Transforming Marketing Agency Operations with NetSuite OpenAir 

Overview

About the Client

This case study illustrates how a prominent firm in the Marketing Agency industry successfully implemented NetSuite OpenAir to address operational inefficiencies and achieve substantial improvements in project delivery and financial performance. 

The client is a full-service marketing agency specializing in digital marketing, branding, content creation, and media planning. They manage a high volume of diverse campaigns for clients ranging from startups to large enterprises, with a team of over 100 creative and account management professionals. 

Challenges faced 

Prior to adopting NetSuite OpenAir, the agency encountered several significant challenges: 

• Unclear Project Profitability: Difficulty in accurately assessing the profitability of individual campaigns due to fragmented cost tracking and revenue attribution, hindering effective Project Profitability Tracking. 

• Ineffective Resource Allocation: Manual scheduling of designers, copywriters, and strategists led to bottlenecks, missed deadlines, and under-utilization of talent. 

• Time consuming & Expense Reporting: Relying on spreadsheets for time and expense submissions resulted in delays, errors, and a lack of real-time visibility for billing. 

• Slow and Inaccurate Client Billing: The absence of integrated project data prolonged the billing cycle, causing cash flow issues and client dissatisfaction. 

• Lack of Performance Insights: Limited ability to generate comprehensive reports on project status, resource performance, and overall agency profitability. 

Our Solution 

We implemented NetSuite OpenAir as a robust Professional Services Automation (PSA) platform. The solution was designed to centralize Marketing Project Management, optimize resource scheduling, automate time and expense capture, and streamline the entire billing process. This provided the agency with a unified system to manage their creative projects from initiation to final invoice, enabling effective Project Management Automation. 

Technology & tools Implementation 

The primary technology deployed was NetSuite OpenAir, utilizing its core functionalities for comprehensive Professional Services Automation: 

• Project Management: For defining project scope, milestones, tasks, and tracking progress across all campaigns, enhancing overall Marketing Project Management. 

• Resource Management: To efficiently assign creative and account teams based on skill sets, availability, and project requirements. 

• Time & Expense Tracking: Automated entry, approval workflows, and seamless integration with project costing. 

• Invoicing & Billing: Accelerated generation of client invoices directly from approved time, expenses, and project milestones. 

• Advanced Reporting & Analytics: Customizable dashboards providing real-time insights into campaign profitability, resource utilization, and agency performance, supporting precise Project Profitability Tracking. 

Results

The impact and outcome 

The integration of NetSuite OpenAir yielded substantial positive outcomes for the marketing agency: 

• Improved Campaign Profitability: Saw an 18% increase in average campaign gross margins through better cost management and accurate revenue recognition, significantly enhancing Project Profitability Tracking. 

• Optimized Resource Utilization: Creative and account team utilization rates improved by 25%, leading to increased billable hours and reduced idle time. 

• Accelerated Billing Cycles: The average time to generate and send client invoices was reduced by 60%, significantly improving cash flow. 

• Reduced Administrative Burden: Automation of time and expense processes saved approximately 120 hours per month in administrative overhead, a direct result of Project Management Automation. 

• Enhanced Strategic Decision-Making: Leadership gained immediate access to actionable data, enabling proactive adjustments to project pipelines and resource planning.