Meet ENKI, a Small Team Behind Mighty Projects
Jaka Lenardič is the CEO of ENKI, an award-winning digital agency based in Slovenia. He believes that culture is essential. Still, processes help with becoming a top-notch agency too. This is where software comes into play.
For over three and a half years, ENKI has been using Productive to serve globally known brands such as Porsche, Johnson & Johnson, and UniCredit—to name a few. We spoke with Project Manager Nika Serdoner to learn how they’re getting the most out of our platform.
Tell us about ENKI. How big of a team are you, which industries do you serve?
We’re a digital agency focused on creating digital strategies, creating websites, digital campaigns, etc. We’re a small team of seven. Sometimes we collaborate with different specialists, based on project needs. We handle around 50 projects that are mainly recurring and work on up to 20 different shorter-term projects per year. Our clients are mostly from the automotive industry, travel, publishing, education, and public services.
Wow, that’s a small team for such big clients (and projects). How are you doing in 2020, how did you adapt to remote work? Did using Productive help?
Actually, when we returned to our office after quarantine in spring 2020, we realized that we should use the Scheduling feature more. Now, looking back, it would have been much easier if we had fully used it from the start.
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“Our goal was to find a tool that would give us a chance to track time on projects and manage tasks. All the extra features were just a bonus for us!“
How did you manage your workflow before Productive? How did you organize projects and stay efficient in the typical chaos of agency work?
Before Productive, we were using different time tracking tools such as Clocking IT. The problem was that they didn’t completely fulfill our needs and the UX was really bad. We were also using a whiteboard in the office for weekly planning.
Finally, we found Productive, tested it, and started using it. It covered everything we needed at the time. Our goal was to find a tool that would give us a chance to track time on projects and manage tasks. All the extra features were just a bonus for us!
“This was a major benefit we experienced after switching to Productive: using it to see profitability for specific projects and to check out our revenue.“
What pain points did you start experiencing when you realized you needed a new tool?
From a team perspective, we were searching for a way to have a better point of view on how busy our team members were because it has an impact on planning. On the other hand, we were trying to automate profitability data since we were growing. We were using spreadsheets and Excel documents at the time, but we didn’t have profitability data available in real time. This was a major benefit we experienced after switching to Productive: using it to see profitability for specific projects and to be able to check out our revenue.
How was adapting to the tool?
With Productive, everything was quite logical from the start. Your Sales Manager visited us for an onboarding session during which he presented all the aspects of the platform and its features. He taught us how to create new project budgets, add team members… The whole onboarding process was smooth and easy.
Did you ever forget to invoice a part of a project?
It’s happened before. Not to me, but to my colleague. With Productive we get reminders, and it would be hard to overlook it.
Did you spend a lot of time on billing before?
Yes, it was a lot of paperwork between project managers.
So maybe issuing an invoice wasn’t that complicated, but knowing how much you needed to invoice—getting that information was hard?
Yeah, before it was more complicated and time-consuming. We were using spreadsheets and you had to be strict about updating the information on budgets and issued invoices. There were a lot of post-its and printed papers. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if there had been more active projects. Now, when we deliver a project, we just create an invoice in the app, send it, and then close the project. No extra time needed.
Earlier you mentioned that you’ve always been tracking time. Is this because your projects are always fixed-price? Why are you at ENKI so good at time tracking?
That’s a good question. Since I got here, we were tracking time. We’ve always wanted to know how profitable our projects are.
“From a managerial point of view, the main benefit of the tool is seeing your profitability in real time. It’s there. We don’t have to calculate it or ask for financial reports from our accountant.“
So you’ve always had this time tracking culture, but did you have an overview of your profitability before? Now that you track profitability in Productive, do you ever get surprised by the data?
We did some calculations to tell us our billable costs, internal costs, and overhead before. But not in real time.
From a managerial point of view, the main benefit of the tool is seeing your profitability in real time. It’s there. We don’t have to calculate it or ask for financial reports from our accountant.
“Having a complete overview of projects, open tasks, team occupancy, and profitability—it makes project management so much easier.“
Any other benefits that Productive brought you, that you’d like to share?
Having a complete overview of projects, open tasks, team occupancy, and profitability—it makes project management so much easier. Productive helps us be more flexible when working from home. It gives us a complete overview that we can reach from our phones.
Last, but not least: what are ENKI’s growth ambitions?
We’ll probably stay a small team, maybe ten people at maximum. Our mission is to create user-oriented projects with added value. We hope to keep working on projects we really love.
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Switch from multiple tools and spreadsheets to one scalable agency management system.
