"In a very accessible and convenient way, we can see how we are doing financially and operationally, at any moment."

Ambitious growth with real-time financial and operational insight

Once they still had all their employees around the table for lunch, but today SKINN BRANDING AGENCY has grown into one of Belgium’s largest independent agencies, with a team of more than 60 people spread over 3 locations. A management team takes care of the daily operations, but it goes without saying that the owners like to stay up to date with the facts and figures. Enter… BrightAnalytics!

“When we were still all having lunch together in one place, everyone always knew what was going on in various areas of our business,” Managing Director Ruth Bossuyt enthuses. “That is different today. Due to our strong growth in recent years, the tasks have now been divided. The management roles are now taken on by a management team, but the owners naturally want to keep their finger on the pulse when it comes to profitability, the number of ongoing projects, suppliers, sales compared to our objectives…”

Rather one version of the truth

SKINN BRANDING AGENCY has its data available in Teamleader Orbit and Exact Online, two packages that are often used in the advertising industry. “However, these packages do not dashboard sufficiently,” Ruth points out. “The data is in the system, but you don’t know how you’re doing on a financial and operational level. That’s why, until recently, we were making downloads which we put into Google Sheets. However, I am not someone who likes to spend eight hours every month doing the same thing, only to end up with a variation of the previous month’s result. And on top, this created an abundance of documents. I’d rather have one version of the truth.”

She decided to search for “dashboarding software” via Google and soon found herself with BrightAnalytics. After attending an information session, Ruth decided to also check out November Five, with whom SKINN BRANDING AGENCY co-locates in collaboration hub THE MARKET, in Antwerp. “Without knowing it from each other, November Five and us have already made many of the same software choices, she continues. “That’s why I dared to rely on their experiences. The sales meeting with BrightAnalytics was also good, we had a positive connection and the price tag fell within my expectations. After all, if we spend a lot of time every month transferring data from one software to another and making graphs and tables, it also costs us money. So I spent barely an hour thinking about whether I would choose BrightAnalytics or not, it was yes or yes.” (laughs)

Real-time financial and operational insight at any time

Today, Ruth has real-time insight at any time into the financial and operational parameters they find important at SKINN BRANDING AGENCY. “All data from Teamleader Orbit and Exact Online are brought together in BrightAnalytics. In a very accessible and convenient way, both the owners and the management team can see at any moment how we are doing financially and operationally. Insight into outstanding suppliers, costs, revenues, the turnover per month compared to our target and the performance of the same month in previous years, turnover per account manager or employee profile, profitability per project, profile or client…: it’s all possible. Everything is presented visually in tailor-made templates with tables and linked graphs, so that figures can be interpreted quickly.”

Ruth is also very enthusiastic about the cooperation and support. “Our questions are answered quickly; we don’t have to wait for solutions. We also have smooth contact with the support department since delivery. Meanwhile – as we continue to work with the software – we uncover new possibilities. For example, I’m going to put the preparations for our sales meeting into BrightAnalytics. This can be done simply by adding an extra tab. The more we work with the tool, the greater we discover its potential to be and see the way we use the software grow even further. So I would definitely recommend BrightAnalytics to others and colleagues in the advertising industry. Just do it, for me it’s a no-brainer!” she concludes.