HZ

With so many different types of projects and file formats, the way HZ reviewed creative work varied a lot. “We’d upload PDFs to our internal servers and email a file path to that PDF to the relevant teams for review,” said Stacey DeOrzio, SVP, Client Relations at HZ. “Each person would take turns reviewing it because you could only comment on the PDF one at a time. Other times, we’d print hard copies of the creative, which meant feedback wasn’t captured in one place. Either way, it was a slow, inconsistent process that opened us up to errors.”

After testing various solutions, HZ found that most of the technology tools for creative review and collaboration had way too many features and were hard to use. OpenText™ Hightail™ was different. Its user-friendliness and ability to make the review process much quicker meant no more waiting to review creative content one person at a time. Users can add precise comments to PDFs, videos and visual files in real time.

Prior to Hightail, when using another popular project management tool, conversations often led nowhere. People would ask questions, but nobody would take responsibility, so no action was taken. With Hightail, tasks are assigned to specific team members with due dates attached, which helps ensure the next step is taken. “Nothing gets left hanging. With OpenText Hightail, it feels like we’re saving a lot of review rounds and jobs are closing faster than our normal timeframes,” said DeOrzio.

The approvals feature in Hightail has been most useful in promoting efficiency. “We love the way you can request approval from specific people,” said DeOrzio. “You want the entire team to be able to access the work and leave comments, but only a few people need to be approvers. Being able to call them out and request their approval in a specific order has been very helpful.”

After the initial test, HZ felt confident Hightail was the right choice for creative content collaboration. “Hightail’s partnership and support throughout the trial period and on-boarding process gave us no hesitation whatsoever that they were the right partner for us,” said DeOrzio. Obtaining buy-in from the CFO and daily users was easy, in large part due to Hightail’s ease of use. “When new employees join HZ, they spend a few minutes learning how it works and off they go,” said DeOrzio.

Once comfortable using Hightail internally, HZ started to roll out the new process to select clients. Previously, they shared PDFs with clients and collected their feedback by email. Now, clients can use Hightail to leave comments exactly where they want the edits. They can also access all campaign assets in one place, see what’s been approved and track the creative progress from one version to the next. “It’s been such a positive experience,” said DeOrzio. “We’re starting to introduce Hightail to more clients.”