Tracking time and business performance - Rooland Design

For Wollongong based creative agency Rooland Design, key benefits of using WorkflowMax include:

• Ease of use
• Xero integration
• Time management
• Powerful reporting and insights on performance and time
• Time tracking and management

Customer stories is a regular column on the WorkflowMax blog where we profile our customers, the amazing work they’re doing and how they use WorkflowMax to facilitate their workflows. Are you an agency, wondering if WorkflowMax is right for you? Find out more about how branding and packaging design agency Rooland Design use WorkflowMax!

Welcome Suzanne!

Tell us about your company. Who are you, and what do you do?

Suzanne: Rooland Design is an eco-friendly, creative branding and package design consultancy based in Wollongong, Australia. Since we were established in 2000, we have always been forward-thinking in our approach, priding ourselves on our imagination and endless creativity. We offer a unique blend of international experience in a nimble and cost-effective environment. Our talented team have multiple years of experience across a wide variety of sectors.

What kind of clients do you work with?

Suzanne: We work with a wide variety of clients from the likes of Starbucks, Nike and Max Factor, to businesses operating in our local community, such as The Pines Micro Dairy, Coconol oil products, Keep Australia Beautiful and NuubiaSF Chocolat. We love collaborating with businesses who understand the intrinsic link between brand power and commercial success in a competitive and visually-crowded world. We place a lot of importance on designing packaging in a way that appeals to our client’s senses. The more senses you can touch with your brand, the stronger the connection will be with your consumers. The combination of textures, shapes, colours and smells increases the chance of brand recognition.

What challenges were you facing when it came to your workflow?

Suzanne: We struggled with time management, designer timesheets (getting creatives to fill them in and finding a software that could make them look half decent!), billing and invoicing clients.

What was the most important factor to you when choosing project management software?

"One of the things I liked about WorkflowMax was that it integrated with Xero, which I was already using and loving! I needed something easy to learn because I’m time poor..." – Suzanne Haddon, Rooland Design

Suzanne: I looked at many different project management softwares before WorkflowMax, probably over 20 different solutions! But one of the things I liked about WorkflowMax was that it integrated with Xero, which I was already using and loving! I needed something easy to learn because I’m time poor and it had to be easy to teach to the team. I wanted to be able to track all our time and produce reports so I could see where we were losing time. I set WorkflowMax up all on my own. I thought to myself: ‘I can do this myself” and I did!

Before WorkflowMax, did you use any other software tools to manage your business?

Suzanne: Yes, I was using Xero first and when I started looking for a project management solution, Xero had recommendations to try. I tried about 4 of them before I settled on WorkflowMax.

Walk us through the life of a project at your company, from beginning to end. What are the steps in the process and how do you use WorkflowMax or other software at each step?

The first step in the process is research. Each project has its own, truly individual story. We seek first to understand our client’s business and identify challenges and opportunities.
In WorkflowMax we put time towards the creative process.

The second step is strategy. We collaborate with the rest of the team to develop a plan of action for our client’s business or product. This gives us a roadmap.

Next up is exploration. This is where we keep sketches loose and uninhibited so ideas can evolve free from judgement and the concepts can emerge freely. As part of every process, there is a sense of discovery and excitement that comes with great design. In WorkflowMax we put time towards the exploration and creative phase.

Step four is refinement. This is where we expand our design solution to craft a compelling brand experience. We explore various design paths, by plugging in where and how the pieces will be presented to its intended audience.

The final step in our project process is finished design. After our final client meeting and once all parties are happy, files are created for the client’s project. Digital artwork is prepared and uploaded to a drop box for the client to download and share with suppliers. In WorkflowMax we put time towards the final phase and work it through to the billing. We are just learning about how to push invoices over, I have tried it a few time but for now I just do it in Xero.

What kind of reports are you creating with WorkflowMax?

Staff timesheets, project time, performance reports, and work in progress.

What do you love most about WorkflowMax?

"We love that WorkflowMax is easy to use. It cuts down my time figuring out who's doing what." – Suzanne Haddon, Rooland Design

We also love the job listings functionality and ability to create powerful reports. And the intake of my time and staff so we can do billing!

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Thanks Suzanne for talking to us about how you use WorkflowMax!

If you’re running a company using WorkflowMax and want to talk workflow with us, just send an email to mallika.goel@xero.com and we’ll be in touch!– we’d love to hear from you.