By Mindy Williams

Your agency may have no trouble getting work -- but what about getting it done? As AE's strive to bring in new clients, it's everyone's job to work efficiently and finish . . . on time. To work efficiently, first you have to know what needs to be done. And if your work depends upon someone else finishing their part, how do you know when that happens? Or maybe your staff is ready to work but waiting for client approval to move ahead.

     Every detail is important, and there are millions of details. How do you coordinate so much activity? Ultimately, the responsibility lands (sometimes it crash lands) on the all-knowing, all-seeing Traffic Coordinator, Production Manager, or Traffic Department. People, places, events, things -- they all need to be coordinated into a smoothly-flowing traffic plan. All the right moves must be made and in the proper order.

What goes wrong when traffic isn't right

     If traffic isn't updated, your deadlines aren't met; your clients yell and wonder about the shop's ability to perform in a professional manner; and your staffers work overtime. The cost to the agency isn't just in dollars, although that does hurt. Your reputation in the industry is at stake, as well as each staffer's well-being.

     As traffic manager, how are you tracking traffic right now? Spreadsheets, checklists, notes written to yourself on napkins, even on toilet paper! (We hope not.) Any of those lists truly up to date, anyway? Something must change, but how?

Integrated database facilitates work flow

     The answer is an integrated database; one software that seamlessly unites job trafficking and production scheduling with estimating and billing. Where do these different elements combine to produce sophisticated and meaningful reports for all departments? In only one software, Clients & Profits. It's all you need for trafficking.

     Production management revolves around four elements in Clients & Profits: job tickets, status codes, milestones, and scheduled tasks. These features work together to cover every aspect of what you do all day. Having an electronic job ticket capable of tracking every bit of production detail involved in developing jobs from start to finish takes the mystery out of information retrieval. No more rifling through piles of stuff looking for a job jacket. Clients & Profits' electronic job ticket puts each job and all its details on everyone's desktop (providing they have the right access); so call off the missing job jackets "treasure hunt" forever.

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