Three Ways to Streamline the Review Cycle for Your Virtual Event

As a Deltek Customer, you know that Insight, our annual user conference, is something to look forward to every year. At Insight, you hear from product experts about upcoming product enhancements, best practice guidance, and everything else you need to know to get the most out of your Deltek solution. This year, we decided to make the event virtual. And because of that, the Deltek Agency Solutions team had the awesome opportunity to develop more dynamic content than ever before for our prospects and customers across the globe.  The opportunity was exciting, but the challenge was a bit daunting.

As a Traffic Manager in my agency days, I’m well-versed in the challenges that accompany a video production project of this magnitude, especially when it comes to the final stages of reviews and approvals (R&A). I remember clearly how long it took to reconcile bits of feedback by searching endless email chains, decipher exactly what was meant by some vague comment, chase down reviewers, and redo changes that were given on the wrong version. Back then, managing the review cycle manually was always a huge speed bump that caused costly delays and frustration. Not only to myself, but for the rest of the team as well.

And for a project like Insight, where we were producing thirty-three different videos, with a team of ten people, spread across five different countries and time zones, it would have been so easy for the R&A process to escalate from a speed bump to a brick wall.

But that didn’t happen.

With ConceptShare, our team was able to streamline the review cycle and reduce the usual delays, so that we could produce as much content as we wanted, without any worries that we could deliver on time.

Here’s how:

1. Cut the chord

These days, when most people are working in a distributed team, having a cloud-based solution is just table stakes. And because our team was spread all over the globe, across multiple time zones, ConceptShare made it easy for reviews to be accessible for anyone, from anywhere. We created Reviews with clear direction to align the team on what needed to be reviewed and when, which saved time by eliminating the need for briefing meetings. Then, we scheduled email reminders for each Review that automatically observed each reviewer’s time zone to ensure nobody would accidentally miss a deadline.

2. Centralize & Organize

This is where the value of ConceptShare is on full display. Comments are centralized into a single source, which eliminates the step of reconciling everyone’s feedback, before revisions can be made. Intuitive markup tools made specifically for video files allowed us to be crystal clear about the frames that needed to be revised.

And if a comment does need to be clarified, we could simply reply to that comment or use an @callout to alert the commenter for a speedier response.

As the Project Coordinator, ConceptShare also kept me organized. The Reviews screen gave me an overview of every Review, with details on assets, due dates and reviewer progress.  That way, I knew which Reviews needed my attention most and could follow up with the review team to ensure they met their deadlines.

And because of its built-in hierarchy, I knew every comment was stored in the right place. From original scripts, to storyboards to the final recordings, I could follow the progression of revisions for each asset, in each Review, that all laddered up to the Insight 2020 project.

3. Version, version, version

At such a rapid pace of production, its common for reviewers to accidentally pick up an out of date version on which to give feedback. But with ConceptShare’s strict version control, we never had to worry. As soon as a new version is uploaded, the old one is locked to prevent comments from being added to an out-of-date version. And for assets with a large number of revisions, the side-by-side feature made it easy to check that every change had been made correctly.

In the end, the Deltek Agency Solutions team produced the most ambitious catalogue of virtual sessions we’ve ever had. And it simply wouldn’t have been possible without ConceptShare.

If you missed Insight this year, don’t worry! You can register to watch the Deltek Agency Solutions sessions at any time on demand through December 31, 2020.

For a description of our WorkBook and ConceptShare sessions, check this handy guide to help you develop your watch list.

Help us Improve your Deltek Agency Solution

Deltek is always looking for customer feedback and strives to continually improve our products to better fit your needs. At Virtual Insight 2020, we launched a series of customer experience surveys. Let your voice be heard – sign up and we’ll contact you to participate in ongoing research opportunities including studies, surveys and more. Sign Me Up!