Productions Plus provides staffing for a variety of industries and events. For 23 years, the agency has been well known for providing live event staffing to represent brands in the automotive and retail industries. In addition, they have a thriving theatrical business as one of the largest SAG/AFTRA-franchised talent management agencies in the Midwest and cast talent for film, television, stage, commercial, and voiceover projects.
Outdated staffing technology standing in the way of growth
In 2020, Productions Plus was using a combination of Excel sheets and an older, on-premise CRM to run the business. It had an extensive talent database, cultivated over years, but the senior leadership team knew that their existing technology was holding them back.
What they needed their staffing platform to do
Productions Plus needed technology that could:
- Be customized to fit their needs and align with leadership’s vision for the company
- Integrate and update data in realtime
- Enable all five lines of business to work together in one place and actively manage the talent database
- Streamline and automate marketing workflows to improve communications with prospects and talent
- Improve overall visibility and quality of data to create actionable analytics
“We needed a solution that understood the nuances of our business and could be customized for our needs … we’ve had challenges in the past because of the size of our organization and the flexible, nimble way we work.”
Jennifer Fiddler, Vice President, Productions Plus
A flexible, client driven staffing tech partnership
Productions Plus considered multiple CRM solutions, but after hearing positive buzz in their network about Senegal Software, they decided to implement the senegalHIRE platform, with the CRM and Marketing modules.
The implementation and rollout moved in iterative phases:
- They took a “train the trainer” approach by starting with a group of employees who spanned the complete breadth of Productions Plus’ lines of business
- Future trainers learned through a combination of live and virtual training sessions with the Senegal Software team as well as training videos
- Productions Plus’ newly minted trainers worked with Senegal Software to evangelize adoption throughout the company
- Senegal Software partnered closely with Productions Plus to ensure they were getting the features and customizations they needed to take their business to the next level
“The team at Senegal Software was fabulous at bringing things to life. They’re great people. That means a lot in business, other people bleed us dry without understanding our vision and what we are trying to do.”
Julie Eklund, COO, Productions Plus
Results: Streamlined, scalable functionality meets powerful analytics
Since implementing the senegalHIRE platform with the CRM and Marketing modules, Productions Plus has realized many benefits from their partnership with Senegal Software.
These benefits include:
- Low-friction, more efficient communication with talent and clients
- Increased efficiency in processes for booking talent
- Truly scalable staffing capabilities where Productions Plus can fill shifts quickly without duplications or other scheduling errors
- The ability to measure engagement with their talent database
- Easy-to-navigate interface and high-quality user experience
- High-impact reporting and analytics
Looking to the future
“Senegal Software went above and beyond any vendor I’ve worked with.”
Jennifer Fiddler, Vice President, Productions Plus
In the near future, Productions Plus plans to implement the FINANCE module within the senegalHIRE platform. Senegal Software is currently working to add estimating functionality into its FINANCE module, which will help the Productions Plus sales team when quoting future projects for potential clients. In 2024, Productions Plus will review the LOGISTICS module, specifically the shipping features to assist with the management of its thousands of wardrobe assets.
Ready to learn more about Senegal Software? Let’s talk: contact us.