The Flight Centre Travel Group Canada is a large travel organization headquartered in Vancouver and Toronto. Their in-house creative team manages the design needs of 9 brands under the Flight Centre Travel Group umbrella.
“Our team is responsible for a high volume of projects with widely varied turnaround times,” said Cambie Sidhu, Assistant Team Leader of Flight Centre Travel Group’s Creative Studio. “Projects range from quick local store marketing flyers and vouchers to multi-channel national marketing campaigns. It’s a fast-paced environment where it is challenging to keep on top of everything.”
The in-house team decided it was time to find a better way to track and manage projects. “We were looking for a solution that was web based, cost effective and user friendly,” said Sidhu, “One that included personal to-do lists and request forms, and that allowed managers to track project statuses easily. Our ’must have’ features would help make time tracking easier, reduce the need for status meetings, and do away with verbal or email requests.”
Flight Centre’s Creative Studio had previously used a system that was not web based. “We found we were barely using its functions because it was so hard,” said Sidhu, “Mostly we used paper tickets and manually recorded our time, which would then be transferred into the system at month end. It was inefficient and complicated.”
The design group had heard about FunctionFox, but only in terms of its being a task manager. “During my search for a new system, I found that FunctionFox had evolved into a more elaborate system that offered the kind of capabilities we needed, yet still maintained a clean and simple interface,” said Sidhu. “We rediscovered FunctionFox, and subscribed right away, when we saw how easy it was to use, and how well it was supported by the customer service team.”
FunctionFox has worked extremely well for Flight Centre’s Creative Group. “Our design team uses it effortlessly,” said Sidhu, “And projects no longer slip through the cracks during handover. We’ve found an increase in buy-in from the rest of the company as well — they are using FunctionFox request forms now, instead of giving us an ‘over-the-shoulder’ verbal brief. The only thing we had to add was the ability to collaborate across departments. We use Workplace for that, and FunctionFox for project management within teams.”
It took Flight Centre’s Creative Studio about a month to set up the FunctionFox system and work out the kinks, although training the creative team was complete within one or two weeks. “FunctionFox has had a positive impact on our business,” said Sidhu, “Not only have we streamlined the project request process, but FunctionFox has also made project management much more efficient. I can flip through each designer’s workload, delegate quickly, and re-assign projects as needed should timelines change.” Sidhu finds the FunctionFox interface very simple and user-friendly, and appreciates that the customer support team is always very quick to resolve any issues or questions.
“The best thing about FunctionFox is really the customer service,” says Sidhu, “I think it’s so important to get the most out of the software we invest in, and avoid any frustrations in its use. Our rep Darren and the FunctionFox customer success team have always been quick to resolve any issues. What stood out from the very beginning was Darren’s dedication to making sure the software was the right fit for us. He was extremely knowledgeable about the software and would look into all the details about how we planned to use the system. Now 2 years later he is still making sure we’re getting the most out of our software. Highly recommended!”
For more information about Flight Centre Travel Group, visit www.flightcentre.ca