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Johns Hopkins Marketing is the internal public relations agency of the #1 ranked Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.
The agency’s rapid growth made project tracking and accounting unmanageable. A solution for remote employees was also sought.
Johns Hopkins chose Filigree from Intertwine Systems, a web-based tool for time management, project expense tracking and reporting.
The agency realized a 70% increase in overall productivity and improved project completion and revenue.
Johns Hopkins is a large institution, comprising Schools of Nursing, Medicine and Public Health and several hospitals. Johns Hopkins Hospital has been consistently ranked #1 in America by U.S. News and World Report, and Hopkins' Medical School is widely considered one of America's best.
Johns Hopkins Marketing (JHM) is Hopkins' internal communications agency. They handle public relations, marketing, special events and advertising for the entire organization. JHM is charged with making sure that the research and medical breakthroughs for which Hopkins is famous are effectively communicated both within the institution and around the world.
Begun initially as a small public relations department within Hopkins, JHM grew quickly to encompass all aspects of Hopkins' marketing, including web design, event planning, print magazines and video production. Staff expanded to include hundreds of employees in disparate locations.
Faced with such rapid growth, JHM's project management systems were not keeping up. Each location had a differing approach to assigning tasks, generating reports and tracking expenditures. Solutions included Excel spreadsheets, to-do lists, a blizzard of dueling memos and, in too many cases, old fashioned pen and paper.
The situation was especially frustrating for JHM's executives, who spent much of their time trying to determine what was being done and how much was being spent. According to one JHM staff member, preparing for the agency's periodic accounting became "a month-long nightmare" of phone calls, emails and meetings - taking valuable time away from the executives and busy professional employees alike.
Clearly, JHM's project tracking had to improve, but how? The agency looked at several off-the-shelf systems, like Microsoft Project, and also considered custom offerings from enterprise vendors like SAP. But those solutions lacked the needed combination of features, mobility, ease of use, and affordability.
Microsoft's product could track project timelines and help assign tasks, but did not work well across separate locations. And an enterprise system could be tweaked to meet JHM's needs, but costs were prohibitive and also redundant - Hopkins was in the midst of an institution-wide SAP software deployment, called Hopkins One, a complex new system with which JHM's project management solution would need to interoperate.
Fortunately for JHM, the beginnings of a solution were close to home. The JHM Print Division had worked with Intertwine Systems (ISI) three years earlier - Intertwine Systems had built them a web-based Project Invoicing Tool. The Tool had performed without a hitch, allowing the division to bill clients on time and accurately report on project income and expenses. In fact, the system had become such an integral part of the division's workflow that they had expanded it on their own, using it to track vendor expenses, staff costs and customer contact information.
JHM also recognized Intertwine as an approved and well-known Integrated Software Vendor for all of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Intertwine had deployed several successful projects for other parts of the Institution, including the School of Public Health, the Division of Endocrinology and the School of Medicine.
Aware of the looming issues facing the agency, the Print Division asked for Intertwine's help in expanding their small project system into a solution that might solve JHM's rapidly growing project problem.
Intertwine interviewed several key executives and employees in an attempt to tailor a solution to the client's needs. The most requested feature for employees was ease-of-use. They had all suffered through other large software integration projects, only to see them fail because the end product was too difficult to use.
JHM executives' number-one need was accountability. They needed a clear picture of how the agency was performing and where improvements might be best applied. All were hopeful that the new system would be online by the end of the fiscal year, in time for a major financial audit.
In order to meet all the client's requirements, Intertwine recommended not only expanding the old Invoicing system, but also upgrading to Intertwine's newer and more efficient Filigree System, which would provide:
The six month deadline would be a stretch, but both Intertwine and JHM dedicated themselves to making the new system a success.
Intertwine quickly went to work to implement the new project tracking system. All system functions were mapped out on paper and presented to the client for approval. Getting approvals in a timely fashion can be a challenge, but JHM solved the issue by dedicating one staff member to oversee the installation. In some cases, ISI developers sat side by side with JHM staff, to make sure all interface issues were ironed out.
A wrinkle appeared late in the project, when JHM's parent organization mandated a new objectives-based management structure. Working together, Intertwine and JHM were able to integrate the new changes with only a slight delay. After intense system testing and training of the JHM staff on new procedures, the system went live with great fanfare and celebration. And it was completed in record time – a bit longer than six months, but very fast for such a complex implementation.
A year after the system launch, JHM staff are still amazed at much the Filigree System has transformed their daily operations. Almost all of JHM's employees keep the system open on their computers all day - both Windows and Mac users. They are able to login to the system from anywhere in the world, making remote work a new possibility.
JHM executives are able to get an instant report on almost all aspects of agency business, including hours worked, cash spent and trend analysis. The agency has seen a 70% decrease in the time taken for project accounting, and has increased both the number of completed projects and quarterly revenue. In fact, the Filigree system had paid for itself in the three months after launch.
JHM has plans to expand the system even further, integrating the system with Hopkins' new accounting system and adding even more reporting options. One word from JHM’s Special Projects Coordinator captures Hopkins' feelings towards working with Intertwine to create a successful solution: "Wow!"
