Guests at the Cologne advertising agency “Adunique”

How to regain control over projects and finances within six weeks

Stress with the tax advisor

“Time sheets in Excel, project communication on call and a tax advisor who used to throw his hands up in horror”; this is how André Pass, Founder and General Manager of Adunique Interactive GmbH, describes the situation before the introduction of Revolver. Stress with the tax advisor was the main motivation to purchase an electronic organization solution at the beginning of 2008.

A good invoicing program was needed. However, the management team at Adunique quickly realized that invoicing alone would not be sufficient to be able to present issues such as time records and project controlling.

Orientated towards Rolls-Royce solutions at first

“We thought long and hard about our requirements and started researching agency software on the internet”, says André Pass. The initial main criteria were: how large is the manufacturer and how long is company present on the market? “We initially oriented ourselves towards the largest providers with the ‘Rolls-Royce solutions’, explains Timo Michel. “To be on the safe side, we then contacted their reference customers and asked whether they were satisfied with the solution and whether they would purchase it again”. Twelve manufacturers were short-listed and six were invited to present their product.

The risk of a 30,000 Euro investment was too high

The heads of the agency were not particularly pleased with their choice. André Pass: “the whole plan was too risky from a costing point of view. The acquisition alone would have cost us 30,000 Euro plus approximately 10,000 Euro for customizations and the ongoing update and maintenance costs. That would have been a heavy strain on our overheads. Apart from this, we did not know how our employees would react and whether obstacles would be put in our way.”

It was Tim Köhler, also General Manager of Adunique and an affiliated company, who brought Revolver Office into play in June 2008. He had seen Revolver in practice at the fellow Cologne agency “i-gelb”. Pass and Michel visited this agency on 17th June.

A fellow agency recommended Revolver

Pass, who actually preferred a browser-based solution, was surprised. His first impression was that “Revolver is ergonomically aesthetic and intuitive and meets all requirements down to the core”. What’s more, it was obvious that the people at i-gelb were convinced about Revolver: “they do not use all of the functions but they are very pleased with the functions they use”. André Pass arranged an online demonstration with a Revolver customer consultant on 25th June.

The decision was made just two weeks later on 7th July and the license code was received in Cologne on the same day.

There were just six weeks between the decision and introduction.

“We knew that the introduction of agency software is time consuming”. The responsible persons were therefore all the more astonished that just six weeks went by between deciding upon Revolver and the introduction of the customized software solution. “We are simply a fast company”, says Pass with a smile.

A welcome side-effect to the introduction of Revolver was the involvement with agency’s own organization: André Pass: “we have positively used our ‘need for structuring’ and have finally sorted our forms and business documents while optimizing the coordination processes.”

Almost all Excel lists abolished

André Pass draws a conclusion: “The introduction of Revolver was worth it. We are fully satisfied. We have managed to record almost all processes in Revolver and have abolished almost all of the previous Excel lists. The only list which is left over is the holiday planner. Revolver runs steadily and even the performance from home offices is very good.”

Timo Michel adds: “we did not put ourselves under pressure as an agency. We started in stages and set ourselves several target dates for the introduction. This means that we made it easier for the employees to get used to Revolver little by little”. And our tax advisor is not pulling his hair out anymore.