you could regain in productive hours and money. Learn firsthand why 2 million+ users worldwide trust Wrike to help them do the best work of their lives. Try our free two-week trial and experience flexible, intuitive, all-in-one work management designed with productive teams in mind.

What Is Business Process Outsourcing? A Guide
Project Management 7 min read

What Is Business Process Outsourcing? A Guide

As businesses scale and grow, they often have requirements that cannot be addressed internally — whether because of resource or budgetary constraints. Business process outsourcing (BPO) can be a solution that enables organizations to grow and scale effectively. But exactly what is business process outsourcing? What are the risks associated with the practice, and how can corporate leaders use business process as a service (BPaaS) to their advantage?  BPO meaning: What is business process outsourcing? Business process outsourcing describes a practice where specific tasks, functions, or processes within a company are contracted out to third-party organizations and vendors. These outside organizations have expertise in their specified area, which allows them to manage tasks and processes on behalf of other businesses.  For example, a marketing agency, during their resource planning process, may choose to outsource their payroll and accounting functions in order to focus on the core competencies of their organization.  There are three types of business process outsourcing: offshore, nearshore, and onshore outsourcing.  Offshore outsourcing: The function is managed by an operator or vendor in a different country (often far away and in another time zone) Nearshore outsourcing: The function is managed by an operator or vendor in a neighboring/closeby country Onshore outsourcing: The function is managed by an operator or vendor within the same country — but could be in another state or region  Business functions ideal for outsourcing may include admin, customer service, PR, data entry, HR, content moderation, and more.  Business process outsourcing can improve efficiency and present significant cost savings for companies that may not have the resources to hire a team of in-house customer service specialists or payroll professionals, for example.  In fact, Deloitte research indicates that 59% of companies who outsource say they do so with cost savings as a primary motivator. What is business process as service (BPaaS)? Business process as a service enables BPO by managing specific functions through cloud-based delivery systems. The global BPaaS market is extensive and expected to reach a value of $77.8 billion by 2023. Some well-known names in BPaaS include Accenture and IBM.  BPaaS can help manage:  Finance and accounting  IT services  eCommerce Customer service processes BPaaS leverages the capabilities of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (SaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS) solutions in order to help companies manage and address their business objectives.  Business process as a service also relies on automation in many cases, reducing the need for manual intervention. Who needs business process as a service (BPaaS)? Business process as a service can be beneficial for organizations across sizes and industries. For example, instead of hiring an outside firm to manage their finance and accounting needs, a company might instead execute this function via a cloud-based platform licensed through a monthly subscription model.  This naturally brings costs down and offers a more flexible and scalable way of managing operations.  Any company looking to manage processes without the costs associated with hiring, training, and managing an internal team or department may find that BPaaS is an effective solution.  What are the benefits of outsourcing business processes? There are many benefits associated with outsourcing business processes. These benefits include cost and time savings, efficiency gains, the ability to focus on core business competencies, and more. Be sure to keep these in mind when contemplating outsourcing professional services key success factors, and which professional services agency is right for you.Cost savingsHigh costs associated with labor, training, management, and infrastructure can be a barrier as an organization scales and grows its operations. Outsourcing non-core processes can enable businesses to meet their objectives and operational needs while minimizing these internal costs and time commitments. Access to expertise and improved efficiencyBPO gives businesses access to vendors that have the necessary expertise, equipment, and personnel needed to execute a project or function on their behalf. This expertise means they are better equipped to provide cutting-edge, compliant, and effective services.  Ability to focus on key business competencies As a company grows and scales, there is often a need for growth or expansion in other areas of the business.  For example, a high-growth eCommerce company may need increased customer support capabilities to provide quality assistance to customer queries and issues. In this instance, outsourcing customer support staff to an agency or outside vendor allows the business to focus on its main competencies while also addressing customer challenges that can impact the bottom line.  As is the case with most things, business process outsourcing can have its set of challenges and risks. Are there risks to business process outsourcing? Risks in business process outsourcing can include lower than expected or inconsistent quality of service, lack of visibility and collaboration with the vendor, and security considerations. Inconsistent delivery We’ve all been there. A service looks good on paper, but the results turn out to be inconsistent or of a lower standard than expected. This is always a risk, especially when outside vendors are involved.  Lack of visibility and collaboration When handing over the keys to a business function, visibility and communication allow those within the organization to accurately track progress, success, and any challenges. Lack of visibility is a huge risk and could mean that a lower standard of service is inadvertently being passed on to customers.  Privacy and security concerns Privacy and security are a top concern in business process outsourcing. In most cases, BPO will involve some degree of handling sensitive or confidential internal data. Engaging a vendor with lax digital security policies may make an organization vulnerable to breaches or attacks.  As Deloitte notes, the tax implications of business process outsourcing should also be a consideration and factored into any business case. How to choose the right BPO vendor Choosing the right vendor can help avoid headaches, losses, and disputes. Here are some tips for choosing the right BPO partner for your business.  Due diligenceDue diligence will involve researching the vendor and their reputation to determine if they have success and experience with your industry, project type, or company size. Understand costsWhile cost-saving is a major factor when establishing a BPO partnership, unexpected fees may make outsourcing pricier than initially thought. Evaluate security infrastructureWhen determining the suitability of a vendor, be sure to assess their ability to manage and protect sensitive information.  Communicate clear objectives and KPIsClearly communicate objectives, expected outcomes, and KPIs and ensure they have the capacity to deliver.  Ensure stabilityOutsourcing a business function can be risky if the third party is in a financially, legally, or otherwise unstable position. Overreliance on unstable vendors can be a unique challenge to overcome.  How to organize your BPO with Wrike Streamline and simplify your business process outsourcing with Wrike. With Wrike, you can:  Create and manage a risk register for your vendor and the outsourced function Invite vendors as external collaborators to share reports and status updates Share and store vendor meeting minutes using our actional meeting notes template Integrate data from 400+ applications like Salesforce, Marketo, and more  Take advantage of the cost savings, time savings, and expertise that BPO and BPaaS can afford your business. Be sure to track and manage progress, communication, and risk using Wrike.  Sign up for a free two-week trial and discover why 2 million+ people trust Wrike to manage and execute their tasks and projects.  

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