In the communications sector (but not only), the use of independent partners(aka freelancers) is quite common.
Some companies accept it, others don’t, but that’s not the point here.
The real challenge for all of us is the same: how do we keep in touch with the frees we like to work with? The ones who help us win competitions and who are so nice that we invite them to the Christmas dinner every year. In short, those who are (almost) part of the office “family”.
Because let’s face it, the annual champagne and petits fours invitation isn’t necessarily enough to make Pedro-le-free our secure partner.
And from his point of view, it’s the same thing: how can he be sure that we won’t be unfaithful (or not very)?
That’s where a tool like Furious comes in.
List, centralize and share
First of all, a good freebie is like a good sales plan: you share it sparingly, either because you’re afraid it won’t be available when you need it, or because it’s become so obvious to you that you don’t think of talking about it anymore, except when Alice goes round the agency with cookies as a deal…
And yet, within the same company, it’s always better to share information, especially when it helps to improve the quality of what we deliver.
It’s also interesting that, with so many partner profiles to choose from, anyone can identify and contact THE rare pearl in 3D motion (for example) without having to go round all the offices (especially as we’re not all there at the moment) or spam everyone with mail/slack requests.
When we came up with Furious, we felt it was essential to be able to clearly list and tag the independent partners with whom our customers work, according to their skills.
All contact information, TJM, portfolio, previous assignments, etc. are available to all teams, who can identify – without disturbing the whole world – the most suitable freelancer for the project in just 2 clicks.
Then it’s just a matter of integrating it into the schedule.
Fully integrate
Some frees – as we said in the introduction – are so integrated that it’s hard to imagine doing without them. And while they may value their independence for X or Y reason, they too appreciate a certain “security” in the form of agency loyalty.
In fact, we have a number of customers who work partly with long-term freelancers on some of their activities (sometimes even a whole range of expertise).
It’s clear, then, that these partners, just like other employees, need to be fully integrated into management tools, particularly to streamline communication and optimize human resources. With Furious, they can access schedules and tasks with complete autonomy, encouraging more effective collaboration and better organization of projects.
In a light approach, Furious opens up the planning and TODO ticket views to external partners at no extra cost.
In addition, as part of a more comprehensive approach, it may be worth proposing to these VIPs (Very Indispensable Partners) that they take charge of their Furious license. In this way, for a fee of between 200 and 250 euros/year, while retaining their independence, freelancers can forge a privileged partnership with their customers, becoming an autonomous operational resource via Furious.
This saves project managers the hassle of going back and forth between planning and projects, simplifies the sharing of creative resources, and builds loyalty between partner and agency.
An interesting win-win situation that some of our customers and their frees have clearly understood!
