For Brand-Defining Marketing, an Olympian Emerges at Speedo
Denise Teti, Director of Marketing + Sales Promotion for Speedo USA, is our Manager-X Award winner for Predictability in Planning. We spoke with Denise about how she manages to cut through the chaos and lead her team to excellence.
Saving Time with Wrike's API: Distribion's Experience of Integrating Wrike with Accounting App
Many restaurants let you choose the mix of ingredients you want to get in your sandwich, so that the snack perfectly suits your taste. The same is true for project management software. The more freedom you have to combine it with other business apps you use, the better it suits your workflow. One of our clients, Distribion, Inc., sets a successful example of how to integrate Wrike with other tools your team is already using, such as accounting and ticket management systems, with the help of API. Many restaurants let you choose the mix of ingredients you want to get in your sandwich, so that the snack perfectly suits your taste. The same is true for project management software. The more freedom you have to combine it with other business apps you use, the better it suits your workflow. One of our clients, Distribion, Inc., sets a successful example of how to integrate Wrike with other tools your team is already using, such as accounting and ticket management systems, with the help of API. Pulling time logs from Wrike into the accounting app Distribion captures project revenue on a time allocation basis. That’s why it’s highly important to know the exact number of hours spent on a certain task or project. Previously, employees had to enter time in both Wrike and their accounting system separately. That was very inconvenient and time-consuming. The integration with Wrike’s time-tracker was a simple solution that freed them from the load of such double work. Thanks to hourly API calls, all time logs a user makes in Wrike automatically get into the accounting system. And that is it! The data is ready for further processing. Syncing project names between the apps Distribion’s accounting app automatically generates a number for every invoice that may consist of payments for several tasks. So for correct billing, it is crucial to see what tasks are related to each invoice’s number. That’s easy with Wrike! The team just puts an invoice number into a folder’s name so all tasks in this folder get this appropriate tag. You can also find useful information in the Wrike invoicing guide. “Our folder structure defines what phase of development a task is in, what the task type is (defect, feature, etc.) and what particular job it’s included in,” says Michael Noblitt, VP of Operations at Distribion, Inc. This lets everyone on the team find the tasks that they need in mere seconds. Converting tickets into tasks automatically Distribion felt that the integration with the accounting app brought great improvements, so the team decided to bridge their ticket management app with Wrike, as well. Now when a client puts a ticket in, an e-mail is instantly sent to Wrike. Once Wrike receives it, it automatically converts the message into a new task. Thus, the team knows that no action item will be lost in the depth of their ticket management app, and it can put it on their schedule immediately. Evaluating Distribion’s overall experience with the integration, Michael Noblitt concludes: “Wrike’s API’s are well-designed and thoroughly documented. Our integration with Wrike has led to significant project cost reductions and enhanced transparency, giving us an ROI in less than 3 months.” How do you use Wrike’s API potential? What particular tools did you plug into Wrike?
How Wrike Helps Backcountry Connect People to Their Passions
We stepped outside with Ivan Ward, Producer & Media Manager, and Georgia Steenberge, Design Director, at Backcountry to see how they were able to overcome the obstacles and continue to connect people with their passions.
Wrike Customer Q&A: Advice Interactive Group
We spoke with Advice Interactive Group about their experience using Wrike. This Inc. 500 digital marketing technology company shared how they came across Wrike and how the tool has helped them meet their goals. They specialize in local SEO, website design and development, content development, paid media and advertising, and social media. They can do everything from building and launching custom websites to writing blog content, and they've helped over 1 million companies nationwide improve their online visibility. Their company is composed of 50 employees and multiple teams of contractors, all using Wrike! 1. Tell us about your team and the role it plays in your company. Every department in our company uses Wrike, and each department head uses its organizational structure a little differently. We have folders set up for each client and then folders set up per project under those folders. That's where we keep all the day-to-day tasks, and we can quickly and easily attribute different work to different projects, set timelines, set recurring tasks, etc. 2. What were the goals (or problems you faced) that led you to Wrike? We had problems with scaling projects, time management, task management, and team/contractor communication and collaboration. We tried Basecamp, Trello, Google Drive, and Dropbox. Wrike combines the best of all those software solutions and puts it all on one place. 3. How has Wrike helped your team reach its goals? We have a lot of moving parts and a lot of different teams working on projects. Wrike has been the best solution for us to easily manage project timelines, monitor task completion, and effectively communicate with different members of our team. 4. What improvements have you seen since implementing Wrike? We've been able to scale projects very quickly and easily. I could launch 300+ projects a day by taking advantage of Wrike's ability to create task dependencies and duplicate tasks and subtasks. It's easy to manage both internal and external teams for task completion. The Wrike interface is user friendly and it's simple to create different dashboards to monitor team members' work. I have over 40 teams I can oversee with ease. How are you using Wrike to power your productivity? Share your story in the comments.
Appulate Uses Wrike To Get Full Insight Into Business
Appulate is the leading national provider of innovative insurance technologies. They were looking for a project management solution that would enable them to track all the tasks, including marketing, sales, change requests and bugs in one single place. Read the full story “Full insight into business boosts productivity and triples the number of customers."
How Wrike + Salesforce Helps Departments Work Together: Q&A With Axiometrics
Ever wonder how different departments within a company can work together smoothly, like a well-oiled machine? A management tool like Wrike can team up with a customer-focused platform like Salesforce to help departments work better together. This coupling means every detail about projects is stored in one easy-to-access place, avoiding confusion. It helps teams plan their work efficiently, ensuring everyone knows what they're doing and when. Most importantly, it improves how the company serves its customers and smoothes out team collaboration, strengthening working relationships. Axiometrics is the leader in apartment and student housing market research, providing market intelligence and trends analysis to developers, investors, owners, managers, and others. Founded in 1995, the company has experienced explosive growth in revenue, job creation, and innovation over the past five years. We spoke to the Analytics team about how they use Wrike to align teams that use Salesforce to manage accounts. See how they are able to archive all their data in one place and prevent requests from falling through the cracks: 1. Tell us about your team. The Axiometrics Analytics team is comprised of seven real estate economists and analysts, who crunch apartment and student housing market data, economic indicators, and demographics to uncover trends in the marketplace and forecast future trends. Analytics works closely with Axiometrics’ Sales and Account Management teams to provide custom analysis and studies for clients, and with the Marketing team to produce blogs, newsletters, and videos, including our weekly bylined blog on Forbes. 2. What were the goals that led you to connect Wrike with Salesforce? Sales and Account Management used Salesforce for project management, while Analytics and Marketing used another project management solution that did not integrate well with Salesforce. Therefore, we had no efficient, digital way to track the status of requests. We wanted to find a web-based tool that would integrate with Salesforce so all parties involved could view the status and progress on Sales and Account Management-related projects, such as Feasibility Studies, quarterly company-specific trends analysis, and simple client requests for data drill-down. We also wanted to find a solution that would allow for messaging within the software, for more efficient tracking of what has been requested and any questions/answers concerning a particular project. 3. How has Wrike + Salesforce helped your team reach its goals? Now, all requests are in one place for easier reference. Since Sales and Account Management can see Wrike updates in Salesforce, Analytics is able to plan its schedule better, and communication is more efficient. Sales is able to create tasks, which are immediately visible to Analytics, and Analytics is able to assign and schedule the tasks so that deadlines are met. And though it is not a part of the Salesforce integration, Wrike has been vital in reaching a goal set by our Marketing Content Manager to streamline the production schedule of our newsletters. 4. What improvements have you seen since implementing Wrike + Salesforce? There is much better follow-through on all projects. There is less frustration, in that everything is on the calendar. There were times in the past when an email or in-person request fell through the cracks because people didn’t put it on their to-do lists; that doesn’t happen anymore. The Wrike-Salesforce integration has also helped the Sales and Account Management teams with the client renewal process and with customer service. The representatives are able to update clients on the status of their requests within a couple of clicks and assure them that their needs will be filled in a timely and efficient manner. That enhances client satisfaction. 5. How has Wrike + Salesforce affected how you work with other teams/departments? The integration has made Analytics’ collaborations with Sales and Account Management seamless and smooth. Instead of relying on emails or instant messages that could get lost in the shuffle, or brief in-person visits in which information could get misunderstood, everything is in one place, improving team collaboration with Wrike and Salesforce. This has allowed us to better assist these other departments and made the working relationship even better than it was before. Wrike's app integrations enhance productivity and collaboration Wrike offers a multitude of app integrations that enhance productivity, streamline workflows, and foster collaboration among teams. These integrations allow users to connect Wrike with their favorite tools, creating a seamless and efficient work environment. Communication integrations Wrike integrates with popular communication tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Gmail. These integrations allow users to transform conversations into actionable tasks directly within their communication platform. For example, with the Slack integration, you can create, assign, and complete tasks in Wrike without leaving your Slack workspace. This ensures that important tasks don't get lost in the shuffle of everyday communication. File management integrations Wrike seamlessly integrates with file management systems like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box. These integrations make it easy to attach files to tasks, share documents with team members, and keep all project-related files organized and accessible. With these integrations, users can collaborate on documents in real-time, ensuring everyone is working from the most current version. CRM and sales integrations For sales and customer relationship management, Wrike offers integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo. These integrations allow teams to sync their sales and project management data, ensuring everyone has the most up-to-date information. With the Salesforce integration, for instance, teams can track project progress alongside sales data, aligning efforts and improving efficiency. Development and IT integrations Wrike also integrates with development tools like Jira, GitHub, and Bitbucket. These integrations help development teams synchronize their coding tasks with the larger project plan. For example, the Jira integration allows teams to link their Jira issues to Wrike tasks, ensuring that both technical and non-technical team members stay on the same page. Time tracking and finance integrations For time tracking and financial management, Wrike integrates with tools like Toggl, Harvest, and QuickBooks. These integrations help teams track time spent on tasks, manage budgets, and invoice clients efficiently.Wrike's app integrations create a more connected, collaborative, and efficient workspace. By integrating with a wide range of tools, Wrike ensures that teams can customize their work environment to fit their unique needs and workflows. How do you use Wrike’s app integrations to align your teams? Share your strategies in the comments. Join teams like Axiometrics and align your teams using Wrike and Salesforce today.
Redfoo's 5 Wrike Tips for Business Success
Meet Redfoo: former member of LMFAO who has since become an independent recording artist and CEO of LaFreak clothing line and Party Rock Records. As a busy musician, he found it difficult to communicate with his team while traveling around the world, and his team had just as much trouble knowing exactly who was responsible for specific tasks. But since implementing Wrike, Redfoo has seen a total transformation in the way his team works. They're more productive, communicate better, and (most importantly) they have more time to have fun. Here are five of Redfoo's secrets for Wrike success: Tip #1 - Use Wrike during team meetings Redfoo keeps his team organized by having everyone open their Wrike accounts during meetings. Each task and every idea goes straight into Wrike as they move through agenda items, so it's clear who's responsible and what the next steps are. Some ideas: Brainstorm with your team in Wrike Add and assign tasks in Wrike while discussing upcoming events, projects, etc. Share links and upload the latest document versions so everyone has access to what they need Discuss overdue items with the team to uncover roadblocks and improve processes Tip #2 - Create Wrike tasks via email Wrike's email integration makes it easy to create and edit tasks on the go. Redfoo uses this tool extensively to turn emails into action items and assign them directly to his team members. Some ideas: See your Wrike @mention notifications in your inbox Reply to comments directly from emails Capture and categorize important emails by adding them to the proper folder in Wrike Tip #3 - Keep an ideas folder As an artist, Redfoo is constantly coming up with ideas for songs, events, and fashion designs. Wrike provides a secure, central location where he can archive every idea even before he decides what he wants to do with it. He knows exactly where to find his ideas and can rest easy knowing that nothing is lost or forgotten. Some ideas: Keep an "Ideas" folder to archive your thoughts Within the folder, create subfolders for better organization Add any attachments or links associated with the idea so everything stays together Tip #4 - Use the mobile app to track tasks on the go Wrike's mobile apps for iOS and Android let Redfoo stay in contact with his team even when he's halfway across the world. He can check project statuses, see the latest updates in his Activity Stream, and discuss progress or leave feedback for his team, minimizing project delays. Some ideas: Respond to comments and view the Activity Stream directly from the mobile app Use your mobile device's camera to attach photos to Wrike tasks Record voice notes on your mobile device and upload them into Wrike Tip #5 - Keep all project-related items in one location Redfoo's goal is to keep all work and ideas in Wrike. "If it's not in Wrike, it doesn't exist!" he says. Keeping everything in one place removes the stress of scouring countless emails and spreadsheets just to find a particular document, comment, or idea. Having all his project data consolidated also makes it easier to look back and see which processes worked and how to streamline. Some ideas: "Wrike it down!" Instead of capturing an idea on a post-it or in an email, just put it in Wrike Duplicate folders and tasks or mark them recurrent to create project templates Evaluate your process by reviewing completed projects and recording lessons learned Watch the video interview with Redfoo, where he tells you how he uses Wrike to get work done: How do you keep your team organized? What are your tips for keeping your team organized? Tell us in the comments! Read next: Wrike it Down with Redfoo: How to Manage Projects Like a Rockstar! Redfoo's Success Story 12 Ways to Use Wrike You've Never Considered Image Credit: Top photo by Tom Treanor
How Two Customers Cultivate Cross-Departmental Collaboration
You want to develop a more collaborative atmosphere in your organization, get the smart, highly capable people you've hired to interact with one another, despite being on different teams. But how do you motivate your people to peer over their silos and interact with others, despite personality clashes, conflicting priorities, and miscommunication? We look at two Wrike customers who, when faced with the challenge of cultivating cross-departmental collaboration, absolutely crushed it.
Wrike It Down with Redfoo: How to Manage Projects Like a Rockstar!
The Wrike team is excited to announce a new case study with one of our most enthusiastic customers yet: Redfoo! You might recognize him from this season's Dancing with the Stars or from his LMFAO single "Party Rock Anthem," which hit #1 on charts worldwide and is currently ranked as Billboard's 5th most successful song of all time. In addition to showing off his moves on Dancing with the Stars, Redfoo is the CEO of LaFreak Clothing and Party Rock Records (check out his newest single, "Juicy Wiggle"). He's a modern day Renaissance man! Why Does Redfoo Use Wrike? Managing so many different companies means tracking a lot of tasks and projects at once. Between planning events, overseeing clothing designs, and managing video shoots, Redfoo is crunched for time. His team needed a place to keep everything organized and available, and with Redfoo on the road much of the time, he needed a solution that would make it easy to manage his businesses on the go. Read the Redfoo Case Study To learn more about how Redfoo manages his businesses via Wrike, go check out his Wrike customer story. It includes a video of our one-on-one interview with him where you'll discover: How Redfoo gets things done while keeping work fun His favorite ways to manage his multiple businesses with Wrike How he captures ideas and collaborates with his team while on the road New Wrike Themes Inspired by Redfoo and his colorful personality, we're bringing two fun new themes to the Wrike workspace. Get the party started with one of these fun themes: Legendary Leopard or Retro Safari. Go to Wrike Labs to install them now! Come Back for More! In a few days, we'll release a special blog post with more secret tips and tricks Redfoo and his team use to get things done. Come back to the blog to learn how to manage your creative teams like a global rockstar. If you want to check out how your team can have fun with Wrike first-hand, start a free trial today. Read Next: — Redfoo's Success Story — Redfoo's 5 Wrike Tips for Business Success Image credit: Photo taken by Tom Treanor.
Let's Party! Personalize Your Business Playground with Wrike's New Party Themes
We're excited to announce the release of our new design feature: party themes! Inspired by our recent interview with avid Wriker and rockstar Redfoo (read Redfoo's Wrike story here), these complimentary themes will transform your background into a vibrant new workspace and hopefully serve as a reminder to get work done while keeping it fun! These optional new themes are available in Wrike Labs, where you'll be able to choose between Legendary Leopard and Retro Safari. Just visit the Wrike Labs and select one of the new themes to transform your workspace today! Check out the full Redfoo interview for tips on using Wrike to have fun and get more done.
Wrike's API Helps a Marketing Team Create Custom Reports Automatically
Northcutt’s team of inbound marketing experts takes care of several simultaneous projects for each of its multiple clients. No wonder they need to collect and analyze large amounts of data on a daily basis. But fortunately, Wrike's API made marketing efficiency much easier for them! Before adopting Wrike, Northcutt used Base?amp without much success. According to Corey Northcutt, the team’s project manager, it seemed to slow the team down even more, instead of making it easier to work on several ongoing projects at the same time. What the team was looking for was an easy way to track the status of each campaign and to report on the progress to the clients easily. Now, with Wrike’s help, they have a complete overview of tasks in the pipeline for each client. But the main key to success turned out to be Wrike’s API, which saved them more than five hours of work per week on creating reports. Since the team needed to get detailed information on the progress in each area of work, Wrike’s API helped them to retrieve this data from each folder automatically. Here are more details of how they achieved such great results. Pulling custom data with Wrike’s API. First, Corey Northcutt created folders to indicate each area of inbound marketing: Building external links, creating social media content, website optimization, etc. The integration they built with Wrike’s API automatically pulls the data from each folder into the special Google Drive spreadsheets. By looking at the spreadsheets, the project manager instantly sees the number of tasks assigned to each team member in each area of work, as well as the percentage of completed goals and the number of days left until the end of the current project. There are separate tables for active, backlogged, completed and deferred tasks. Whenever the task is updated in Wrike, the new data automatically gets updated in the corresponding table cell. Since the updates are collected in real time, team members are always sure that the table data is up-to-date. This way, Northcutt's team creates detailed and accurate monthly reports for clients much faster than ever. Additionally, Corey Northcutt set up custom widgets with tasks of each stage on his dashboard. As a result, with every login, Corey Northcutt instantly sees all current marketing initiatives at each stage and the people who are responsible for them. If some of the assignments become overdue, they are highlighted in red at the top of the list, so it's easy to quickly track them and adjust the deadlines appropriately. What about your team? Have you considered using Wrike’s API to integrate it with your favorite tools and optimize your work? Then let us know in comments! “Wrike succeeded at simplifying some of our really complex problems. It allowed me to manage tasks via simple task lists and a Gantt chart while letting all the complex organization happen in our reports. We also now use the Wrike API to help generate our monthly digest summaries for reporting, which is a better alternative than paying for a solution that wasted someone's time by forcing them to manually re-compile data by hand each month.” —Corey Northcutt, CEO at Northcutt
Wrike and Crescent Sock Company
Learn how Wrike helped Crescent Sock Company double their efficiency by replacing as many as five other apps that they previously used for project management. CustomerCrescent Sock Company is the oldest operating hosiery mill in the United States with over a century of expertise in knitting socks. It’s a family-owned business, and some of its employees are following in the footsteps of their parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. Today, the company produces socks under its own FITSTM brand which is designed to be the world’s best-fitting sock, using materials, processes, and quality controls that far exceed industry standards.VendorWrike is a full-featured app for work management and project collaboration which features an interface that is extremely intuitive and fast. Thousands of teams choose Wrike for its seamless integration with Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, as well as its real-time updates and interactive Gantt charts. With Wrike, you can keep all data organized in one place and selectively share it with co-workers, contractors and partners. Challenge Prior to discovering Wrike, Crescent faced a situation that is all too familiar with many small and midsize companies. Their project management “system” consisted of disconnected spreadsheets, countless paper notes, impromptu meetings and several clusters of employees working as patchwork groups to solve problems. The team spread news and updates via e-mail or word of mouth, shared documentation via DropBox or OneNote, and occasionally communicated through Google Chat or conference calls. This method of organizing projects and work often resulted in confusion, so the team desperately needed a tool that could help them collaborate more efficiently while being easy-to-use for all team members. “We considered other project management tools, but the learning curve and complex functionality of those programs turned out to be rather frustrating!” complains George Ervin, Business & Tech Consultant at Crescent.Solution“Wrike was clearly a simple, yet welcomed, answer to our broken attempt at project collaboration,” says Ervin. By adopting Wrike, the team now has an efficient project management system that helps them synchronize all of the team’s efforts so that they achieve their project goals. The team previously had to switch between numerous tabs and windows to find the required files and tasks; now they just open Wrike to find all the tasks, documents, discussions, and schedules in one place. The team does still continue working with some of their other favorite tools, as Wrike is integrated with Gmail and Google Docs. Apart from the obvious convenience and significant time savings, being integrated with Gmail and Google Docs has practically eliminated the previous hassle of e-mailing dozens of attachments to other team members just to stay updated on document changes. Now they just attach the Google Doc to the task, and Wrike automatically creates sharing rights for everyone who follows that task, allowing the whole team to stay on the same page. All of the task updates and file changes instantly appear in Wrike’s real-time newsfeed, so everyone on the team can contribute to task discussions and make their opinion count. “We’ve had many opportunities to collectively create project plans in a few short hours with Wrike when it previously took several e-mails and days waiting for responses to accomplish similar tasks,” says Ervin. Along with real-time updates, Wrike provides the team with an excellent means to respond and update project tasks from their favorite gadgets, making remote collaboration even more efficient. “A few of our employees utilize smart phones, and the added convenience of simply answering an e-mail to apprise other team members of new developments is priceless,” says Ervin.Results Being a pioneer in adopting Wrike, Ervin is definitely the best person to tell you about the results his team has achieved, so let’s see what he says about his experience with Wrike:“We’ve halved our time spent on project administration. We now conduct work in one (cool!) application as opposed to previously switching between 5 different programs to accomplish the same result.” And what is the main time-saving effect of adopting Wrike, according to Ervin? “Overall time savings connected with getting rid of multiple e-mail attachments is considered the biggest productivity improvement for our group. Thanks to Wrike and Google Docs, we’ve seen a 60% reduction in e-mail traffic involving attachments! Even beyond the numbers, it allowed us to change the way we collaborate and create a solid project management system almost effortlessly,” concludes Ervin.Download pdf
Customer's Adoption Tip: Customize Your Own Wrike Manual
When adopting a new tool like Wrike, it helps to create a digestible document that can help your team understand the process and the benefits of using the tool. This is exactly what Lightspeed POS did. Find out how their customized "manual" helped.
SayitRight Marketing Solutions Use Wrike To Manage Busy Marketing Office
Do you manage various projects for numerous clients? Do your projects imply a lot of time communicating with clients? Are you tired of e-mail mess in your inbox? SayitRight Marketing Solutions solved those problems with the help of Wrike. “No matter how many projects are active or on hold at the moment, Wrike lets me keep my fingers on the pulse of the business and see where we stand. Since the progress and requirements are tracked, there is no ground for miscommunication. Kudos, Wrike!” says Joseph Andrade, the owner of SayitRight. Read the full story “Seamless collaboration saves time and enhances working process.”
