MWM Buyer's Guide- Work Chaos, Solved.

BUYER’S GUIDE
Work Chaos, Solved:
A Buyer’s Guide to Marketing
Work Management Software

2network workfront.com/marketing telephone2 + 1.866.441.0001 telephone2 +44 [0] 1256 807352
The current state of
affairs for marketing
teams is chaos
In-house creative services teams and marketing departments
face a constant deluge of work requests, endless interruptions,
shifting priorities, and heavy workloads. The resulting disorder
and confusion make it hard to focus on what’s most important
rather than on what fire is presently burning. But, with almost
half of creative teams saying they don’t use any kind of project
tracking software and a quarter saying they don’t track projects
at all,1
it’s no surprise work is chaos.
Even marketing teams that use project management tools may
still find themselves drowning in work, waiting for approvals
stuck in the twilight zone, and confused about what to work on
next. This is largely due to the fact that most “solutions” are
missing two fundamental aspects of work management: first, a
good marketing work management solution that intuitively and
seamlessly works the way its users naturally work. Second, a
comprehensive structure that provides complete visibility into all
aspects of the marketing workflow. To eliminate work chaos and
free up more time for real work, these teams need a solution that
provides both aspects.
OF CREATIVE TEAMS
DON’T TRACK PROJECTS AT ALL
OF CREATIVE
TEAMS DON’T
USE ANY KIND
OF PROJECT
TRACKING
SOFTWARE.1/2

network workfront.com/marketing telephone2 + 1.866.441.0001 telephone2 +44 [0] 1256 807352 3
Five signs your marketing team
deals with work chaos
Whether your team is one of the lucky few currently using a project-tracking solution, or you’re stuck relying on
spreadsheets or scribbles on whiteboards, here are five signs that your creative team needs a different method to
control their work chaos:
1 Disconnected tools
Everyone has their favorite tools—email,
spreadsheets, timesheets, document asset
storage, and more—to manage different parts
of their work. But the problem is these tools
don’t work well together, which requires a lot
of jumping from tool to tool. Disconnected
tools add extra time, create more rework, and
build information silos where no one has a
comprehensive view of all the work.
2 Disconnected teams
Disconnected tools almost always lead to
disconnected, siloed teams where no one
knows what anyone else is doing and teams
aren’t as agile, productive, or responsive as they
need to be. When every team or individual team
member uses their own tools, there’s no visibility
into the work other teams are doing. As a result,
teams have no insight into who or what is relying
on them, so they schedule weekly (sometimes
daily) meetings. Unfortunately, team members
can spend inordinate amounts of time in status
meetings and still have to run around trying to
dig up the information they need.
3 Disconnected processes
Just like everyone has their favorite tools,
everyone has their favorite way of doing things.
However, when everyone has their own way
of prioritizing work, tracking work requests, or
keeping others up to date, it creates a landslide
of inefficiency and ineffectiveness. With everyone
in their own dark tunnel hammering away, there
is no way to see how the tunnels (or tasks) should
connect. Such disconnection results in wasted
time, missed deadlines, budget overruns, rework,
poor collaboration, and lots of fire drills.
4 Low productivity and
less creativity
Work requests come in every size and flavor—
emails, hallway conversations, and office
drive-bys, to name a few. Add distractions and
interruptions to the mix, and the resulting chaos
throws not just productivity, but also creativity,
right out the window. Without the proper
structures in place, priorities tend to shift daily,
team members resort to working on their “pet
projects,” and the client who screams the loudest
almost always gets what they want, regardless
of strategic goals. In such a chaotic, fast-paced,
and high-pressure environment, work is rarely
delivered on time and creativity dwindles.
5 No credibility
With all the disconnection and chaos, work
requests are often lost or forgotten. Teams
suffer from a lack of clear communication.
Teams frequently work overtime, but still miss
deadlines. It only takes one bad experience for
clients to lose confidence that their projects will
be delivered as agreed upon and that the work
will be high quality. The result is a slippery slope
that leads to clients outsourcing the “good jobs”
more often, the team getting less engaging work,
and an overall lack of credibility with clients and
executives about the value of the team.
annoyed
dislike
users
tool6
plug3

More work,
less time.
Do you have the tools to keep up?
Nowhere is the do-more-with-less mentality more present than
when it comes to marketing and agency work. With smaller
budgets, increased workloads, expanded scopes of work, and
shorter turnaround times, it’s a serious struggle to keep up. And
since additional resources don’t grow on trees, teams must find
ways to eliminate inefficiencies and improve productivity if they
want to avoid burnout.
Finding a tool that can reduce work inefficiency is a critical
component of achieving success. However, most project
management tools are designed to manage only the planning
and execution phases of a project lifecycle, leaving the rest of the
workflow up to other tools. Additionally, most solutions are designed
for IT and development teams rather than for marketing teams or
agencies, who work differently and need different features. Finally,
many project solutions have a steep learning curve that can further
reduce, rather than add to, your team’s productivity.

Workfront recently surveyed more than 260 marketing professionals across the U.S.
The survey revealed the following top four contributors to marketing work chaos:
The four biggest work
inefficiencies of marketing teams
1 Distractions and Interruptions
74 percent of marketing professionals cited distractions and interruptions
as their number one work inefficiency.2
Distractions and interruptions not
only break the creative flow, but according to research, can eat up to 2.1
hours a day for the average worker.3
2 Overflowing Email Inboxes
Email may be the most commonly used tool, but it’s not the most efficient.
63 percent of marketing professionals cited overflowing email inboxes as
one of their top work inefficiencies,4
and according to a recent McKinsey
Global Institute report, the average worker spends 28 percent of the
workweek managing email.5
3 Unproductive Meetings
56 percent of marketing professionals listed unproductive meetings as
one of their top work inefficiencies.6
With time wasted in chitchat and
discussions that go nowhere, studies show that as much as 50 percent
of meeting time is unproductive and up to 25 percent of it is spent
discussing irrelevant issues.7
4 Random Work Requests
36 percent of respondents cited random work requests as a major work
inefficiency,8
making it clear that the common refrain of “It’ll only take five
minutes”, is not so benign. Random requests rarely only take five minutes
and almost always reduce your focus on getting the most important tasks
done first.
74%
1
OF MARKETING
PROFESSIONALS
CITED DISTRACTIONS
AND INTERRUPTIONS
AS THE WORK
INEFFICIENCY
#
LISTED OVERFLOWING
EMAIL INBOXES
AS A TOP WORK
INEFFICIENCY
37+63V63%OF MARKETING
PROFESSIONALS
OF MARKETING
PROFESSIONALS LISTED
UNPRODUCTIVE
MEETINGS
AS A TOP WORK
INEFFICIENCY
56%
36%OF RESPONDENTS
CITED RANDOM
WORK REQUESTS
AS A TOP WORK
INEFFICIENCY

When it comes to managing marketing and agency work, having the right structure in place is the key to
controlling work chaos. What does the right structure look like? Here are the three most important components:
1 Manage All Work in One Place
When you’re using several disparate tools, work and data get scattered,
making gathering information from various tools, creating reports, and
keeping everyone in the loop laborious. It requires you to constantly
update spreadsheets, build reports from scratch, or some other manual
process. Having a single tool that manages the entire work lifecycle in one
place eliminates silos, provides instant status updates, and keeps all work
connected and in context so work can continue to flow smoothly.
In addition, with a single source of truth provided by one tool, you’ll be able
to easily provide concrete data and real-time insights into what your team is
doing and the value they deliver.
2 Automate Processes
Using templates and creative briefs to help automate processes may seem
counterintuitive—more forms, more time—and you may encounter some
initial pushback. But automating common processes eliminates starting
from scratch every time you launch a new project or campaign. This saves
you time, increases your outputs, and enhances your relationships with
clients through building trust and credibility.
Most importantly, using templates and automating processes frees up
time for creativity by eliminating repetition, building team consensus, and
aligning expectations.
3 Collaborate in Context
Daily status meetings, long email chains, phone calls that no one else
has visibility into, or instant messages that disappear with the closing of
a window—these kinds of communications make it difficult to collaborate
effectively. Who said what gets forgotten or time gets wasted looking for
buried information. Instead, collaboration needs to happen in the context
of the work done, in a social and natural way, so that all communication
remains connected to the work.
When information such as team members, dates and times, related
documents, project discussions, and other important information are all
connected to the work, feedback doesn’t get forgotten and time isn’t
wasted searching for answers or insights. Instead, everyone stays on the
same page, in one place.
The right structure

Manage work throughout the
entire work lifecycle
Most of the solutions available to help marketing teams and agencies manage work fail to manage the work
lifecycle, end to end. At best, they only focus on one or two pieces, which forces marketers to enlist the help of
additional tools and resources to supplement the rest.
VIS I B I L I T Y T R A N S PA R ENCY
MARKETING
WORK LIFECYCLE
1. DEFINE
2.PLAN
3. ASSIGN
4
. EXECUTE
5.DELIVER
6. MEASURE

Project Management Tools
Most project management tools fail to accommodate non-project
work (i.e., unstructured work, everyday “lights on” work, ad hoc
requests, etc.). They may work fine for project planning and
execution, but will leave you struggling with how to manage the
flood of work requests, prioritize work according to strategic goals,
or streamline approvals to keep deliverables on time.
Most tools only offer partial solutions
Social or Collaboration Tools
Most social tools are apps or add-ons that don’t allow you to
collaborate in the context of your work. This means communication
about a specific asset or campaign remains disconnected from the
actual work it’s related to and collaboration doesn’t flow through
the entire work lifecycle.
Task Management Tools
There are thousands of task management apps or tools out there
for you to choose from, but they are usually simplistic and only
help manage one aspect of your work execution. You’ll need
other tools to help you plan, prioritize, collaborate, track time, or
measure outcomes.
PPM
TOOLS
1. DEFINE
2.PLAN
3. ASSIGN
4
. EXECUTE
5.DELIVER
6. MEASURE
TASK
MANAGEMENT
TOOLS
1. DEFINE
2.PLAN
3. ASSIGN
4
. EXECUTE
5.DELIVER
6. MEASURE
MARKETING
WORK
LIFECYCLE
1. DEFINE
2.PLAN
3. ASSIGN
4
. EXECUTE
5.DELIVER
6. MEASURE

Choose the right tool
WORK REQUESTS
FUNCTIONALITY VALUE TOOL NAME
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
CENTRALIZED
REQUEST
MANAGEMENT
• Standardize request intake ] ] ]
• Organize client/customer requests ] ] ]
• Customize queues and routing rules ] ] ]
• Easily convert requests into projects ] ] ]
• Stop requests from getting lost or forgotten ] ] ]
CUSTOMIZED
CREATIVE BRIEFS
• Get all job information up front ] ] ]
• Create customized fields ] ] ]
• Build creative briefs into work requests and eliminate
extra steps
] ] ]
REQUEST TRACKING
• Provide requestors/clients with visibility into the requests
they’ve submitted
] ] ]
• Get visibility into requests made of your team ] ] ]
DIRECTIONS:
Use the checklist below to compare up to 3 solutions side-by-side (Shortcut: Check all the boxes for Workfront). Next,
note the features that are missing and evaluate how important they are to your team’s ability to manage the entire
lifecycle of work (the only way to avoid work chaos). Understanding the trade-offs between different solutions will
help you see the benefit of implementing one tool over another.
WORK PRIORITIZATION
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
PRIORITIZING
REQUESTS
• See all requests in one place ] ] ]
• Choose requests with the most strategic value to the company ] ] ]
• Work on the best work instead of the next work ] ] ]
PRIORITIZING TASKS
• Prioritize personal ‘Working On’ tasks ] ] ]
• Prioritize work by commit date, project name, or a
customized drag and drop order
] ] ]
CONTINUE TO NEXT SET OF FEATURES right7
There are a number of essential components to consider when investing in a marketing work management solution. To make
it easier, use this comparison chart for evaluating up to three project or work management tools you may be considering.

WORK PLANNING
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
WORKFLOW AND
PROJECT PLANNING
• Customize project plan based on desired workflow ] ] ]
• Plan out tasks, subtasks, budgets, resources, and
approval processes
] ] ]
• Avoid forgetting dependencies ] ] ]
• Plan out deadlines, hard dates, predecessor
relationships, and milestones
] ] ]
CUSTOMIZABLE
WORK TEMPLATES
• Create templates that fit to your workflow ] ] ]
• Ensure no steps are forgotten ] ] ]
• Easily convert existing or past projects into templates ] ] ]
• Streamline repeatable work ] ] ]
• Analyze past projects for constant improvement ] ] ]
WORK ASSIGNMENTS
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
SMART
ASSIGNMENTS
• Assign tasks to team members based on job roles and
availability
] ] ]
• Make smart , balanced resource decisions ] ] ]
• Eliminate resource planning meetings ] ] ]
RESOURCE
CALENDAR
• See every team member and task assigned in visual,
linear calendar view
] ] ]
• Drag and drop work requests or tasks to individual
resources
] ] ]
• Get a high-level view of who’s working on what ] ] ]
• Drag and drop resources into a task to automatically
make assignments
] ] ]
CAPACITY
PLANNING
• View resource grid to see how many hours are allocated to
each team member
] ] ]
• Get notified when hours exceed capacity ] ] ]
• Mitigate burnout by keeping hours within appropriate
capacity level
] ] ]

WORK EXECUTION
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
PROJECT AND TASK
MANAGEMENT
• Receive notification when project/task is at risk or late ] ] ]
• Receive notification if changing date affects overall
project schedule
] ] ]
• Receive notification on pending approvals ] ] ]
• Customize notification settings on an individual user basis ] ] ]
WORK
NOTIFICATION
• Receive notification when project/task is at risk or late ] ] ]
• Receive notification if changing a date affects overall
project schedule
] ] ]
• Receive notification when dependent tasks can be started ] ] ]
• Receive notification on pending approvals ] ] ]
COLLABORATION
IN CONTEXT
• Get real-time status updates ] ] ]
• Communicate in the context of work ] ] ]
• Keep all work communications in one place, with time stamps ] ] ]
AGILE
CAPABILITIES
• Create flexible, agile teams ] ] ]
• Organize work in sprints or iterations ] ] ]
• Give point values and assign work based on team
member availability
] ] ]
• Color code storyboard tiles to communicate mportant info ] ] ]
• View burndown chart to see how iterations are
moving along
] ] ]
• Measure capacity and reallocate stories based on
points/hours
] ] ]
ALL WORK IN
ONE LOCATION
• Create a central location to manage all work, not just
large projects or campaigns
] ] ]
• Use one tool to manage all aspects of work ] ] ]
• Eliminate disparate or excess tools ] ] ]
WORK
ACCOUNTABILITY
AND RECOGNITION
• Keep team members accountable for their work ] ] ]
• Provide instant feedback to team members ] ] ]
• Ensure team members are recognized and feel
appreciated for their work
] ] ]

WORK VISIBILITY
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
CALENDAR VIEWS
• Customize calendar views ] ] ]
• Pre-defined filters to automatically keep track of everything ] ] ]
• Build team, project, or client specific calendars ] ] ]
• Share calendars to make scheduling meetings or staying
informed easier
] ] ]
TIME TRACKING
• Track hours by task within user’s workflow ] ] ]
• Automatically update deliverables from time-tracking numbers ] ] ]
• View planned vs. actual hours ] ] ]
• Set and view work durations in a Gantt chart ] ] ]
REPORTING AND
DASHBOARDS
• Get high-level visibility into the progress of all work ] ] ]
• Demonstrate the progress and value of projects in real time ] ] ]
• Find all assets and data in one place and trust they are up to date ] ] ]
INDIVIDUAL AND
TEAM INSIGHT
• Easily control the workflow process ] ] ]
• Get visibility into resource utilization and availability ] ] ]
GLOBAL VIEW
• Get visibility at every stage of the workflow, from initial
request to final metrics ] ] ]
WORK APPROVALS
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
INLINE DIGITAL
PROOFING
• View any digital asset ] ] ]
• Provide feedback and edit assets in real-time in one
central location central location
] ] ]
• Compare asset versions side by side ] ] ]
• Streamline the creative and feedback processes ] ] ]
TEMPLATE
APPROVAL CHAINS
• Set up boxed approvals or one-off approvals ] ] ]
• Automatically route approval requests to the right person
at the right time
] ] ]
• Send notifications when bottlenecks occur ] ] ]
• Cut back on time it takes to get work approved ] ] ]

PRODUCT INTEGRATIONS
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
OUTLOOK
• Submit and receive work requests, manage work, and
collaborate without leaving Outlook
] ] ]
• See all work requests in Outlook and easily update
status, log time, and mark work as done
] ] ]
• Reduce emails and status meetings and improve visibility ] ] ]
DIGITAL ASSET
MANAGEMENT
• Store, organize, and tag all documents and assets ] ] ]
• Upload documents and assets to tasks so they stay in context ] ] ]
• Maintain version control ] ] ]
• Integrate with DAM leaders Widen or WebDAM ] ] ]
ONLINE DOCUMENT
AND CONTENT
MANAGEMENT
• Create a seamless connection between work and leading
cloud storage solutions
] ] ]
• Integrate with Google Drive, SharePoint, Box.com,
or Dropbox
] ] ]
BUSINESS
APPLICATIONS
• Make digital campaign management, data, and
approvals easy
] ] ]
• Integrate with critical applications like ExactTarget,
Salesforce.com, and Jira
] ] ]
SOCIAL AND
COLLABORATION
FEATURES
• Break down information silos and unify social and
collaboration tools
] ] ]
• Integrate with common and critical applications like Jive
and ProofHQ
] ] ]
CUSTOM
CONNECTIONS
• Integrate with any tool your team uses with RESTful APIs ] ] ]
• Build custom integrations with solutions such as SAP
and Oracle
] ] ]

PRODUCT USABILITY
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
TOOL NAME
_____________
USER-FRIENDLY
INTERFACE
• Make it work the way you and your team work ] ] ]
• Ensure adoption with a simple, user-friendly interface ] ] ]
• Customizable, user-focused interface ] ] ]
CLOUD/MOBILE
ACCESS
• Work on the go with full-featured apps for the iPhone
and Android
] ] ]
• Capture a complete view with iPad dashboard reporting ] ] ]
• Maintain visibility and control from anywhere, anytime,
and any device
] ] ]
TOOL
CONSOLIDATION
• Do it all in one tool (request, prioritize, plan, assign,
execute, approve, deliver, and measure)
] ] ]
• Get data all in one place with tailored integrations for
critical point solutions and applications
] ] ]
• Eliminate _______ (#) of existing disparate point solutions ] ] ]
ENTERPRISE GRADE
SECURITY
• Ensure work is secure throughout the process ] ] ]
• Ensure compliance with company security and regulatory
requirements such as, SLA, SAML 2.0, HIPAA, PCI DSS,
SOX, FISMA, etc.
] ] ]

Why choose Workfront?
Workfront Marketing Work Management brings order to the chaos of marketing work.
“WORKFRONT HAS BROUGHT ORDER TO CHAOS. IT HAS ALLOWED US TO REGAIN OUR
REPUTATION FOR CREATIVE EXCELLENCE. IT’S ALLOWED US TO TAKE SMART, CREATIVE
PEOPLE AND TAKE AWAY THE BURDEN OF TRYING TO ORGANIZE THEMSELVES AND TRYING
TO FIND STUFF. IT ALLOWS THEM TO BE CREATIVE.”
–Bill Gattinger
Senior Manager, Traffic, Production Direct Marketing
ATB Financial
“WORKFRONT REALLY HELPS TO FOCUS THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN OUR
DEPARTMENTS. IT GIVES US A CENTRALIZED LOCATION TO TRACK, REVIEW, AND
ARCHIVE THE INFORMATION BEING EXCHANGED. IT PREVENTS A LOT OF THE STRAY
COMMUNICATION AND THE FRAGMENTATION THAT CAN HAPPEN WITH EMAIL AND
VOICEMAIL. WE GET STUFF DONE FASTER AND MORE ACCURATELY, WITHOUT A LOT OF
UNNECESSARY BACK AND FORTH.”
–Greta Mikkelsen
Director of Creative Services
Harry David
“BEFORE WORKFRONT, WE WERE BOUNCING BETWEEN SO MANY DIFFERENT SYSTEMS,
BETWEEN OUR INTERNAL PORTAL AND OUR PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE. WE
WERE USING EMAIL WAY TOO MUCH AND TRYING TO GET APPROVAL ON GRAPHIC DESIGN
WORK AND MANAGING BUDGETS WITHIN EXCEL, THEN EMAILING THOSE TO EXECUTIVE
MANAGEMENT. ALL THAT STUFF TOOK TIME WE DIDN’T HAVE.”
–Casey Floyd
AVP/Campaign Manager
Nevada State Bank

Get control of your work chaos
with Workfront
Having the right tools in place is imperative to the success,
efficiency, and productivity of marketing organizations. Marketing
departments and creative teams around the world trust Workfront
Marketing Work Cloud to help them:
• Improve team productivity
• Build credibility with internal clients
• Gain greater visibility into the team’s work
• Streamline processes and focus more time on creativity
workfront.com/marketing

Endnotes
1. Brenits, Andy; Schaffer, Jackie; Smith, Conor. “2013
In-House Creative Services Industry Report,” The
Boss Group, Cella, InSource, 2013. http://www.
creativeindustryreport.com/2013-In-House-Creative-
Services-Industry-Report.pdf
2. “2014 Workfront Marketing Inefficiencies Survey:
Executive Summary,” Workfront, 2014. www.workfront.
com/marketing-madness-survey
3. Lin-Fisher, Betty. “Office Distractions Make Getting the
Job Done Difficult,” Chron, February 27, 2006. http://
www.chron.com/business/article/Office-distractions-
make-getting-the-job-done-1663366.php
5. Chui, Michael; Manyika, James; Bughin, Jacques; Dobbs,
Richard; Roxburgh, Charles; Sarrazin, Hugo; Sands,
Geoffrey; Westergren, Magdalena. “The Social Economy:
Unlocking Value and Productivity Through Social
Technologies,” Mckinsey Company, July 2012. http://
www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_
internet/the_social_economy
7. Shirley Fine Lee. “Management/HR Statistics,” Shirley
Fine Lee (2014). http://www.shirleyfinelee.com/
MgmtStats

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