Why Marketing Service Providers Need Better Project Management Tools

Firms delivering marketing services to multiple clients on a global scale need an enterprise-grade technology platform that supports their goals.

There is a clear and growing demand for cloud-based tools that help teams collaborate and manage projects. According to Research and Markets, the global online project management software market will generate revenue of $1.52 billion by 2020.

While there are many software providers competing for customers in this space, few focus on the very specific needs of large marketing service providers. Many smaller agencies rely on cloud-based apps like Basecamp, Asana, Slack or Trello to track project tasks and collaborate. Large corporate organizations rely on more robust enterprise applications from Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and others.

However, none of these software applications focuses on the unique needs of large, global marketing service providers with multiple clients. That’s why companies like SAP, Ariba and Oracle choose to integrate with Mtivity’s Marketing Acceleration Platform, which was built specifically to manage the bespoke, complex processes involved in creating, sourcing and producing marketing campaign materials.

In addition to the demand for collaboration and task management features, one of the primary drivers of growth in this market is the need to track and report on project performance. According to the report:

“One of latest trends in the market is the increasing need for visibility and transparency. Online project management software provides the enterprise with a centralized repository where project related information related to files, assets, communication loops, and discussions on issue or problems faced by the team are stored.”

That’s where Mtivity comes in. Mtivity Create is one of six modules offered within the Mtivity Marketing Acceleration Platform that provide complete visibility and transparency throughout the marketing supply chain. Unlike the many cloud-based project management apps that crowd the market, Mtivity Create is designed specifically to meet the needs of large, global marketing service providers.

Mtivity Create helps large marketing service providers work seamlessly across external and internal teams.

Specifically, Mtivity Create gives marketing service providers the ability to:

• Collaborate on complex marketing projects. Users can capture all job and project activities, assets, approvals and financials with a digital online job bag. Mtivity Create also provides support for campaign roll up and multi-phase job management.
• Securely manage projects across multiple internal and external teams: Mtivity’s Job Bag lets partners, agencies, freelancers, suppliers and clients all participate in the marketing production lifecycle. Privacy and access control is managed via Mtivity’s robust permissions engine.
• Create and send estimates to clients, and manage changes. Service providers and agencies can use Mtivity Create to build budgets, create branded and formatted client estimates, and raise and track purchase orders. You can also track time and costs incurred, and create client bills based on estimates or actuals.
• Identify the right resource for the job, and assign tasks to team members. Whether you work with in-house, outsourced or offshore teams, Mtivity makes it easy to locate the right resources, check their availability and schedule work.
• Record time and track actual costs against budgets and estimates. Your creative team can record time using Mtivity’s automated stopwatch or using daily timesheets. Mtivity supports chargeable and non-chargeable time and activity-based charge rates.

These are just a few of the capabilities in Mtivity Create that were built with large outsource marketing service providers and agencies in mind. To see the full capabilities, contact us today to schedule a demo.