and scale
and scale
01 Who is CallRail?
CallRail develops a marketing analytics application that’s used by over 65,000 companies and agencies around the world. They help businesses grow by giving them insight into which marketing channels are driving results through attribution of inbound sales leads. Their product is set apart from competitors by its intuitive UI, flexible pricing, and the the use of machine learning for Conversation Intelligence. They also have a pretty neat office.
Before Targetprocess, CallRail used a tool that was essentially just a bulletin board and a task list. It became clear that a central point for data and collaboration was needed. Their CTO had some experience with other tools, but found that Targetprocess was the only solution that could both reflect their custom workflows and scale with the company as they grew and processes changed.
02 How they use Targetprocess?
CallRail made the switch to Targetprocess in 2016. They now have eight cross functional teams working in the system. Customer facing teams, such as Support, Marketing, and Sales, use the Service Desk to submit bugs and feature requests to development.
Bryan Elder, Product Director at CallRail, is pleased with how well everything has come together:
CallRail’s main process for handling work involves a mix of Scrum and Kanban. Typically, a User Story is added to the backlog from an incoming request or an existing roadmap item. Every 2 weeks, the CEO and CPO move priority work from the backlog into the “Planned” state, without assigning it to a team. They then meet with Product Owners to look at team bandwith, and assign teams.
Every week, Bryan holds a company-wide product catch-up meeting where he shares and reviews what’s currently in development. To prepare for this, he has written an API that asks Targetprocess to upload data into a Google spreadsheet in a nice, clean format.
For the rest of the company, the most commonly used view is a Kanban board that’s been customized to reflect CallRail’s process. Teams use filters so that everyone can just view their own work.
03 The benefits
One of the key benefits for CallRail is the time that their teams have saved. There’s nothing that gets in the face of developers and distracts them from their work. Targetprocess is integrated with Slack, so important notifications can be seen right from CallRail’s central communication hub.
Bryan is particularly pleased by the cross-team unification that Targetprocess has enabled. Customer facing teams now have a central place to communicate with developers and track information that’s important to them -- without having to waste time exchanging inquisitive emails or Slack messages.
04 Recommendations for other companies
For companies that are looking for the right tool, Bryan recommends careful research and an open mind.
Testimonials
- #Customers Targetprocess is called a Leader and wins in customer satisfaction! When customers are delighted, we feel inspired to do even more.
- #Use case The epay story Before Targetprocess, epay used a mixture of tools and Excel sheets to handle daily operations. They needed a solution that could reflect the status of multiple projects, and unify teams’ efforts in one central location.
- #Use case The CallRail story "Targetprocess is the central point for our product development process. All our information is in one place. We have developers, designers, product owners, QA engineers, all looking at it."
- #Use case Synchronizing Targetprocess with other tools Tasktop has used Targetprocess for over two years. The connector they develop is known as the Integration Hub, and can help you integrate Targetprocess with other tools in your stack.
- #Use case Grakn's (mostly) Agile Methodology A tale of herding software startup cats, and how Grakn customized their process to find the workflows that fit them best.
- #Use case How we use Targetprocess at Comensura "The first thing I do in the morning is open up the tool, and there’s my whole agenda for the day, complete with important details and team communications."
- #Use case Transparency and engagement through Kaizen culture SPRINT METAL is an industrial company that has customized Targetprocess to foster an environment of transparency and open communication at their factory.
- #Use case The AOE story AOE is an open source software development, integration, and consulting company.
- #Use case The Agora Roermond story Agora Roermond is an experimental high school in The Netherlands that's breaking away from the limitations of traditional education.
- #Use case Achieving visibility and transparency across a global organization Actemium helps its clients around the world to design, build and maintain their industrial installations and infrastructure.
- #Use case Implementing SAFe to scale agile globally While we can't disclose the name of this enterprise, we can tell you that they are involved in the production of heavy equipment and have teams on every continent