The way communication, advertising and marketing agencies operate forces them to manage complexity: the simultaneous management of a multitude of projects, with a different team for each project, several projects per employee, the frequent involvement of external service providers… An activity characterized by multiple information flows, often instantaneous, and difficult to organize between team members. Spotlight on the Bergamote agency.
Created in 2011 and consisting of about twenty employees, the Bergamote Agency is a “Made in Paris” editorial communication agency. In 2014, emails having gradually become a “digital noise”, the leaders of Bergamot sought an alternative. In the end, talkspirit was chosen. We went to meet the team to collect testimonies, after 5 years of use.
Read also: Bergamote Agency case study
Organizing exchanges and reducing internal emails (by 95%!)
From its first years of existence, the agency grew in size: the number of projects managed increased, exchanges multiplied and teams diversified. Due to the volume of flows, email shows its limits. In order to make project management more efficient and communication more fluid, the co-founders sought a versatile solution adapted to their activity. This is how talkspirit became part of the daily life of the Bergamot teams.
Today the platform facilitates internal communication by grouping and organizing exchanges. Emails within the agency have been reduced by 95%, with communication being switched to work groups and instant messaging integrated into the tool. The only emails that remain are some of those exchanged with external clients or partners.
Read also: How talkspirit replaced our internal emails
Better management of information flow and sharing
Ergonomic and intuitive, the talkspirit platform empowers employees to create operating principles and a corporate culture resembling them. The tool, quickly renamed “The Talk” by employees of Bergamote agency, has become their creative workplace. Exchanges and documents are grouped by project or work group, using an organization that better meets their needs and practices.
Each project group brings together the briefs, creative discussions, supports, as well as the exchanges between collaborators. Non-project discussions can simply take place by two members chatting within a team or even the entire agency, via the instant messaging system offered by the platform.
Read also: What is collaborative work?
Encouraging project-based work and remote working
Whether using a computer, a tablet or a mobile phone, there is no limit to using the talkspirit platform. The functionalities are the same regardless of the medium and the type of Internet connection. Whether they work at the Bergamote office or from home remotely, each employee can exchange on the progress of their projects with no fear of losing information. Thanks to the mobile application, employees are notified as soon as a conversation continues, so they don’t miss anything important. Videoconferencing is also possible from the Talkspirit platform (on desktop or mobile): very useful for attending a meeting or ensuring a remote appointment with a client.
As soon as they arrive at the Bergamote Agency, each new employee receives their login details and is invited to download the Talkspirit mobile application. To this day, employees have been able to join without any problems. Nevertheless, the associates like to point out that the tool only reaches its full power if all employees use it on a daily basis. This is the principle of the “network effect”. Indeed, the more employees use this unique channel for working and communicating, the more talkspirit will facilitate daily professional life (especially when working in project mode).
Read also: 3 reasons why using an enterprise social network is essential in 2020
Increasing responsiveness by speeding up exchanges
Thanks to its optimized ergonomics, intuitive use and easy access to all information, exchanges on Talkspirit are very easy. And this is true both when the team is gathered together in the Bergamot premises as well as when some of them are working remotely. This is also true for native digital employees as well as for older employees, who are sometimes less used to social networks. The ease of use is baffling.
The fluidity of the exchanges makes it possible to gain in responsiveness both in the daily management of projects, and in an emergency context or to respond to a call for tenders. This responsiveness is fundamental today for advertising, communication or marketing agencies, in a rather tense and very demanding market. Well managed, communication becomes a real competitive advantage and a lever of efficiency for employees.
Read also: Useful Tips and Tricks to Get Started in Remote Working
Putting the agency’s ecosystem at the heart of its collaborative tool
Thanks to talkspirit, Bergamote teams can also offer external stakeholders (subcontractors, partners, … and of course customers) to join their work groups as guests. This feature allows the entire internal/external project team to “tune in” by being on the same collaboration interface. Information and documents related to the project are shared on this interface, which facilitates transparency and follow-up. This transparency is highly appreciated by clients, who can thus obtain a global and real-time view of the progress of their project at any time.
If an external service provider or freelancer enters the project creation process, Aurélie Laglantine’s good trick is to divide projects into checklists. These checklists allow you to list all internal and external tasks, to follow the progress of the project expressed as a percentage, and to highlight the tasks that remain to be done. Every creative stakeholder can thus benefit from the talkspirit’s organizational strength and communicate more easily with all those involved.
Increasing team cohesion and conveying a participative culture
With the talkspirit platform, it becomes easy to bring a common energy together and thus strengthen team cohesion. For instance, a discussion group that the Bergamot associates have named “Random”. Each member of the team can express themselves there and share aspirations, helpful tips, ideas, creative inspiration and so on. Anecdotal at first glance, such a group on the border between professional and personal brings lightness into the daily life of the agency and makes the environment more conducive to creativity.
Read also: Collaborative tools: a new way of working
The survey functionality also allows the team to be integrated into business decisions. This inclusive approach is part of the global vision of Bergamote’s associates who have wanted a transversal management since the beginning of the agency. The team members are thus regularly consulted on simple questions such as the choice of coffee or the name of meeting rooms. According to Aurélie Laglantine, these quick surveys make it possible to enhance well-being at work and increase proximity with managers.
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In 5 years, “The Talk” has become a “full Bergamote team member”, and has become essential thanks to its functionalities and its ease of adoption by team members. Project discussions are now gathered in a single place (dedicated groups) and allow efficient brainstorming creating a real digitalized “collective intelligence”. At Bergamote, more than an enterprise social network, the platform is a real project management tool, which Aurélie Laglantine calls “the digital heart” of the agency. An element that enriches both the client experience and the employee experience, in an increasingly competitive environment.
Are you a communication/advertising/marketing agency wanting to know more about talkspirit? Contact us or ask to schedule a personalized demo.
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Benoit Renoul Chief Marketing Officer, Talkspirit
