2015 COUNSELORS ACADEMY AGENCY TECHNOLOGY

BENCHMARK STUDY

TECHNOLOGY Keeping up with technology is important to agency leaders. How important?

Very Important

Important

Somewhat important

8%

28%

64%

The vase majority of firm leaders say technology has aided in increase agency revenue. How great has the bottom-line impact been?

Increased greatly

Increased slightly

Stay the same 24%

26%

50%

TECHNOLOGY The technology issues challenging firms today are:

50% Maintenance

45% Reliability

45% Security

41% Complexity

39% Employee training

6% Employees wanting to bring their own devices to use at work !"#$#%&'()*+,-.$&/%*(01$*&/%$*2#3

70% Costs

How knowledgeable agency leaders on cloud technology?

37% 46% 8%

9%

9% Very knowledgeable

46% Knowledgeable about

37% Somewhat knowledgeable

8% Not knowledgeable

STAFFING

Outsource

How do agencies staff IT?

50%

Of those that have in-house IT the magic number of IT employees they have is ONE!

Do not have dedicated IT support

Combination of in-house and outsourcing

In-house position(s) (full-time)

20%

18%

12%

SPENDING

The 2014 spend on outsourced IT services by agencies was:

$0

$1 - $2,499

$2,500 - $4,999

$5,000 - $9,999

$10,000 - $14,999

$15,000 - $19,999

$20,000 or more

8%

8%

16% 13%

29%

12%

14%

SPENDING

$10,000 or less

$10,001 - $25,000

$25,001 - $50,000

$50,001 - $99,999

$100,000 or more Increase

11-15%

Increase 6-10%

Increase 1-5%

Remain Flat

Decrease 1-5%

Decrease 6-10% Decrease

11-15%

2014 overall technology spend (outsourced services, subscriptions, software and hardware) by agencies was:

Tech budgets are up in 2015. Agency leaders report 2014 technology spend verses 2015 technology budgets as follows.

14%

49%

20%

11%

6%

3%

2% 2%

13%

19%

29%

31%

SPENDING The technology issues challenging firms today are:

1% 4$%,(5$%67%*$2,.-1-89%".5$&*'$.*&%+1(.$:%;-)%<=>?%

64% Computer hardware

(i.e. desktop, laptops)

43% IT infrastructure (i.e. servers or cloud storage)

30% Mobile hardware

(i.e. tables, smartphones)

22% Customer relationship management (CRM)

systems

21% Accounting system

12% Marketing

automation tools

50% Media monitoring services and tools

44% Social media

management tools

45% Agency management tools

(i.e. timesheets, accounting, project management)

AGENCY TECHNOLOGY

17%

We do not use agency

management tools

38% 13% 13% 8% 7%

LiquidPlanner WorkFront (formerly At Task)

Wrinkel

2% Asana

ClickTime Trello

The agency management tools reported to be in use by agencies include:

5% Workamajig

3% Mavenlink

1% AccountWorks Act Admin Function Point

AGENCY TECHNOLOGY

4%

We do not use an accounting system

67% 19% 15%

2%

2%

Agency leader say the accounting systems most often in use include:

My Agency Management System is my

accounting system

Peachtree Software SAP Timeslips

1% Accpacc FreshBooks Juris MYOB

AGENCY TECHNOLOGY

38% 21% 10% 4% 3%

Pipedrive Sage SharpSpring Sugar

The Customer Relations Management systems (CRM) most used by firms are:

1% Hatchbuck Highrise Insightly Outraport

My Agency Management System is my CRM system

My Agency

AGENCY TECHNOLOGY

73%

We do not use a marketing automation

system

10% 4% 3%

Nearly three-out-of-four agencies say they don’t use marketing automation technology inside their firms. The tools that are in use include:

7.*)(+-)*%@"15$)+-+%@+)-A*%@-2"(1%

1% B2*C-.%D-.&*(.*%D-.*(2*%E(*2,0A2F%

G.;A&"-.&-H%I("1D,"'+%I()F$*-%

4%

SHAME ON YOU…

AGENCY TECHNOLOGY

27%

14%

10%

4%

61%

50%

36%

19%

12%

31%

47%

67%

6%

2%

4%

5%

6%

Across the board, satisfaction with the back-end technologies use to run agencies is high. How satisfied are agency leaders with these technologies?

Very satisfied

Satisfied

Can take it or leave it

Unhappy

Very unhappy

Accounting system

Agency management systems

CRM system

Marketing automation system

55% 52% 51%

18%

Finderbinder Gorkana Globe Vocus

2% DowJones

What’s the media contact or distribution tools used by agencies today?

9% MyMediaInfo

5% Meltwater

PitchEngine

1% CustomScoop Agility CNW Iris

CLIENT SERVICE TECHNOLOGY

15%

12%

What’s the media contact or distribution tools used by agencies today?

11%

We do not use contact/distribution

tools

73% 56% 34%

27%

Reputation.com Salesforce Trakker Vocus

2% CustomScoop

Hubspot Meltwater

Social media monitoring tools in play at agencies today include:

8% Sysomos

4% Social Mention

1% Dasheroo Netbase Nuvi Raventools

CLIENT SERVICE TECHNOLOGY

14%

12%

10% Buffer

13%

We do not use social media monitoring

tools

2% Talkwalker

Tveyes

The clipping and monitoring tools agencies rely on are:

4% MyMediaInfo

3% CustomScoop

CLIENT SERVICE TECHNOLOGY

1% Mediatracker.com

73% 21% 19%

10%

6%

The clipping and monitoring tools agencies rely on are:

13%

We do not use clipping/monitoring

tools

Computer hardware (i.e. desktop, laptops)

Mobile hardware (i.e. tables, smartphones)

IT infrastructure (i.e. servers or cloud storage)

Media monitoring services and tools

Social media management tools

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems

Agency management tools (i.e. timesheets, accounting, project management)

Accounting systems

Marketing automation tools

PURCHASE POWER

56%

56%

51%

40%

38%

62%

60%

57%

55%

11%

12%

12%

4%

3%

8%

24%

33%

7%

9%

9%

8%

21%

19%

20%

9%

7%

26%

22%

18%

27%

3%

5%

5%

1%

2%

4%

2%

4%

2%

30%

35%

5%

5%

1%

8%

Who’s responsible for researching and recommending agency technology?

President/CEO/Partner/Principal/

Owner or equivalent

CFO or

equivalent

VP-Level or equivalent

IT director or

equivalent

Account team

Computer hardware (i.e. desktop, laptops)

Mobile hardware (i.e. tables, smartphones)

IT infrastructure (i.e. servers or cloud storage)

Media monitoring services and tools

Social media management tools

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems

Agency management tools (i.e. timesheets, accounting, project management)

Accounting systems

Marketing automation tools

PURCHASE POWER

80%

81%

80%

71%

70%

75%

79%

75%

73%

9%

9%

8%

6%

6%

10%

16%

20%

9%

5%

7%

5%

20%

20%

13%

6%

5%

16%

5%

3%

8%

22%

5%

2%

2%

Who’s making the ultimate purchase decisions on agency technology?

President/CEO/Partner/ Principal/Owner or

equivalent

CFO or

equivalent

VP-Level or equivalent

IT director or equivalent

WHO ARE YOU 57% President/CEO

29% Principal/Partner

9% Vice President

1% Director

TITLE 8% none

40% 1-5

17% 6-10

16% 11-20

10% 21-50

10% 51+

FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES

$$30% $500K and under

19% $500,001-$999,999

22% $1M-$1,999,999

5% $2M-$2,999,999

6% $3M-$4,999,999

10% $5M-$9,999,999

9% $10M and higher

ANNUAL FEES

$ANNUAL FEES

$

WANT THIS DATA?

www.arketi.com/AgencyTechBenchmark

Use of this data or publishing of this data must include a citation note its source as the “2015 PRSA Counselors Academy Agency Technology Benchmark Study”

Mike Neumeier, APR Principal mneumeier@arketi.com 404.929.0091 x210