HOW TO LET WORK FLOW IN A CREATIVE ENVIRONMENT

One of the problems with managing a creative team is trying to simplify the process so that the whole project can be centrally managed for maximum efficiency.

As well as organising the creative workflow, it is vitally important to ensure optimum brand protection in a global market dealing with companies who often require supreme flexibility and customised interfaces specific to their needs.

Well organised creative workflow enables smooth interaction between individuals within the creative team. It involves marketing asset and media managers, along with brand and project managers, working together to manage the production and approvals process for the web, social media, photo and other marketing materials.

This structure enables top creative minds to collaborate effectively in an intuitive environment, where there is more scope for innovation and less constraint imposed by processes.

Successful creative workflow involves a wide variety of elements, including: streamlined jargon-free project management; artwork annotations; centralised single online hosting solution; multi-stage approvals and notifications to speed up production; group comment and discussion; event and scheduled driven messaging/ notifications; people, projects and tasks views.

The benefits of using creative workflow software are enormous and varied, and the results speak for themselves.

For example, overall costs and workflows can be centrally managed by the software, which facilitates collaboration by means of user-friendly commenting, approval and audit processes.

Moreover, ideas and assets can be shared in a secure environment, and time and money can be saved. Paper trails are reduced, as is reliance on emails, and there is less risk involved.

Another key feature of creative workflow is that it helps eliminate bottlenecks, giving a clear view of creative processes and allowing resources to be efficiently redeployed.

Of particular significance is the fact that workflow software allows creative teams to collaborate on projects at any time of the day, thus reducing the risk of missing deadlines and costly re-designs and re-schedules. It provides a single source of information, secure yet accessible anywhere in the world.

In short, companies can use creative workflow to govern the various processes from concept right through to the final fulfilment of brand asset management.