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Workamajig Industry Sage Expert Insights (WISE Insights) - Vince Dong

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Vince Dong is the owner of Advice Software & Consulting Inc. in Toronto. Vince has been a consultant for 37 years, dedicating himself to the advertising agency, and Workamajig is privileged to be one of his clients. In this video, Vince succinctly explains the challenges that agencies face today and why he recommends Workamajig as the right solution to address those challenges.

QUICK HIGHLIGHTS


CHALLENGES

  • Having to juggle between multiple software tools 
  • Not being able to efficiently track budget and time
  • A disconnect between project management and accounting teams

SOLUTIONS

  • Use one single software
  • Run budget and time reports and use real time data
  • Connect project management to accounting

RESULTS

  • Solve many management issues in one shot
  • Time and money are used efficiently
  • Majorly step up collaboration by getting everyone on board the same software

 

Challenges:

Lack of real-time, hard fact data as a result of using multiple software programs

Vince can’t believe it’s 2024 and so many agencies are still not using a robust project management software. The project management side of a business is often disconnected from the accounting side, creating a huge gap of information. Furthermore, agencies are often unaware of where their time and money are going and budgets are easily blown, with no accountability.

 

SOLUTION:

Work with one single, robust software program

As Vince says:

“Real-time data is an absolute must to have in today’s software. Ease of use is another absolute must, which ties back to user experience.”

It’s also imperative to have a project management system where project management and accounting work hand in hand. You need to have reports that create meaningful data that shows you how time is being directly translated into money, and if not, why not?

 

RESULTS:

All your project management needs taken care of with one, easy to use software

“Why do I recommend Workamajig?” asks Vince.

Because “out of my work with five single-source programs in the industry, it is the one program that solves so many different issues and pulls all the departments together. I recommend it from a user-interface standpoint, from a language perspective, from the majority of people climbing on board’s standpoint.”

When you get Workamajig, you take care of resourcing, estimating, and budgeting in one fell swoop - “everything that you are conceivably thinking of in your day to day life, either as project manager, or as an accounting person, or a creative person.”

Vince’s final comment?


“Workamajig, in the coming years, will be the go-to software for ad agencies.”


Transcript:

My name is Vince Dong, my Corporation is called advice software and Consulting Inc and I'm based in Toronto.
I have been a consultant for 37 years. I worked for an ad agency before that as well and it has been a lot of fun because I have just dedicated myself to the advertising industry.
 
What Are the Biggest Challenges Facing Agencies in 2024?
I can't believe it's 2023 when I am looking at the question of how many different software programs are in place in this agency? It could be a 10 person shop, it could be a 200 person shop but the solutions that they have created for project management whereby they don't actually talk to the accounting side.
I ask myself the question there's this huge gap of information where these people are using these programs that they don't recognize that there are solutions in the industry to bring it down to a single Source program. One of the huge challenges I have run into is having the right bums in the seats. I will walk into an agency and there could be a project manager that uses five different software programs to deal with daily schedules, estimating or even just dumping time sheets in there and they're closed to the notion of having one single answer. The same goes with accounting people. In fact it's worse with accounting people because years ago accountants in the ad business actually understood the business of the business. Today a lot of accountants think they have to do a bank reconciliation, Bill a client, pay a vendor but not get under the hood of the business itself.
 
Looking Deeper into Accounting Operational Challenges
So when an accountant works for an ad agency they know enough to create a balance sheet and an income statement and that's table stakes. A good accountant that understands the business of the business will focus on client profit and loss reporting, project profit and loss reporting, write off reporting, write up reporting, employee utilization and employee realization.
Those things over here are on the client accounting side instead of the financial reporting side.
Another large report in here has to do with budgets versus actuals. Not enough people really pay attention to that because if they've blown the budget who's accountable for that lost time that they will never ever get back again.
 
The Value of One Software for Project Management and Accounting.
I have a handful of clients who are harmoniously working with one single software program because of the age group, the level of intelligence, and the challenge of what kind of clients these ad agencies are using because the more complicated their clients the more complicated the data collection.
Real time data is an absolute must to have in today's software.
Ease of use is another absolute must that ties back to user experience
 
 
What is the Best Software Program for Agencies in 2024?
Why do I recommend Workamajig?
I work with five different single source programs in the industry. It is the one program in the industry that resolves so many different issues and pulls all of the Departments together which is principally the reason why I recommend this program. From a user interface standpoint, from a language standpoint and from a majority of the people climbing onboard standpoint. There is no one program in this industry that does everything. For example, the ones that I work with not one of them does payroll. None of them make bacon and eggs but in terms of ticking the majority of the boxes, Workamajig effectively has many if not most of those boxes ticked off.
I can't believe how they have put a front end together that effectively takes care of resourcing, estimating, budgets to actuals, everything that you are conceivably thinking of in your day-to-day life either as a project manager or an account person, somebody in creative where 85% of the people are effectively working and they are doing it in one singular program. That's a huge Plus for any agency. especially large agencies.
Workamajig in the coming years will be the go-to software program for ad agencies.

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