Case Studies

Communications Firm Finds a Better Way to Manage Time

Birgitte is a producer in a socially responsible design and communications firm based near New York City. Her job at LUCITÀ is to make sure she doesn't go gray before her time. So far so good, she says, but it's a tough act.

Why Intervals?

“We do a lot of national as well as international work. Our people are spread across three different time zones and our clients and partners are all over the world. This requires a tremendous amount of logistics, organization, and coordination. Not to mention eternal patience.”

Before she found Intervals, Birgitte used Excel spreadsheets, paper timesheets, email and yes, even the backs of envelopes to keep track of task assignments and hours worked. When it came to billing clients, a lot of time fell through the cracks. And as we all know, lost time is not billable.

The moment of truth came when a client significantly expanded the scope of a web site project LUCITÀ was working on, changing many functionalities mid-project. It become virtually impossible to distinguish the out of scope hours from the original contracted work, or even bill for those hours.

“In our desire to be fair to both the client and ourselves, we spent additional time going back through emails so that we could be 1000% positive that a particular feature had the hours allocated to it under the original contract. That's when I realized, we need time tracking and task management software. If we're serious about the health of our business, then we'd better find a reliable way to manage our time.”

So Birgitte sat down one day and began the long process of researching, comparing, and testing the project management software available. She tried Basecamp, eproject, teamspace, projectspace and every other space, but they were all missing something. If the price was right, then it had no time management. If it did have time management, it was too difficult to use. And then, Birgitte found Intervals.

“It was love at first screenshot. Intervals had everything we were looking for — intuitive user interface, time tracking, task workflows, project management, various levels of access for different types of personnel, graphs and charts. It's also scalable, customizable, and affordable. That was it. That was the end of the search.”

Better Time Management

Birgitte no longer has to stay chained to her desk, because Intervals gives her team a lot more independence and autonomy. She no longer has to micromanage her team. In addition to managing their time better, they collaborate more on a daily basis and have found it's brought the team closer together.

“Intervals has paid for itself many, many times over. There is no more obsessing about lost timesheets. No more trawling through emails at 36,000 feet. I can actually look out the window now and see what's ahead.”