Powering Global Growth with Productive: How PIABO Communications Streamlined Operations Across Regions

PIABO Communications, based in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Paris, and Singapore, is Europe’s leading communications agency and growth platform for the world’s most innovative companies. PIABO achieves outstanding international visibility for businesses in sectors such as e-commerce, traveltech, fintech, foodtech, HR tech, healthtech, blockchain/web3, consumer electronics, IoT, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, AR/VR, deeptech, SaaS/cloud, and greentech—supported by strategic venture capital expertise across all tech verticals.

Their multidisciplinary consulting teams offer services that include public relations, social media, brand strategy, content marketing, and influencer programs. PIABO is led by Founder and CEO Tilo Bonow and Managing Director and COO Daniela Harzer, and has been a strategic partner to clients—helping them achieve both local and global growth—since 2006.

The client portfolio includes GitHub, Google, Ledger, Open AI, Sequoia Capital, Shopify, Sojade, and Withings.

As Head of Business Operations, I’m responsible, along with my teams, for all internal processes, including quality assurance and automation. This includes specific tasks such as drawing up customer contracts and offers, capacity planning, and time tracking. I’m also in charge of our IT and Tools Department. We’re currently focused on optimization through AI solutions.

Before we used Productive, we had a different agency software. While all processes worked relatively well, it was much more cumbersome for individual users, especially when it came to time tracking and capacity planning. We also couldn’t do any analyses or build dashboards.

We used the same resource planning approach as we do now, but with Productive, the process is much more straightforward and transparent. Previously, we had very limited visibility into our utilization rates; now, it’s easier to identify bottlenecks and spot available capacity.

We were tracking profitability before, but lacked dashboards for deeper analysis. That’s where Productive really stands out. We can now build customized overviews for different stakeholders at a higher level, and the visual display options make the data even more accessible.

We experienced significant growth, and our old tool couldn’t keep up with the volume and complexity of our data. It also lacked key analytical features, like dashboards. We needed a solution that was intuitive enough for the entire team to use, but also offered more advanced, visual capabilities, such as dashboards, for our management team.

We really value the many customizable options in Productiv, especially custom fields, and the flexibility to build various dashboards, like those for our deal pipeline or utilization tracking. Capacity planning is now far more transparent. Automations, such as email notifications and Pulse reports, also boost our efficiency and streamline our workflows.

Productive has been instrumental in supporting our continued growth. We’ve recently opened two new offices, one in France and one for the APAC region, and successfully set them up as subsidiaries within the platform, which worked seamlessly.

Thanks to Productive, we now have faster, more detailed, and more comprehensive project control. This helps us better understand and manage customer projects and pinpoint key operational levers for improvement.

Much easier. Our consultants are very happy with the time tracking feature and love the calendar integration. Department heads now have a clear overview of time off. Our finance team sees all profitability data, and management receives all relevant information through dashboards and Pulse reports.

I’d say my favorite features are the dashboards and automations, they offer so many useful configuration options. Both have been a big support in streamlining our work and improving overall efficiency.

The onboarding process was very well-structured and organized. In the first few months—and still today—we receive support quickly, and there’s rarely a challenge that isn’t resolved.
Of course, internal resources are necessary for such a transition. All data must be prepared, and employees must be trained. However, we had sufficient lead time, so we were well-prepared and able to adhere to the timeline.

Your support is also excellent. Tutorials are available, tickets are answered quickly, and our dedicated contact person is always there for us. The quarterly reviews are especially helpful, giving us an overview of our usage, available features, and upcoming developments.

Productive is the heart of our data. It’s where we maintain all relevant client and project information. It’s always impressive how quickly we can answer questions from management or employees. Without Productive, we wouldn’t have such a firm overview of everything.