The Problem
With a staff that’s dispersed throughout the United States, Europe, and South America, increasing efficiency has been a big focus for Founder/CEO Christoper Savage. Savage Global Marketing (SGM) is a digital marketing, design, and creative agency. They noticed that their company goals and business metrics were struggling, and - their team was feeling more disconnected than ever.
"As the global business landscape evolves, companies like ours need accommodating remote work models that work with us, not against us. We needed a place to ideate together and really buckle down to give our customers what they needed, rather than fighting with different tools in our stack, wasting time trying to get ahold of someone."
After testing out several products on the market, it was apparent that meeting tools heavily influenced team dynamics. Christopher realized that the tools they were using weren’t helping, and he needed something else to maximize his team’s capacity and sense of belonging. Despite the supposed convenience, tools like Teams and Zoom became a source of frustration, and as the weeks went by, Savage became determined to find an alternative.
The Solution
SGM came across SoWork, a digital workspace that connects his team effortlessly, regardless of where they live. SoWork also enables real-time collaboration, and offers a suite of features that streamline communication. After moving into their own Office, Christopher and his team noticed impactful changes right away.
"We tried a few other similar software options, but none of them had the user interface we were looking for, nor the ability to provide an experience close to working in a real office. We wanted to have a more cohesive feel, and really feel like we could work beside each other efficiently, day after day."
How Savage Global Marketing Uses SoWork
Christopher and his team designed their Office to help them meet effortlessly. When entering SGM’s Office you are greeted with a contemporary and vibrant feel. Personal workspots, cubicles, and office hangout areas hug all four walls of the Office. The center of the room is reserved for themed meeting rooms - company get togethers, one-on-ones, stand ups, and even meeting zones marked for rest and relaxation.
They use a combination of avatar location and online status to offer availability insights to others. Teammates sit in “Deep Work” areas when they're online but don't want to be disturbed, and they sit at their desks when they're online and available. When stepping out for lunch or to run errands, they'll park themselves in break rooms or sit in outdoor areas of the office.
This way, others know they're still around for the day, but they've just stepped out for a minute. It's this value of availability signalling, working together, and individual expression that has Christopher excited about his team's transition to SoWork.
SoWork Benefits
Smooth Collaboration
SoWork provides employees with a centralized platform to share ideas, work on projects, and provide feedback in real-time. The streamlined communication, levelled-up teamwork, and time-savings resulted in noticeable jumps in efficiency. With fewer barriers and faster access to information, project outcomes improved. They also see a faster time-to-market for new products and services. Features such as interactive whiteboards and project management tools facilitated smooth partnership across teams and departments, regardless of geographical location.
"One of the key factors for us was giving each team member the opportunity to create their own unique and engaging work environment. With SoWork, it's incredibly easy for team members to connect online, get stuff done, and engage with one another."
Productivity Tools
SoWork offers heaps of time-saving tools, each making the Savage team’s life easier. SGM have eliminated the need for back and forth meeting scheduling, and can maximize their time by using SoWork’s automated meeting summaries, action items, meeting recordings, and their in-app chat to quickly resolve issues, making decisions without delay. The meeting summaries and action items are produced by SoWork’s own Sophia Bot, a smart, AI Office Assistant that takes work off their plates.
"This extends beyond software adoption, it’s a glimpse into the future of work. Observing the positive transformation this introduces to our work environment is genuinely exhilarating.”
Availability Signalling
SoWork’s availability and status features helped improve their team’s focus and concentration, leading to higher quality work and faster task completion. This bump in focus is because Christopher’s team can set themselves as “Unavailable”, and can easily jump into periods of deep work where they’re able to get things done without distractions.
Conclusion
Savage Global Marketing used SoWork to save time, boost productivity, and completely transform their way of working. The platform's customizable features and variety of smart work tools empowered employees to work more efficiently from anywhere in the world.
"This is intuitive collaboration being facilitated by a wonderful virtual environment that defies all geographical boundaries. SoWork plays a crucial role in our team’s success and efficiency from a business perspective, while also giving us higher levels of connection with one another. It’s truly an amazing tool."