Flawless project management and budget management for Option Media

For over thirty years, Option Media has provided video and audio post-production, translation, subtitling and dubbing services for a variety of customers. As a "full service" media company, this Mechelen-based SME gathers all technical facilities and services under one roof. "We mainly target television channels, production houses, film distributors, advertising agencies and streaming platforms," says Ingrid Van Dijck, who joined the company fourteen years ago as operations manager.

Ingrid's duties are very diverse. She is responsible for internal workflows at the production and technical level, but equally for administration, accounting, payments, contracts, rights arrangements, legal issues and human resources. "We work here with about 20 people, mostly professionals from the audiovisual sector such as audio and video operators, translators and project coordinators and planners," she explains. "On cross-departmental projects, I myself also serve as an operational link."

In-depth research

Project management and budget management pose considerable challenges for a multidisciplinary player like Option Media. That's why the company started looking for a supporting tool ten years ago. "We approached that search thoroughly with in-depth research," recalls Ingrid. "After comparing several packages, three candidates remained. Subsequent interviews and demos ultimately resulted in a clear preference for ionBIZ's solution."

"That choice was decisive due to a combination of factors. We immediately had a good feeling during the first meeting. The local character - the Belgian office of ionBIZ is also located in Mechelen - also played a role. But of course the possibilities of the software were decisive. Especially the graphical interface of the planning module, which is really essential for us, immediately felt very intuitive and insightful. And of course, affordability was also a determining factor."

Smooth integration

In their own words, the integration of the software went very smoothly.

Ingrid Van Dijck: "We had clearly told the people from ionBIZ beforehand in what order the implementation had to take place. More specifically: CRM and tenders first, and then projects. They were very flexible about this. Thanks to good preparations and our joint efforts, we were able to switch seamlessly from the old to the new system. That happened during the Christmas vacations of 2015."

Since the beginning of 2016, all twenty Option Media employees have been using the ionBIZ solution on a daily basis for planning, project management, budget management, post calculation, project allocations, timesheets, leave requests, vacation schedules, counters and reports, among other things.

"For each project, we always start from a working budget, which serves as the basis for the quotation," illustrates Ingrid. "You can then immediately assign the necessary resources and link a concrete schedule to it. Because each person involved also enters their timesheets directly into the system, as a coordinator or producer you always maintain a real-time overview of all costs. The package is also very flexible, so you can easily adjust certain parameters - such as hourly rates."

The strengths of ionBIZ according to Option Media

Meanwhile, Ingrid and her colleagues have been working with the ionBIZ software for more than nine years. According to her, these are the main strengths of the package:

• All tools under one roof: "We used to have a separate CRM package, a planning tool, a budget spreadsheet in Excel, a paper system for time registration, ... ionBIZ brings everything together in one central software environment. That's a real gamechanger that provides significant time savings and significantly reduces the margin of error."
  
  
• Everything is linked: "Because all relevant information is always linked to the right project, you always keep your finger on the pulse. So you know at any time whether a project is ahead or behind budget. Moreover, you can display all projects below each other in the dashboard. That way you maintain a good overview at all times."
  
  
• Easily assign rights: "Extra convenient is the fact that the software lets you assign rights to the various people involved in a flexible way. You determine what producers or sales people can see - for example, the quotation but not the work budget. Delimiting such information is an important asset."
  
  
• Local point of contact: "The contact with the people at ionBIZ is optimal. Unlike with large providers, here we can fall back on a local point of contact with an intelligent help desk. We have a direct phone line, we visit each other, .... That way we are always supported quickly and well."