Agency software (advertising agency)
Under agency software (also: Agency program, agency management software ) is understood to be a software which advertising agencies , media agencies , dialogue marketing agencies or similar permits to present their projects and jobs in a clear and organized effective, time to work... In this context, there is also talk of the workflow , which is mapped and optimized in the agency software . Another important task of the software is the recording of in-house and external services and costs of the agency at the project level and thereby to enable project or job controlling with the aim of increasing the agency's turnover and reducing costs. The recording of project and working times also plays an increasingly important role in obtaining more detailed evaluations of the efficiency of products. In addition, the focus is on improving service quality, which can be achieved by improving communication with the customer.
Components
Many agency programs have a modular structure. The following modules and functions are usually offered:
- Contact management (create contacts, history entries, import and export of contacts)
- Calendar management
- Project management with project controlling, project planning (mostly in diagram form)
- Document accounting (document entry, incoming and outgoing invoices)
- Time recording, also for freelancers
- Personnel and resource planning
- Document management
- Employee management including flexible working hours model
- Interfaces, mostly to DATEV ; Online banking (e.g. SEPA ); Spreadsheets like Excel ; E-mail programs (using POP3 or IMAP protocol), MAC, Entourage, Microsoft Exchange, external project management tools such as Jira or business intelligence solutions such as Microsoft Power BI.
- Evaluations of projects, company areas, customers, suppliers, employees and, less often, forecast options
In addition, many programs have further classifications and subdivisions of modules and functions. There are no guidelines for this. Rather, a certain range of services customary in the industry has grown out of history and practice, which is presented and implemented differently by the providers.
Technology and platforms
Many agency programs emerged in the 1980s. The basis were applications ( application programs ) based on FileMaker . The disadvantage of these programs was that they cannot be operated via the Internet, but only locally. With the PHP interface, FileMaker now offers a way to work platform-neutrally and to circumvent the problems of pure web-based solutions. In order to meet the trend towards web-based programs, some providers redesigned their FileMaker-based programs to browser-based solutions. Most of the time, the providers of web-based programs are new companies that specialize in Internet solutions right from the start. The demand for cloud computing solutions and software as a service (SaaS) is growing ever greater, as many companies can no longer host their own server with the required efficiency and the security, guaranteed operation and regular updates of SaaS are guaranteed.
The trend towards the automation of more and more corporate processes is increasing. This results in a stronger networking of applications and further interfaces to other programs via API are developing . Another way is to convert the development platforms to a service-oriented architecture (SOA), with which the agency software can be more easily accessed by external programs. Mobile presentations are also becoming important. Responsive views and mobile APPs, for example for time recording, are made available.
In the German-speaking region there are 9 agency programs that largely map the entire work process of agencies and focus precisely on it.
Web links
- Andreas Horbelt: Agency software in practical use - practical apps and programs for agencies. In: Event Partner.
- Agency software 24 providers in comparison. In: OMT.
literature
- Werner Lippert: Annual Multimedia 2008. Regensburg 2008