Saffron Got Clarity on All Aspects of Business

Luz: I look at client services at Saffron and I also help with reporting. I work very closely with Finance, so we look at things like team utilization, billability, how much time we spent on new business for example. We also look at job performance, how effectively we are managing our resources. We look at future utilization, it allows us to plan a little bit better. Questions like: how tight are we gonna be in the team, do we have capacity? Productive helps us forecast—not only the performance of our jobs today, but of jobs in the future. 

Andrew: I’m responsible for ensuring that the projects run to budget and time, working with the teams and essentially being the focal point on the projects, making sure that we deliver what the client’s brief is.

Andrew: The thing that was seen straight away was that project performance and scheduling data was available for us literally at the click of a finger. I would say that whenever you implement a particular product or a platform, it takes a couple of months. But I think once everyone was using it in the right way, it was super obvious that when we needed project data, we were able to access it instantly. 

The most important benefit from Productive, specifically for me, was the ability to be able to access my project performance and scheduling of the team in real-time. That, essentially, allows me and the team to be able to adjust the direction of the project, if need be, much sooner–rather than having to deal with it at a much later stage. 

Luz: The main benefit we get from Productive is planning, clarity, everyone working towards one system. There’s a sense of shared ownership also, so it’s not that it only falls on one person. People can take ownership of their jobs and plan the whole thing out, you can collaborate with team members, so there’s also visibility about things. It facilitates reporting, hugely. It’s very easy to use. Also, I think one of the biggest things for me is the fact that it’s constantly improving.

Luz: I think reporting has definitely improved, it’s quicker, it’s faster, it’s more accurate. Forecasting has improved, 100%, because we have more intel about the business. So, for example, in a type of job A, how successful have we been? How many people have we used on that kind of project? Then it helps us plan for a similar situation in the future.  

The big benefit we have is that everyone in the company knows what they’re on. Different people have different views, they have different access to different information, but everyone is aware of what they need to be aware of and hence, the planning, the work, the effectiveness is better.

Andrew: For me, what I was surprised with was the ease of use of the platform. What I was really surprised by was the fact that Productive continuously looked to improve the platform, to build out the platform, and they worked really closely with us. So, at the very outset of the project, we worked with the Productive team to set up what the needs of Saffron were. I felt really supported, I felt the platform itself is continuously evolving in a very positive way. It didn’t feel like just a plug and play and then, you know–we washed our hands of you. 

Luz: Customer support works really well. There’s a person on the other side who responds immediately and gets onto it.

Luz: Overall, I think Productive is really easy to use, it’s in constant improvement and I think it’s embraced easily by different team members… I would highly recommend it.

Matt: I think quite often, it’s easy to lose touch with the scope of a project and sort of see how long it’s going on and who you’re going to need along that journey. So it’s quite good being able to plan the long term, as well. 

Andrew: I definitely think it’s a very close relationship between Saffron and the Productive team. When we need something, they’re very much there for us.