Like.Digital delivers key, complex, creative digital projects for global brands, in luxury, fashion, entertainment, and hospitality. Their Shoreditch studio has facilitated over $100,000,000 of e-commerce transactions. Everything they do is driven by customer growth: revenue, engagement and rich data.
Validate business decisions
With Forecast, Like.Digital is able to validate business decisions by clearly showing the amount of resources needed for a project.
Like.Digital works in both time and material projects and fixed price. Forecast allowed Like.Digital to calculate the amount of resources they have against particular projects and projected work, regardless of the billing method. Their internal and external processes improved as they could allocate resources appropriately to the respective clients and projects. Forecast enabled the team to schedule and 'forecast' projects to ensure timely and profitable delivery.
Like.Digital experienced many blockers in their work process before, since they had to jump between different tools. For example, they were tracking time in one tool, managing tasks in another, and collecting and prioritizing client requests in a third tool. Not only was that challenging to manage for Like.Digital, but it made it more difficult to accurately track time and organize resources.
Able to sustain a highly utilized team
Julia's team is appreciative of the potential within resourcing in Forecast. Since they are an office of 25-30 people, they have to be intentional and realistic about their resource planning. When Like.Digital takes on a new project, the first thing they do is consider their resources.
"You have those visionaries in the company that say yes to every project. Often one doesn't realize that physically, to make it happen successfully, and by a certain deadline, we actually need these many more persons because we do not have the resources- as proven by the schedule. It’s good to have evidence to assess the practicalities of taking on this project." - Julia, Marketing Executive
Having that evidence is helpful for Julia and her team to plan ahead while being able to visualize what is coming up in the pipeline. If they are currently in the red with resources because they do not have enough time hours, Like.Digital can more accurately estimate if they would need to hire on more people (permanently or contract workers) in order to fit the proposed project. This new work process has brought about a new cultural change where it is easier to ensure that projects are on-time, and enables their team to be utilized at the fullest capacity. "We went from using multiple tools to only using Forecast," says Julia.
"Forecast is the perfect blend of integrated features. In just 1 tool we're able to plan, work and report. But what attracted us the most was the scheduling feature. It's so easy to use!" -Vykkintas, Head of Development
Forecast - a clear asset for collaboration!
Like.Digital's work process has become more streamlined since using Forecast. They now have transparency throughout their projects, which is two-fold. Firstly, Julia can see an improvement in project execution of tasks, as the whole team knows what people are doing, at what stage they are working, and when they will deliver. This has led to an increase in worker accountability because tasks can be tracked across all divisions of the business.
Not only does Julia have a better overview and see the various projects she is assigned to, but there is the added element of transparency because it is easier for her team to communicate together. Team members are able to take ownership of their tasks as there are clear allocated responsibilities for tasks and projects.
Julia has started using the 'Notes' feature to help organize her registered time. She and her team benefit internally from viewing their notes.
It’s nice to know what I covered. Since I am working remotely, I am more conscious of how I am spending my allotted time." - Julia, Marketing Executive
Like.Digital is client-based, and as time client based, it is essential for the team to have transparency and records of what tasks they are accountable for and how much time and resources they are using.
