ProofHQ works with many retailers on all kinds of marketing collateral – both print and digital. Last week, The Times published an article titled “Grocers put their faith in coupons as shoppers go back to basics.” What I have found interesting is that the impact Sainsbury’s has made with printed coupons flies in the face of everything we assume about marketing in the digital age, mainly that print will eventually fade into obscurity as retailers focus their attention on digital.
ProofHQ team spans 4 continents
The ProofHQ team continues to grow with team members in USA, Europe, Asia and Africa.
One of the reasons that we have been able to grow so quickly is that we can hire the very best people, no matter where they live. We have worked very hard to develop a strong culture that supports remote-working. This includes constant communication on Skype and regular face-to face meetups of the whole team.
Check out this Google map, which shows you the location of each ProofHQ team member.
View ProofHQ team locations in a larger map
April service levels
Uninterrupted service is at the top of our priorities. Each month, we publish our service uptime statistics for the previous month to give you peace of mind.
Below is our monthly uptime report for April 2012:
Uptime: 100 %
Check period: 3 minutes
# of checks: 13,807
# of outages: 0
# of failed: 13
Avg. response time: 0.169 s
Why four of the top ten global retailers are using ProofHQ*
ProofHQ is used by hundreds of retailers, including Walmart, Tesco, Walgreens and Home Depot, to manage feedback and approval on marketing and design projects
ProofHQ is used by a large number of leading retailers to deliver marketing projects more efficiently, accelerate speed-to-market and manage approvals by distributed review teams. We wanted to find out what is driving such rapid uptake of ProofHQ in retail.
In a recent survey of ProofHQ customers** we found a number of common factors:
Planned Maintenance Saturday 28th April 2012
Here at ProofHQ, we release new code approximately every three weeks. Most of the time we manage those releases without having to take ProofHQ off-line. However, occasionally we need to take time out to run a more complex release. This weekend is one of those occasions and we will be taking ProofHQ off-line at the following time:
- Saturday, 28 April, 06:00 to 07:00 BST
- Saturday, 28 April, 01:00 to 02:00 EDT
- Saturday, 28 April, 00:00 to 01:00 CDT
- Friday, 27 April, 22:00 to 23:00 PDT
The maintenance is expected to take approximately 1 hour, after which time, normal service will resume. As always, we appreciate your patience and support in letting us provide you with the best service that we can.
In the meanwhile, should you have any questions, you can always contact us at support@proofhq.com.
- Mat, Anthony and the ProofHQ Team
iPhone & iPad App: Log-in on the Go!
The ProofHQ iPhone and iPad apps now include their own dashboards.
Simply load the app on your device. Then, enter your ProofHQ log-in details and you will be taken to the app’s dashboard.
Introducing Auto-Compare
We have released a new feature that automatically compares differences between two versions of a proof, or two separate proofs.
When you are in compare mode, simply click the new auto-compare button in the center of the screen:
Scribit: Sourcing ideas for content marketing
We wanted to share a great service called Scribit, which helps content marketers source and publish high-quality original content.
Content marketing is one of the most powerful ways to drive leads. Providing a regular flow of engaging content keeps a brand front-of-mind, positions a brand as a thought-leader and encourages readers to share content in their own social networks. However, there is a continual challenge for marketers to deliver new and compelling content.
Scribit is a new service from Vertical Acuity that helps content marketers source great content from a huge database of resources, and helps publishers syndicate their content to other sites. The advantage of the Scribit service is that readers stay on your site rather than being taken away to the content provider’s site.
Here is a short movie explaining more about the service:
Hat tip to Techcrunch for this story.
Clear roles to improve team collaboration
The idea of “creative collaboration” conjures up images of artistic, free-thinking right-brainers working together in a loosely defined environment to produce stunning and original creative ideas. Giving a team of highly creative people a clear project path, but freedom to define their roles on a project seems like a sensible approach, and the one most likely to produce the best results.
However, research by HBR Blog Network contributor Tammy Erickson shows that the opposite may be true. Her article The Biggest Mistake You “Probably” Make with Teams explains why setting clear roles for creative teams actually improves collaboration and creative thinking.
Setting clear roles helps team members collaborate quickly without wasting time negotiating roles or on “turf wars”. If a project goal is defined ambiguously, a creative team will be more likely to collaborate closely to define and reach the goal together. She gives the example of a medical team in a hospital dealing with a trauma patient. If the team had to negotiate roles e.g. anaesthetist, surgeon, in advance of starting work on the patient, time would be wasted and the patient would be put at risk. With clearly defined roles the team can get to work immediately and focus on the needs of the patient.
Another example given was the structure of creative teams at the BBC. The research showed that BBC staff had very clear perceptions of their individual roles, whilst the creative objectives of the projects they worked on were often quite ambiguous. Clarity on roles reduced friction and allowed the teams to work creatively.
The benefits of establishing clear roles apply to online proofing teams as much as any other creative group.