Fixing Broken Systems
Moving fast and breaking things works best when there are structures in place that can withstand the pressure. Production Services came in to update and fine-tune this client’s systems to ensure their staff and freelancers had everything in place to achieve maximum results.
The Client
This client is a young, award-winning studio with A-list directors. They’d been working with SYZYGY as an accounting client for the past few years, and they had been managing to win new work due to their talented roster. However, they lacked the production mastery and organization to establish themselves as a smoothly running production company with bandwidth to grow. They had been operating in an unsystematized way and unable to find the time to wrap jobs properly, and the accounting team was growing concerned.
When SYZYGY’s Production Services was launched, the client saw an opportunity to give their Head of Production access to a team with a proven track-record of production expertise and operational successes, providing some much-needed consultation as well as practical support at a critical juncture in their business.
The Challenge
“As our team changed, certain processes kind of fell to the wayside.”
The Head of Production ran a very small team. With their attention solely on the work, there was no time to look at the company’s processes or address operational pain points. Between bidding new work, servicing awarded jobs and attempting to wrap completed ones, the HOP needed some relief and a seasoned professional to advise on best practices and put systems in place that would allow them to go the distance.
The Solution
“With the help of SYZYGY’s Production Services, we were able to put more time and focus on the systems we needed to update and upgrade. Their team has a wealth of knowledge and experience, and they were familiar with what we do so it all came together, and we got the help we needed.”
Our team got to work on reconfiguring their digital filing system and updating their production guidelines. We collaborated with our client to ensure each topic in the guidelines - from prep through wrap - was covered to their liking and communicated clearly. We worked in tandem with the SYZYGY accounting team to address trouble spots from prior jobs, covering every conceivable accounting scenario. With the basics done, we began creating standardized freelancer onboarding processes, advising on best practices for editorial integration, updating p-card systems and payroll start-work packets, filing for certificates to hire minors and state tax exemptions, and more.
The newly implemented protocols allowed the internal production team to focus on new business and growth, while Production Services saved both the staff and the freelancers time (and headaches) by making the important and updated information digestible and accessible.