Not even a decade old, Pallavi Dean’s design firm Roar has managed to put itself on the map thanks to their quirky yet rooted style. Research forms a huge part of their approach, and with their edgy renditions of F&B and commercial projects they truly have earned the title of a ‘new age’ design studio.
With so much creativity and research brewing under one organisation, it’s tough to keep track of the various branches, especially when the business is growing. Katheryn Athreya, Managing Director of Roar, expresses her concern, “Managing everything across multiple Excel spreadsheets, as I’m sure most people do, is very cumbersome and time consuming.”
According to her the solution lies in working smarter, not harder. “If we can find ways to be more efficient and productive with some of the administrative tasks that come with the job, it leaves so much more time open for the designers to focus on what they’re really good at. Design,” she says, and we couldn’t agree more…
Before:
A wide range of projects in a good number means designers spend time performing related tasks like making specification sheets. Roar’s administration processes were beginning to interfere with the designer’s time management. Important work like revenue calculation, project progress and budgeting were weighing heavily on the team, since they’re a relatively small business and still do not have a large team.
The Solution:
Given Roar’s case of a rising design consultancy where quality and quantity, both are given equally important, the team at .STUDIO came up with the following points to troubleshoot the administration team’s hurdles:
- Organising in tasks in a weekly timesheet to allow time-blocking and checking on availability
- Providing live views of sales reports and built-in software that displays overall status
- Coming up with a single use platform that tracks project updates for clear understanding of profitability
“The great thing about .STUDIO is I can choose exactly what information I want to track. I can find out a project owner, I can see client information, I can see what stage a project is at. I can see who hasn’t hasn’t done their timesheets. It shows me anything I want to see. I have this amazing platform where I can find all of the information I need right at my fingertips, and it’s in real time.” – Katheryn Athreya, Managing Director, Roar
Now:
.STUDIO has now become indispensable to Roar. It is a platform that organizes a large amount of the tasks that the team works on, from tracking opportunities to projects, conversion rate, time reporting, productivity and more.
While Roar’s dedication to their projects is constant, it’s the curveballs that the clients throw that cause complications. But now with .STUDIO, Roar is equipped to march head-on into the most complex design battles and emerge victorious.
