Seven Bytes Media demonstrates how to automate an agency

About Seven Bytes Media

Since 2011, the marketing and digital agency Seven Bytes Media has been all about digital topics: Starting with the design and programming of professional websites and online stores to digital marketing of companies on the Internet. The wishes and goals of their customers are clearly in focus. Especially in the last two to three years, Seven Bytes has grown significantly. Stackfield has been in operation since mid-2020. "We are continuously evolving, especially through internal process optimization and tools like Stackfield," says Nicolai Maihöfer, CEO of Seven Bytes Media GmbH.

The initial situation

A wild mix of different tools: Often a workaround when the ideal product fails to materialize - a tool with all the necessary functions in one place. For a long time, Seven Bytes tried a combination of several providers. The agency's entire communication was handled using Slack, time management including time tracking ran via Toggl, and project management was done through Trello. However, such clear separation caused more problems than relief. Maihöfer wanted to merge the functions into one tool, and preferably a GDPR compliant one.

Stackfield convinces with its data protection and all-in-one solution

In 2020, Maihöfer was looking for a tool that would meet his requirements and was well positioned in terms of data protection. A recommendation from one of his customers came in just handy. The customer, a data protection officer, invited them to communicate in Stackfield and thus automatically granted them initial test trials. Afterward, a test phase at Stackfield was soon to follow.

Stackfield offered time tracking and project management in one - exactly what Maihöfer was looking for, because keeping Trello and Toggl up-to-date and aligned was harder than he thought. In Stackfield, he could easily track project time tracking on a task basis and include it in his project management. The fact that communication could also be mapped in Stackfield was another stroke of luck for Seven Bytes Media. The all-in-one tool offered what it promised: Maihöfer was able to replace Slack, Trello, and Toggl with a single tool and link their functions.

Automation with WebHooks and Zapier

The automation of individual processes, especially those involving contact with customers, was of particular interest to Maihöfer right from the start. The fact that Stackfield offered the use of WebHooks was therefore ideal. With the help of WebHooks and the online tool Zapier, Maihöfer now handles the application process, among other things, right within the agency.

Each applicant is specifically guided to Seven Bytes' career portal. Using a WebHook, a built-in form plug-in is connected to Stackfield via Zapier and thus automatically forwards each application to Stackfield where it is created as a task. The task contains all relevant information that is of interest to Seven Bytes. It is automatically assigned to an employee and provided with a date. The corresponding employee or the mailbox responsible for applications receives an additional email notification and is thus informed about the incoming of new applications. This way, each application has a direct person responsible and no relevant information is lost.

With WebHooks, Nicolai Maihöfer has discovered great potential for automating processes. Not only applications but all incoming information are forwarded from the website, landing pages, and social media to Stackfield.

Framework for projects using room templates

Together with its clients, Seven Bytes Media works on numerous projects, such as website redesigns or online store creations. In the process, tasks often duplicate with different customers. Nicolai Maihöfer has taken advantage of these duplications and now benefits from room templates: "A website project is based on several stages with several tasks. Each process has its own task with checklists. We built task templates for that. When we start a new website project, we have a room template with standard task templates." Not only does this save Seven Bytes Media time in configuration, but it also prevents important steps from being overlooked.

How structured the work within the individual projects has become through Stackfield particularly influences project management as a large whole. "We can map many more projects in parallel. With websites or online stores or even branding campaigns, a project often stands still because a client needs to give feedback. Because of that, we built a project pipeline. In other words, an active projects board in which all active customer projects in various phases are listed." The responsible project managers can easily identify the status of each customer and project. Seven Bytes Media thus prevents projects from stagnating in the long term.

Additional weekly meetings and automatic reminders to re-date tasks give Maihöfer a feeling of security. No information is lost anymore, and no task is forgotten.

Remote Work is now easier than ever

Through personal onboarding, which is also geared toward Stackfield, Seven Bytes Media ensures that new employees are also familiarized with the tool immediately. They are expected to get used to the now particularly intensive use in the agency and to be able to engage in the familiar processes. Communication, projects, time management: all processes are now handled specifically via Stackfield.

Building custom reports proves to be the favorite feature

With individual reports, Seven Bytes Media receives cross-room overviews and can save itself a lot of time. Long searches for individual entries are no longer a problem. The controlling department in particular benefits from the report function when it comes to billing. Each task to be billed, such as support tasks, is marked with different labels in the room. Reports are then used to filter out all tasks marked with the label. The controlling department is automatically notified about newly labeled tasks via a connection implemented with WebHooks and can then view the individual tasks via the reports. Maihöfer is particularly fond of reports in combination with recurring tasks.