Online Education

How switching to Worksuite helped Teacher Created Materials save time and develop streamlined, custom workflows

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Challenge

Replacing an old, in-house app with a robust platform that could improve workflows and save time

TCM was initially managing their external proofreading talent with an application created by their IT department in 2013. Due to staff changes over the next few years, TCM was unable to keep the app updated. It was time to search for a new solution.

“It wasn’t worth the time and effort for our IT department to build what we needed when there were products already on the market that someone else could maintain, and find new and better ways to keep improving it.”

TCM did extensive research into the platforms that would fit their needs – narrowing it down to Worksuite and one other similar product. They ultimately decided on the competitor product – but experienced a rocky start to the relationship and an even worse ending.

“We had been using other competitors’ product for a couple of months. And then they sent us an email saying that they were not going to renew the contract. It was a little vague. We had a month’s notice to be able to find another application to use.”

As TCM had already done the groundwork on other suitable platforms, they knew that Worksuite was the best option for what they needed. The competitor also sent them a list of alternative companies they could contact – and Worksuite was on the list.

Now, we all have the same information and we can keep track of it. Historical knowledge doesn’t leave as people move to new positions in the company or leave the company altogether.”

Diana Kenney
VP of Publishing Operations, Teacher Created Materials

Solution

A robust platform that allows for greater complexity and customization – without needing any workarounds

TCM was previously using scattered systems across their department, including emails and spreadsheets. These processes were time-consuming when it came to locating specific pieces of data, and risked information getting lost as people changed positions or moved on.

“Now, we all have the same information and we can keep track of it. Historical knowledge doesn’t leave as people move to new positions in the company or leave the company altogether.”

During platform implementation, TCM was reassured by how much support they were getting in terms of training, setup, and problem-solving – especially when compared with the previous platform they were using.

“If there was a problem, [the competing FMS product] usually didn’t have a solution. I was forced to develop my own workarounds in their application. But Worksuite thanked me for bringing things to their attention. They offered me logical solutions to problems. The time they spent saved me a lot of headaches!”

TCM was impressed with Worksuite’s presentation. The training was tailored specifically to their team’s needs, and it was easy for everyone to understand. 

“When [the competitor product] trained our team, there were still questions and uncertainty. It was a disaster. They didn’t stay on the agenda I wanted, and talked about things that didn’t apply to my team. But it wasn’t that way with Worksuite. After training, my team was ready to hit the ground running.”

Worksuite was also able to set up customized workflows that automatically moved people through TCM’s freelancer approval process, improving onboarding efficiency internally and externally.

When [the competitor product] trained our team, there were still questions and uncertainty. It was a disaster. They didn’t stay on the agenda I wanted, and talked about things that didn’t apply to my team. But it wasn’t that way with Worksuite. After training, my team was ready to hit the ground running.”

Diana Kenney
VP of Publishing Operations, Teacher Created Materials

Result

The ability to scale as needed, plus create streamlined processes that save time for both TCM and their freelancers

Worksuite has enabled TCM to set up highly customized onboarding workflows that are more complex than what they had before – without sacrificing the ease of use for their in-house teams or for their external contractors.

With the dashboard’s clean and functional UX, the TCM team can create groups, do bulk editing, and enjoy advanced filtering options that they didn’t have before. It also gives editors, designers, and anyone else on the team the freedom to input their own data, with the reassurance that nothing is going to break. 

“Worksuite has a friendly user interface for both my in-house team and the freelancers. It gave us the functionality to be able to offer jobs to multiple people at once to measure interest.”

TCM is a company that cares deeply about their contractors. They found it reassuring that so many of their freelance talent quickly adopted Worksuite once it was implemented – logging in and setting up their profiles. 

With such a large network of contractors, Worksuite’s functionality saved TCM a huge amount of time that they would have had to otherwise spend onboarding people manually onto the platform.

“We’ve had a really great response with people immediately signing on and setting up their profiles. Our underlying fear was that we’d create an inconvenience for our external team. That didn’t seem to be the case.”

TCM has only recently started using Worksuite, but they have already noticed that the platform is making their workload easier to manage, with incremental time savings starting to add up when it comes to finding and hiring the perfect talent for their projects.

See how easy it is to onboard, manage, and pay your freelance network with Worksuite’s centralized, user-friendly platform.

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