List Of The 10 Best Agency Management System Tools For 2020
This article will help you quickly compare and evaluate the best agency management system for your use case. I’ll highlight a few of the best agency software options. I’ve evaluated 10 agency management systems and examined the pros and cons in a simple, streamlined review so that you can choose the best software for your team.
We’ll begin with a focus on general tools for agencies, but I also include a few tools that cover a range of specialties. Most agencies may even find themselves settling on two or more items from this list in order to get the complete picture.
If you are looking for a drill down on specifics, be sure to check out the lists I have written specifically on:
- advertising agency software
- creative project management software
- marketing project management software
And you can also check out these tools often used in agency settings:
- Tools for tracking time
- Tools for keeping track of your client database
- CRMs for small businesses
- Tools to communicate with your team
- Tools for tracking progress and generating reports
- Software for planning and managing your workflow
The Best Agency Management System List
Here’s a shortlist of the best agency management tools:
- Productive
- Synergist
- Function Point
- FunctionFox
- Teamwork
- Wrike
- Workfront
- Workamajig
- Clickup
- Flow X
Agency System FAQ
What is an agency management system?
More comprehensive than the types of tools above, agency management software is any workflow solution that covers the general needs of an agency, like intake forms for new clients and projects, intra-team collaboration and communication tools, and value-reporting for your clients. Agency professionals across many different industries — ad agencies, marketing agencies, PR agencies, et cetera — need a way to organize client work production, from planning to review stages. An agency management system is designed to cover a variety of things, like:
- Organize onboarding and intake of clients
- Internal and external communication around tasks and projects
- Collaborative mark-ups of in-progress items
- Real-time analysis and reporting of deliverables
- Flexible and comprehensive task lists
- Proposal templates
- Customer relations management
- Time-tracking and billing software
What are the benefits of using agency management software?
Agencies across the board may be drawn to management systems because they increase a sense of control and organization while also saving time. For example, it can be very time consuming to go back and forth with a new client on a new project getting all the necessary information before the work can truly begin.
In fact, 67% of agency respondents noted this initial information-gathering phase to be difficult or very difficult. Mandatory forms, automated onboarding, and quick proposal building are a few ways agency management systems can simplify and quicken this process.
Criteria: What Should These Systems Include?
What are we looking for when we perform agency platform reviews? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
User Interface (UI): Is the interface intuitive to navigate and does it have aesthetic appeal?
Usability: How steep is the software learning curve and does the company offer adequate training resources, like tutorial videos and FAQs/forums?
Features & Functionality:
- Job/Project Costing — Can the tool capture hours and costs, estimate and do budgeting, and handle purchasing with mark-ups and purchase orders?
- Online Timesheets — Does the software have a web browser-based timesheet and expense entry system? Is it easy to enter, approve, and pay expense claims?
- Pipeline Management — Can the software help automating attracting new leads and report and review on the process of converting them into paying customers?
- Review and Feedback — Does the software allow clients to adequately engage with and provide feedback across the project pipeline process? Is the feedback loop easy to navigate and does it offer actionable insights?
Integrations: Does the software connect with other first- and third-party apps for additional feature sets?
Value for $: Is the price fair, transparent, and flexible? Does the tool offer a free demo or trial so that users can try before they buy?
Learn more about The Best Agency Management System Tools. Read the full article here.
Originally published at https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com on May 28, 2020.
