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.
Brianna is a former Content Marketing Manager of Wrike. When she’s not writing about collaboration and team building games, you’ll find her in the kitchen testing out the latest recipes, sharing her favorite wine with friends, or playing with her two cats.
From Toyota, to AirBus, to Wrike: The Lean Journey of Errette Dunn (Podcast)
"I wouldn't say I'm achieving amazing things. I would say our customers are achieving amazing things with a little help from us." — Errette Dunn
Our very own Implementation and Project Management Coach, Errette Dunn, was featured on the PM for the Masses podcast hosted by PM Influencer, Cesar Abeid.
In this episode, Errette discusses his work — how he started out as an engineer at Toyota and transitioned to Airbus just as they transformed to using Lean Management methods. He also talks about his coaching at Wrike and how different customer personas can influence what solution is best for them.
In this Podcast, you'll learn about:
Lean Project Management and how Toyota piloted a method called Lean Manufacturing that would eventually transform the automotive industry
Airbus's transition to Lean and how it influenced change management and culture
The similarities and differences between Agile and Lean Project Management
"Accidental Project Managers" and the pains driving them to adopt new tools
How Wrike molds their product based on what problems their customers are trying to solve
Listen to the full podcast episode here: From Toyota, to AirBus, to Wrike: The Lean Journey of Errette Dunn
Want to learn more about how Wrike can help your team?
Take a tour of the product or start your free trial today!
News
3 min read
Using Google for Work + Wrike: Q&A with Roadside Multimedia
Founded in 1999, Roadside Multimedia started as a small firm offering simple solutions to the complex world of marketing. Through twists, turns, and the occasional hair-pulling, they've come out on top of their game. When they began to struggle with managing projects and flexibility, they turned to Google for Work + Wrike for a streamlined workflow. We spoke to founder Chris Mackey about how the use of both tools has helped them create a system where all projects are managed seamlessly.
1. Tell us about your team and the role it plays in your company.
We are a website design and marketing team of around 30 people that primarily focuses on dentists and dental marketing. We’ve been using Wrike for close to 3 years to manage both projects and ongoing monthly marketing budgets. We found that using Wrike, Google Apps, and Batchbook CRM we were able to eliminate using Salesforce — which was both expensive and yet still very frustrating and time consuming to customize to our needs.
2. What were the goals that led you to connect Wrike and Google for Work?
We wanted flexibility and the ability to manage many clients and projects at once. We found that most project management software was made for fewer clients and projects. Working with the folders in Wrike and being able to measure work done during different time periods was easy. By using Google spreadsheets and documents, we were able to create a system that could manage our workflow well and improve our communication regarding clients within our team to keep things on track for each project.
3. How have Wrike + Google Apps helped your team reach its goals?
Our goals are pretty straightforward: complete a set amount of work each month per client and complete specific projects as sold within a specific budget. All of our work is collaborative. So being able to immediately see the status of a project, communications with the clients, and the time spent on each task has made tracking our progress and success possible. We can work in different parts of the country and different parts of the world and all be on the same page. Priceless!
4. What improvements have you seen since implementing Wrike + Google Apps?
Wrike and Google Apps have made project management simple and organized for us. We are able to replicate dynamic systems quickly by using templates, folder organization, and Google spreadsheet calculations. This has eliminated the need for a software programmer, which has saved us thousands of dollars. It has also empowered our project managers with the tools they need to be organized and successful (and happier!). We have eliminated the time that was being wasted searching for information and funneled that directly into productivity for our clients.
How are you using Google for Work + Wrike to power your productivity? Share your story in the comments.
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.
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