Advertising agency Ampersand Design boosts quality of service with Koho’s collaboration tools

Ampersand Design Oy is an advertising agency founded in 2016 in Lahti. Their slogan is “Joyfully versatile” and they provide communications, advertising, marketing and online visibility for businesses and communities, delightfully tailored to individual needs.

Ampersand has had several different ERP systems in place over the years, but nothing has seemed to fit their specific needs. With their eyes wide open for a better alternative, they started looking at what other ERP systems were available domestically in the autumn of 2023.

“We ended up comparing two systems. Many foreign systems are of course good, but my requirement was a direct and well-functioning integration with Procountor’s financial management software,” says Samuel Pasanen, CEO of Ampersand Design.

Koho’s versatile collaboration tools and the system’s differentiated workday and task clocking made a strong impression on Ampersand, and Koho was quickly selected as the winner of the comparison. The implementation project started in November 2023 and the first invoices were sent out via Koho in December.

The Customer Portal’s collaboration tools further improve Ampersand Design’s customer satisfaction

The Customer Portal makes it easy to share materials with both sides, and even discussions can be found in one place. Koho’s Customer Portal is built to support collaboration between companies and their customers to improve service quality. This was one of the factors that influenced Samuel Pasanen’s decision to buy.

“We’ve told our customers that there’s no point in having ‘what do you think’ type discussions via emails, let’s have them directly on the Portal,” says Pasanen. He sees a reduction in email traffic as a way to improve efficiency by making things centrally available to those concerned. The Customer Portal also allows them to collaborate effectively with their customers around projects.

Discover the Customer Portal here →

The Project Portal brings transparency and increases trust

The Project Portal is one part of the Customer Portal and it enables the sharing of entire projects with the customer and efficient collaboration around them as a whole. It greatly facilitates keeping the customer on the same page about the project and also increases trust in the service provider.

“We truly see a lot of potential in the Project Portal – that’s a major reason why we chose Koho. Our desire is to make the progress of the project transparent to our client and thereby further improve customer satisfaction.”

Samuel Pasanen, CEO, Ampersand Design Oy

With the Project Portal, Ampersand’s customers can directly see the budgets and schedules set for the project and its phases, and how they are being met. The customer does not need to ask unnecessary questions, but can easily assess the situation themselves and discuss it in a central location.

“We have pieced together our client’s marketing year clock for the whole year in the Project Portal. All the actions for each month, all the campaigns and all the ongoing marketing activities are there. For example, if we are working on July now in June, the client can easily see that hours are being clocked up for July, meaning that July is already progressing at this stage,” says Pasanen.

Pasanen also gives a big plus to how receptive Koho has been to Ampersand’s development wishes, and the Project Portal has been further developed based on their suggestions.

Time tracking at Ampersand is now much more accurate and easier

Toinen Kohon valintaan vahvasti vaikuttanut seikka oli järjestelmän tuplakello, eli Kohossa työpäiväkello on eriytetty tehtävien kellotuksesta. Ennen he kirjasivat ylös jokaisen pienenkin sisäisen työn, jotta työpäivän kokonaistuntimäärä tulisi oikein. Tämä jäi historiaan ja nyt työntekijöiden tarvitsee vain laittaa työpäiväkello päälle töihin tullessaan ja pois päivän päätteeksi. Laskutettavat työt kirjataan erikseen asiakkaittain ja ne tulevat toimitusjohtajalle käsiteltäväksi.

Ampersand Design’s employees report that Koho has made tracking their working hours more accurate and much easier than before. It is now clearer to see where the hours are going and also who is present.

”This is one of the things I’ve always wanted to solve, and Koho is again a notch better than our previous solution.”

Samuel Pasanen, Ampersand Design Oy

Koho’s customer service is equally commended for its quick response time and the efficient internal allocation of service requests to the right person. Pasanen says he could recommend Koho to a wide variety of companies, while noting that many customers and partners from a wide range of industries already use Koho.

If a company is facing challenges, especially with project management and time tracking, Samuel Pasanen urges them to certainly look into Koho.

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