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Challenge

Real-Time Tracking

To plan production efficiently, you need to know, in real-time and with as much detail as possible, what needs to be done vs. what has already been done. This is why tracking is an important – and challenging – aspect of any studio operation.

Common Obstacles

What's the problem (and our solution)?

Questionable accuracy and timeliness
If you rely on manual processes to track production progress and studio performance, you can't always trust the data's accuracy – but you can trust it won't be available to you in real-time.
Our solution: Complete and automated tracking
In Creative Force, every action, every step, every item is tracked and logged automatically and in real-time, guaranteeing accuracy and timeliness. And when you can trust your data, you can take action.
Making tracking accessible
Having data is all well and good, but how you can – or cannot – access your data makes all the difference. Keeping track of production with spreadsheets, emails, or a range of disparate tools and metrics makes it difficult to gain actionable insights.
Our solution: A single source of truth, updated in real-time
Our cloud-based platform provides up-to-date progress tracking throughout production, including detailed information about which steps were completed, for which samples or products, when, and by whom.

A closer look

Tracking in Creative Force

Production View

The Production View in Creative Force is a high-level overview of production status that can be filtered, customized, sorted, arranged, and ultimately saved into views easily accessed with one click.

You have control over these views and can save as many as your team needs. This makes it easy to run reports, e.g. in advance of meetings. And because Creative Force is updated in real-time as production occurs, reporting is always complete and timely.

Gamma Production Tracking

Kanban View

A recurring theme in Creative Force is easy access to information. Whether it's assets, samples, or production status, information on the platform is simple to find and understand.

Few Creative Force tools model this as much as Kanban View. It's a simple but powerful way to visualize the state of production in your studio.

Kanban View in Creative Force has three columns: to do, doing, and done. The information in each column is pretty much what it sounds like: samples that are to do, in progress, or completed for a given task.

Gamma Production Tracking

Kanban View is updated in real-time, reflecting up-to-date production status for each task in your studio, making it easy to get a high-level sense of the workload for each task as well as sample-specific information.

For tasks such as photography, Kanban View is informational. For tasks such as final selection, Kanban View is how you access the function on the web app: simply select sample records to work on, and once you've picked image sets to review, click to begin the process. If you started but didn't finalize your selects, the sample record will stay in the doing column, where you can resume your work by clicking the record.

This view in Creative Force is symbolic of how we strive to make your creative production as easy and streamlined as possible. Important information is available quickly and easily, so you can focus on things that add value to your team and stakeholders.

Reporting and Insights

To effectively operate a content production studio, you need to know what's going on in the process at any given time. Many studios rely on team members to self-report, or they wait for data transfers to complete and then run tedious reports. In these instances, mistakes can happen, information can be outdated or no longer relevant, and worst of all, processes that are intended to gain insight can be cumbersome, becoming a burden for your creative teams.

Because of the extensive automation in Creative Force, insights into your production are just a few clicks away, and you can be sure they are accurate and up-to-date. As the work naturally progresses through the studio, performing each function automatically updates the production status.

A result of this automation is the ability to get reports and insights in real-time for almost any aspect of your production process.

One of the many reports available is the Kanban Flow Report. This report gives you a Kanban-style view of each step in your production process, with visual cues for things that may require your attention, such as samples that are still in production but were checked in more than the usual number of days prior.

Another example is the Post-Production Vendor Report, where you can get real-time data on asset throughput, rejection rates, and turnaround time of any of your vendors who are integrated with Creative Force.

Feature Focus

The Insights Tab

While the processes that power our detailed data insights are running automatically and out of sight, the Insights tab is accessible with a simple click from our web-based application, Gamma.

To translate all the data collected throughout production, we've created a number of useful standard reports (such as flow reports, progress reports, sample reports, and vendor reports), but can customize reports for any business need or KPI.

Here, Daniel Jester shows you just a few examples of actionable data in the Insights tab.

Learn more

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Creative Force, and how does it work?

Creative Force is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that helps brands and retailers accelerate their eCommerce creative content production. It simplifies the process of planning and producing eCommerce content, improves cross-team collaboration, and ensures more transparency across every stage of production. With Creative Force, companies always deliver the highest-quality content on time and on budget.

Built on “flow production” principles, our platform utilizes intelligent automation to streamline workflows, resulting in consistent and repeatable processes. Creative Force also integrates seamlessly with existing systems, like Capture One and Adobe Creative Cloud, and features an intuitive interface.

How does flow production work?

In traditional batch production, all assets go through a single production stage before moving to the next step. This approach can lead to bottlenecks and delays. 

Creative Force simplifies content production through a continuous process called "flow production." This process involves moving individual assets through various production stages as soon as they are ready, resulting in an efficient and scalable content production workflow.

Who can use Creative Force?

Creative Force is for brands, retailers, and commercial studios with in-house or external teams that produce and manage eCommerce content, such as photography, video, and copywriting.

Creative Force provides intelligent workflow automation, enhanced production visibility, and a range of collaboration tools that benefit all teams, including studio intake, styling, capture, post-production, marketing, and more. By choosing Creative Force, you can scale your content production, gain better operational visibility, and speed up time-to-market.

Does Creative Force integrate with my existing systems?

Yes, Creative Force is designed to seamlessly integrate with your existing tech stack. We have industry-leading integrations with Capture One, Adobe Creative Cloud, and more.

The platform’s API-first architecture enables our customers to seamlessly connect with Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems, Product Information Management (PIM) systems, cloud storage platforms, and any other required destinations. 

Creative Force also makes it simple to work with external post-production vendors via FTP or API integrations.

Finally, our VPI Management extension makes it simple to work with product vendors to request, receive, and manage vendor-provided images (VPI).

What kind of support can I expect?

We understand that implementing a new system can be challenging, but our team is here to make the process as seamless and stress-free as possible. Our onboarding team will work closely with your team to set up Creative Force and empower your future success.

After onboarding, your Customer Success Manager will check in regularly. Our customer support team is also available 24/5 to help you with any product questions or concerns. In addition, we offer self-paced learning resources such as academy courses, help center documentation, and other materials to help you along your Creative Force journey.

In addition to providing best-in-class customer support, we continuously update our platform with new features and improvements. Our biweekly releases can be easily installed without interrupting your work.