Picture this – you are looking to strengthen all areas of operations for you and your team, so you go down the project management software google search results rabbit hole. And not in an Alice in Wonderland or music festival kind of way. Coming out of it, chances are you have yet to find a solution that satisfies your needs. Sounds familiar? Perhaps you need to invest in creative operations software instead!
Recommended readings:
Secure Your Future Success: The Complete Creative Operations Guide
Creative Operations: How Can You Help Your Creative Team Thrive?
Before you explore the wondrous world of creative operations software, there are a few key concepts and differences between the two types of software to iron out. So, here it goes:
1. Lytho’s Creative Operations Software Is Built for Designers and Marketers
It is in the name. While other types of software are mass-designed in a one-size-kind-of-fits-all type of way, creative operations software caters specifically to the unique needs and wants of creative professionals and teams. Some of the exclusive features included in a creative operations solution include:
1. Creative Briefs
Capture all the minute details of a request and optimize the request intake process altogether. Choose your preferred template from a wide selection of preinstalled ones, or easily create your own and customize it as you see fit. Set your projects up for success before they even start!
2. Review + Approval
Software to provide clear and concise feedback. This is possible thanks to the extensive functionality that allows you to leave granular comments as you like for specific parts of an asset. Review + Approval also enables you to direct feedback to specific team members, so everyone knows who the feedback is for and what needs to be changed.
3. Create + Publish
A tool for your communications and documentation. Quickly identify fully on-brand templates to use for your internal and external documents. Say goodbye to off-brand collateral and the significant costs of designing the templates and assets associated with them in the first place. Bring your costs down and your brand alignment forth.
4. Resource Management
Software that allows you to track project participants’ progress and availability. View all incoming requests, current tasks, and assign them by priority to the right team member. See who is available to take on more tasks immediately and when everything is due. Add and remove project tasks and participants as you see fit.
5. Asset Management
A platform that makes adding the right taxonomy to your assets for optimal discoverability a piece of cake. Add all your creative assets to a single spot. Avail yourself of issues relating to missing files, incorrect tags, and multitude of storage places. Share files securely by selecting who you wish to access each asset.
6. Brand Center
A platform to store all your brand collateral – logos, guidelines, style guides, internal and external documentation, recordings, video assets. No matter the format, you name it, we support it. The brand center tool is specifically designed to categorize your assets so that you can manage multiple brands and collateral for multiple departments under a single platform.
2. Project Management Software IS Part of Creative Operations Software
Amply evident from the tools and functionalities outlined above, this one is easy to piece together. The simplest reason to choose creative operations software over project management software is the relationship between the two. You see, project management is embedded into and part of creative operations! Think of it as purchasing spare parts when what you need is a new car. Why would you go for a few pieces that will not fix anything when you can have the whole thing instead?
3. Lytho’s Creative Operations Software Future-Proofs Creative Professionals
The most crucial point of all – our creative operations solution was created with creative professionals in mind. We always look at the most pressing needs of creatives for inspiration and guidance on what features we need to add next. We do so by conducting interviews and surveys with creative leaders around the globe. In this way, we remain acutely attuned to the challenges and concerns creative teams face. This enables us to perform helpful and meaningful updates, alongside our wide range of tools already available.
If your wish is to provide your creative team with tools that will remain faithful to their evolving needs and demands, then selecting a creative operations suite over generic project management software is a big step in the right direction.
Your Questions Answered:
What Is the Best Software to Use for Creative Operations Management?
If you are looking for the best software to use in managing your creative operations, you need a solution whose tools fulfill every step of the creative lifecycle; from the initial request and creative brief creation all the way to archival and reuse of assets. Lytho’s creative operations platform achieves just that.
Which Are the Six Main Types of Creative Operations Tools?
There are six main tool categories that together correspond to the entirety of the creative lifecycle that a creative operations solution should offer:
- Creative Briefs
- Review + Approval
- Create + Publish
- Resource Management
- Asset Management
- Brand Center
What Is Creative Operations Software Used for?
Creative operations software is used for effectively managing the entire conceptualization, planning, and execution process for all kinds of projects. By using such a tool, you can automate manual tasks, let the software deal with repetitive tasks, and store your assets in a single place. You also get access to a range of templates to expedite project planning and project execution. Additionally, you can keep track of progress and availability to assign work efficiently. Finally, the software lets you provide quick and effective feedback to the audience of your choice.
Who Uses Creative Operations Software?
Creative leaders, project managers, marketing leaders, and every other professional that manages a (creative) team that organizes its work in projects needs a creative operations solution. By using the tools that come with it, leaders have a 360 view of everything their department is working on. In this way, they can make the best-informed decisions, delegate work appropriately, and provide feedback when and where necessary.
What Is a Significant Advantage of Creative Operations Software?
The most significant advantage of Lytho’s creative operations software is its Review + Approval tool for providing clear and accurate feedback. It enables you to leave granular comments as you like for specific parts of an asset. Review + Approval offers a direct feedback functionality so everyone knows who the feedback is for and what they need to change.
How Does Creative Operations Software Help a Business?
Creative operations software helps businesses by providing them with the most optimized project management experience to date. Creative Briefs offer an enhanced starting point for gathering all project info necessary. Review + Approval lets businesses provide targeted, thorough, and specific feedback to project participants. Create + Publish gives businesses access to a wide array of templates to choose from so all collateral remains on brand.
Resource Management gives a business a detailed overview of what everyone is working on, who is available, and how long tasks take. You can use such metrics to better anticipate project runtime in the future. Never lose an asset again – tag it by using the appropriate taxonomy with Asset Management. Finally, businesses can store and govern all their valuable assets under a single Brand Center.
Are you interested in creative operations software that will provide you with the support needed for future ones? Lytho helps you streamline your entire workflow and harmonize all brand collateral under a single, uniform platform. Feel free to reach out to us by scheduling a demo and learning how our creative solutions can boost the effectiveness of your creative projects. We look forward to speaking with you!
Do you want to give yourself and your creative team more room for creative stimulation by automating the boring stuff? Lytho helps you streamline your entire workflow and harmonize all brand collateral under a single, uniform platform. Feel free to reach out to us by scheduling a demo and learning how our creative solutions can boost the effectiveness of your creative projects. We look forward to speaking with you!
Ready to simplify your creative operations and start having a little fun at work again?
Schedule time to talk with us.Let us show you how Lytho’s Creative Operations Platform helps in-house creative and marketing teams do better work, ease the stakeholder experience, and stay on brand.
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