SUCCESS STORY - Go Traffic Interactive

"Metafuse has developed a tool that really works and that has helped us grow our business.
--V. A., Managing Director and Owner, Go Traffic Interactive

The Company
Based in Napa, California, Go Traffic Interactive is a multi-discipline agency specializing in strategies for increasing online traffic through design and usability, web development, search engine optimization and online advertising. Founded in 2004, the team worked in internet design, commerce and marketing for national and international corporations prior to opening their own agency.

The Challenge
Go Traffic Interactive works on a variety of web and print projects for both large and small companies, from building site traffic to complete website overhauls for e-commerce. As with many development groups, V. A. and her team were constantly fighting to control costs on projects. "Scope creep is very typical in this industry. Often, people don't realize that an extra fifteen minutes here and there can really add up to a lot of time. We knew that if we couldn't thoroughly track and manage our time we would eventually lose a lot of money," V. A. explained.

The Go Traffic Interactive team includes members working remotely, including one working from Bolivia. To manage its projects, the team had begun working with Creative Manager. V. A. said, "It did give us a whole lot of information that we needed, but it was remarkably slow, so we decided just to shut it down."

The group then began relying on spreadsheets, which quickly became cumbersome and hard to manage. At this point, it was complicated just to pull a report of time to convert to billing. As the business grew and the company added a full-time project manager, "We knew that the only way for us to control costs was to have a genuine project management tool," said V. A.

The Solution
Go Traffic Interactive's project manager began researching project management systems and began focusing on a few key candidates. The group specifically needed solutions for the following areas:

• Tracking team members' time from multiple locations
• Up-to-the-minute invoicing
• Task management
• Calendars and timelines.

V. A. explained, "I spent some time looking through what the project manager recommended and what fit out criteria. I was most impressed with Project Insight because it was fast, user-friendly, and answered all of our needs."

Another aspect of Project Insight that stood out right away to Go Traffic Interactive was its cross-platform nature. V. A. noted, "Our designers are all MAC people and our tech people only use PCs, so the fact that Project Insight works on both PC and MAC was a key selling point."

The Results
Go Traffic Interactive purchased Project Insight in August of 2005 and was working live by September 1st. Reporting that it was easy to use, V. A. believes that the time Project Insight saves the company is its biggest benefit. "It's a huge benefit," she says. "It has saved me hours and hours and hours of time. I can pop in, look at where we are on projects, pull a time entry report, then see how much time we've accumulated. It gives me a great amount of security to know where we are with our projects."

With eleven current users working internally, but separated geographically, Project Insight is more than serving its purpose. V. A. said, "It helps tremendously with cash-flow projections, how many hours have been completed, where we are with a project, what the percentage complete is, which in turn helps with our internal cash control."

Asked about Metafuse, the makers of Project Insight, V. A. reported, "It gets back to customer service. They've developed a tool that really works and has helped us grow our business. I feel really grateful and I think of this team as one of our partners in business because they've helped us so much. The thing I appreciate most is that when a business that offers its assistance time and again, you have an ally. Their service is absolutely excellent."