Collaborating Across The Designer/Client Boundary

RD2 specializes in building online communities for blue-chip clients like Southwest Airlines, Hotels.com, and Verizon.  According to RD2 President Chris Ronan, the biggest challenge in its business is managing how his team and their clients collaborate on web content.  "No matter how organized you are, people always underestimate how difficult it is to create the content and get it into the web site," said Ronan.

Email: "A Recipe For A Train Wreck"

In the past, RD2 used traditional collaboration tools like emails with file attachments, but at great cost.  "People grossly underestimate the costs of poor communications and processes around getting content to the web," Ronan said.  "Maybe a project manager goes on vacation, and there's a file buried in somebody's inbox.  Or maybe everyone is using different naming conventions.  It's a recipe for a train wreck."

While RD2 was able to deliver award-winning work, in many cases this achievement came in spite of the tools, rather than because of them.  "We want to make the client happy, and we end up using a lot of elbow grease to make up for inefficient processes," Ronan noted.  "It's a big time suck."  And when it comes to professional services firms, time is money.

Enter PBworks.

PBworks Makes Web Content Collaboration Faster And More Efficient

RD2 used PBworks to re-engineer their web content collaboration process, making it faster and more efficient for both RD2 and their clients.

"PBworks has totally changed the way we work," Ronan said.  "When our project manager and user experience lead constructed a sitemap for the client, we mapped it into PBworks and identified all the places we needed the client to add their content.  We presented a 30-minute tutorial to the client, and they were off to the races and loving it.  The client was super-engaged with the content process, and it saved us a ton of effort."

How RD2 Uses PBworks With Its Clients

RD2 uses a wide assortment of PBworks features to manage the content creation workflow.  The team uses PBworks templates to manage the different types of content pages.  For example, one template might be used for pages with header content, and the template would specify specific parameters, like the maximum number of characters allowed in a header.

RD2 also uses tagging and notifications to streamline workflow.  Pages start off being tagged as "unapproved."  This makes it easy for the client to see where content needs to be added or reviewed.  Once the content is in place, the pages are tagged "approved," and the design team can begin implementation.  For example, RD2 used tags and notifications to work with the CMO of a major client.  Ronan explained: "As soon as she makes her final edits, the project managers see those edits via PBworks's automatic notifications.  They go in and edit the tags to indicate her approval.  All she has to do is make the changes on the workspace."

PBworks Pays Off In Less Than Half A Day

All these efficiencies add up to a major savings.  "We can have a team of six on the account, with eight people on the client side.  All of them need to collaborate with each other on the content.  With 48 combinations all being funneled through two project managers, you have a lot of room for error," Ronan said.  "When a problem happens, you take half that team at $150 per hour for half a day, and that's $4,200 right there.  You're already talking about more than the cost of a year of PBworks."

PBworks is now an integral part of each new client project.  "We have a dedicated person who creates the PBworks framework for each client and handles giving the tutorial.  Our clients will tell you--using PBworks has made the process more productive than it ever was before.  People love to talk about content, but we go home at night thinking, 'Oh my goodness, the content.'  It's a beatdown.  You guys are saving us from the beatdown."