Using Google for Work + Wrike: Q&A with Vertaccount
We spoke to one of our enthusiastic customers, Vertaccount, about how Wrike + Google Apps work together as the powerhouse behind their workflow. Vertaccount is a Pan-Pacific bookkeeping service provider catering to small and medium-sized businesses. Their offices are located in Hawaii, Manila, and Sydney, Australia. Their mission: to empower clients to make informed decisions and become a real contributor to their success. Below is our interview with Ace Garcera, Marketing Manager at Vertaccount: 1. Tell us about your team and the role it plays in the company. I handle the Marketing Team of Vertaccount. We're a team of four, dealing with marketing, customer service, and special projects for the company. On a day-to-day basis we track customer sentiments via transactional surveys, quarterly surveys, and any potential complaints addressed via email to the company's associates. Every quarter, we also engage in various marketing projects, some online or on-ground events, and our day-to-day involves handling the various aspects of running those projects. The team also handles clients' business requirements which are not necessarily related to bookkeeping, such as reservations, ticketing, and more. 2. What were the problems you faced that led you to connect Wrike and Google Apps? We use email extensively in our work since we collaborate with people all over the globe. Before integrating Wrike with Google Apps, it was a headache moving from our emails to the Wrike platform just to manage tasks. We would normally receive requests or instructions via email that we had to put into Wrike as tasks so we could better track progress. This took up a lot of our time and hampered our productivity. 3. How have Wrike + Google Apps helped your team reach its goals? By integrating the two, our productivity and efficiency improved. First, logging in became seamless. We no longer had to remember separate login credentials since using our Google account made logging in a breeze. We normally receive surveys in our inbox that we need to send to Wrike as a task so we can assign it to the right people and perform the tasks related to the survey (i.e. thank the client, work on the client's suggestions, etc.). Using the Wrike Gmail gadget makes everything really easy. From our inbox we can change the details of the task and assign it to the concerned individuals. The Wrike Gmail gadget is really the best feature we've come across. When we receive Wrike notifications, we can add a comment right from our inbox. It makes collaboration much easier. 4. What improvements have you seen since implementing Wrike + Google Apps? Productivity has increased. Here's a concrete example: Every quarter we send out surveys to our clients via Survey Monkey. The app is configured to send us an email every time we receive a response. When we get this email in our Gmail inbox, we immediately use the Wrike Gmail gadget to create a task in Wrike. The assignees and other task details are easily populated. From here, the entire process moves seamlessly. In the past, it would take us more than 5 minutes per client survey just to be able to move everything from the email to the Wrike task. With the Wrike Gmail gadget, it takes a few seconds. How do you use Google Apps + Wrike? Tell us your story in the comments!
Wrike and GitHub: Collaborative Coding Gets Much Easier with Wrike’s API
Update 12/16/2014: We are happy to announce the release of our API v.3 with better functionality and feature support for developers. Unfortunately, this update means the integration with GitHub is no longer supported. You can still use Zapier to connect Wrike with GitHub. If you have any questions, please contact our Support team. Many software teams use services such as Github for collaborative coding. These services are a great help when it comes to sharing code repositories, collaborating on them together, and syncing developers’ efforts. However, project managers of teams using Github often don’t have special tools for keeping projects on track and reporting the progress. LiveNinja solved this problem with a single ninja throwing star: they combined Github’s social coding environment with Wrike’s strong project management features. With the help of Wrike’s API, they now automatically transfer every task they create in Github to Wrike, allowing them to organize their work in a more productive way. Let’s take a look at their smart solution! Two Tools, One Up-to-Date Picture LiveNinja builds and maintains a platform that allows users to find experts in any field - everything from cooking to law to graphic design. Despite daily stand-up meetings, maintaining transparency with a growing team soon became a real pain. Team members couldn’t quickly review up-to-date plans and couldn’t always keep track of current priorities in ever-growing Github task lists. Besides, there was no smooth way to sort overdue tasks or tasks completed during a certain time period. “At some point we realized that instead of a clear project picture, we just had a daunting list of never-ending issues,” says Emilio Cueto, Chief Technology Officer at LiveNinja. To get their work more organized, the team started using Wrike as it had all the features they needed. And in order to avoid the redundancy of logging tasks in both tools, they used the Wrike API to unite both tools. Now whenever someone creates a new task, adds a comment or completes the task at Github, the changes are automatically reflected in Wrike. How LiveNinja Benefits from the Integration Here’s how LiveNinja’s project management changed for the better after integrating Wrike and Github: 1. Easy prioritization of bugs and urgent issues Prior to integration, every new bug that was added to the already sizable list of bugs (each one needing to be fixed right away!) got labeled “Urgent,” “Priority,” or “Critical.” The list of all these urgent bugs had grown too big to handle in a standard list format within Github. After integration, LiveNinja now tags all issues according to their importance in Wrike (e.g. with standard labels P0, P1, and P2), and then prioritizes each list. This way, they have a clear understanding of which bug to tackle next. 2. Instant access to an up-to-date roadmap Wrike’s interactive timeline is irreplaceable for planning new features and important milestones. While the team’s manager creates dependencies between related tasks and quickly adjusts current plans, Wrike ensures the team is automatically notified about all changes. 3. Comprehensive insight into the team’s progress Custom reports are a great time saver for Emilio Cueto. They enable him to sort any data he needs for evaluating the team’s progress in mere seconds using filters such as: completion date, particular team member, or tag (e.g. browser version, particular feature, etc.). Suddenly, LiveNinja could look at their task list and Gantt charts and quickly find answers to questions such as: “Will this next release be on-time?” or “When is it feasible to start planning that new feature we have been talking about?” In a nutshell, the integration allowed developers and project managers to enjoy the best of both worlds: the code collaboration platform of Github and the project management tools of Wrike. Get the Code If the integration code sounds interesting to you, you can get the files here. LiveNinja is open to any improvements to the code suggested by other Wrike users. And if you decide to use it, don’t forget to send a thank-you tweet or a Facebook message mentioning #LiveNinjaDotCom. Thanks, LiveNinja, for sharing your code with the Wrike community and helping to make life better for other Github and Wrike users!
Released: 2016 Mobile Productivity Report
In the midst of the mobile generation, we're excited to announce the release of our 2016 Mobile Productivity Report. We surveyed over 850 professionals from a variety of departments, including marketing, IT, finance, and human resources, about their mobile usage and how it affects their daily productivity and work-life balance. Some topics include best features, BYOD, and the future of mobile. Here are some highlights from the report: 43% of respondents see the use of a mobile device as very critical for work 44% of respondents state that they check or use their mobile device for work more than 20 times per day 30% of respondents say that having a mobile device hurts their work-life balance, while 37% say their mobile device improves it Here's an inside look into the main issues respondents face when using their mobile devices for work: Read the complete results in our full report. Click below to download your free copy: Start your free trial of Wrike today to improve productivity in the office and on-the-go. Already a Wrike user? Download Wrike's free mobile apps for iOS and Android to stay up-to-date on tasks and connect with colleges from anywhere.
Outlook 2010 64Bit Sync: Connect Your Tasks into One Big Picture
December 22, 2011 update:We have released a new Outlook Add-in! Information in this post may not be correct. Please read our post about the new, improved Wrike Outlook Add-in to get the most up-to-date details.Contact Support if you have any questions. Wrike’s frictionless integration with other ubiquitous tools you use in your work is one of the core things that make it so friendly and easy to use. According to the feedback that we receive from you, Outlook sync is a popular feature that many of you enjoy using. This week, we’ve enhanced it with a very important project management update – we’ve released a new version of the add-in for those of you who use the 64bit version of Outlook 2010. To download this add-in, simply click on the “Sync” link in your Wrike workspace and download the Outlook add-in from that page. After you’ve gone through the download and installation process, you’ll need to fill in your login information and adjust the sync settings between Outlook and Wrike: frequency, direction, etc. If you have any doubts, these help pages will guide you through the process step by step. Getting your tasks automatically synced between Outlook and Wrike will connect your work into one big picture. Thus, you’ll have a clear overview of your most important tasks in both apps at any time, which will make you more efficient in getting things done. Do you have any questions or suggestions about Wrike’s Outlook sync? Don’t hesitate to drop us a note in the comments or contact Support.
Wrike & Outlook 2010: Get All Tasks Completed!
December 22, 2011 update:We have released a new Outlook Add-in! Information in this post may not be correct. Please read our post about the new, improved Wrike Outlook Add-in to get the most up-to-date details.Contact our Support team if you have any questions. .