Elliptycs is an award-winning Google Partner, focused on giving growing companies a competitive edge by funnelling them more customers or higher-quality leads. They use a completely transparent approach that utilizes client data to create a digital marketing strategy that optimizes advertising options. Ali White, the director of Elliptycs, discovered that as his company grew, the simple task and project management system that his team used simply couldn’t keep up with the complex jobs that the company was attracting. Here’s how he used Teamwork Projects to improve their responsiveness using advanced time tracking tools — and coordinate every team member, client, freelancer, or contractor involved in a project.

“If there is one tool in business that has revolutionised how I work, Teamwork Projects is it. I’ve tried many other project management systems over the years, and I haven’t found one that is as effective as this software.”

 

When Elliptycs was founded in 2016, Ali needed tools to help him manage a small team that was responsible for a large number of key operational functions. Fortunately, Ali had used Teamwork Projects at two previous jobs, so he had a good idea of how many ways the software could help his new business right from the start. At the top of his priorities were features that let him assign tasks, anticipate bottlenecks, and then accurately assess workloads and progress on projects. After using Teamwork Projects in other business settings, he knew how much he depended on the built-in reporting tools that allowed him to analyze the team’s workflows and determine where they should invest their time for the best results and ROI.

“I really wanted to understand what was on every team member’s plate at a given time, how they were progressing through their tasks at hand, and what was overdue to help them manage their workload.”

One of the more pressing day-to-day needs for Elliptycs was a simple time-tracking tool that was tied to each task or subtask. Without it, Ali knew he would be unable to assess progress toward deadlines and estimate how closely his team would hit their budget projections. Within tasks, Ali also wanted to assign multiple subtasks, given the depth and complexity of the projects they were taking on. Tracking every single one, and having the flexibility to assign a task to multiple people who were collaborating on it, was essential for assigning workloads and responsibilities.

“Task management was really key for us. I knew that working with Projects’ features made all the difference for organising and visualising projects in a way that helped us collaborate smoothly and make our deadlines.”  

Communication was another complicated issue that needed the right solution. Many of team members were used to messaging via email, which increased the possibility that information could get crossed or lost in already-bursting inboxes. Before Teamwork Projects, Ali saw other teams waste hours searching for emails containing crucial decisions or material.   He knew that Teamwork Projects also simplified collaboration, from daily messaging to document sharing, keeping every piece of communication and file in one location. Ali especially enjoyed having a way to provide feedback like markups and annotation, but make it directly on relevant tasks and files with marketing creative.    

After reviewing his needs and his experience with Teamwork Projects, Ali knew the software solution had the best project management tools to match his needs. His team quickly onboarded to Teamwork Projects and immediately saw the value of detailed task structure. Today, Elliptycs uses Teamwork Projects to create various projects with relevant task lists, tasks, and subtasks. They also rely heavily on being able to set task dependencies, which were not available in their previous system.

“We can do so much more with the task features in Teamwork Projects, which lets us set up projects and adjust them as needed. Everyone has a solid idea of their responsibilities and how that ties into the entire project.”

With the built-in time tracking feature that lets team members log time directly to tasks, not only have their project estimates gotten more accurate, but everyone has a better understanding of their own personal performance throughout the project. Communication has also improved with comments that are tied directly to individual tasks, so team members are no longer losing time searching for important conversations.   Client collaboration has gotten significantly easier with Teamwork Projects, both because of improved features and because the intuitive UI allows Ali to onboard clients quickly and keep them informed throughout the project. From the initial kick-off meeting onwards, they can get an immediate view of what’s in the pipeline and what’s been completed.

Ali uses Teamwork Projects to help him plan everything, starting with the pitch to clients and the potential kick-off meeting. New clients are introduced to Teamwork Projects at this initial meeting, and Ali gives them a quick tour to familiarize them with a few of the most-used features like tasks, reporting tools, comments, and attaching files. As the project progresses, Elliptycs team members will use Teamwork Projects as part of each check-in, either by communicating through the platform or sharing a screen during a video call.

“We continue to put Teamwork Projects in front of our clients to help them see how much we depend on it throughout their project. This makes it second nature, even without specific tutorials or training sessions.”

Teamwork Projects has been especially helpful when communicating with clients who have their own IT team or internal web development resources. Elliptycs can easily assign tasks to this these teams through Teamwork Projects and then get alerts when that work has been completed, eliminating the need for frequent check-ins or missed updates. Ali’s teams frequently work with other contractors to complete projects, either as direct partners or because their clients have regular freelance workers or businesses that they depend on. Each of these additional users is easily added, and with Teamwork Projects’ granular controls, information can be shared or restricted with exactly the right users. Specific task lists and tasks can also be limited to people within a company, which eliminates information overload, miscommunications, or the need to duplicate tasks lists for certain teams or people.

“The user-friendly UI makes it possible for us to include everyone who has a part in the project, which makes our job so much easier. As a bonus, we look like heroes for finding a way to keep all of the users and variables together.”

The ability to track time to each client, project, and task brought in some of the first returns of Elliptycs’s investment in Teamwork Projects. At any point in the project, Ali can review how much time has been spent so they don’t get carried away and overshoot their projected costs. Detailed reports on logged time also allows Ali to pinpoint the weakest points in their processes — and locate where they’re producing the greatest ROI — so they can adjust their resources accordingly.

“We have saved tens of thousands of GB Pounds by locating areas of waste and profitability with the time tracking tools. It makes cost analysis so much more accurate.”

As team members have seen how and where they can work more effectively together, many of the usual roadblocks have fallen away. Documents and conversations are easy to locate, everyone can see what’s ahead, and on-time deadlines are now standard. Smoother workflows and more transparency give each project contributor more confidence in the process, which makes day-to-day work more pleasant. Clients are so pleased with the platform and project organization that Elliptycs has had no problem getting referrals. As the company has grown, Ali has remained committed to keeping Teamwork Projects in the picture. New integrations and features, like project overview and bulk editing of tasks provide significant value and continually reduce busywork that steals productive hours.

“Teamwork Projects has bundles of features to make managing your workload, or your team’s, or your company’s, easier. The software is absolutely fundamental to Elliptycs’s business because it is that good.”