Project Management Software for Marketing Agencies in Vancouver

The launch that eats the retainer

Most agencies carry two shapes of work. A launch campaign arrives as a burst: a fixed date, a pile of assets, several rounds of client feedback in the last week. A retainer is the opposite, a steady monthly run of posts, newsletters and reports that nobody shouts about.

When both land on the same designers and writers, the launch wins every argument. The retainer work slides a little each week, the monthly report goes out late, and the hours that went into the launch were never logged against it, so the account looks more profitable than it was.

ShipSprint gives each client its own board, with a WIP limit on every column. A full "with client for approval" column is visible to the account lead before it becomes a bottleneck, and the retainer board keeps its own limits instead of being absorbed into the launch.

Seeing who has room before you say yes

A new client asking for a campaign start next month is a capacity question first. On Team and up, the manager dashboard shows who is carrying which accounts, and capacity planning counts approved leave and out-of-office, so the plan reflects the people who will actually be at work.

In Vancouver, mark the Christmas to New Year period, Canada Day on 1 July and Thanksgiving in October on the plan early, along with British Columbia's own statutory holidays. A campaign timed to go live around one of those dates needs its production finished before the team thins out.

Everyone starts the day on a "my day" screen: today's tasks, a one-tap time log and an "I'm blocked" button that brings in the person who can unblock it, with context. A designer waiting on copy doesn't need a status meeting to say so. There are no screenshots, keystroke logs or activity tracking.

On Business, the owner command center shows every client side by side and a Monday digest arrives assembled, which saves the agency owner rebuilding the week's picture by hand.

Vancouver agencies: what to know about the vendor

Who sells it. Quantuva Technologies Pvt. Ltd. of Hyderabad, India, builds ShipSprint. There's no office or local entity in Canada. Support is by email and in-app chat.

The time gap. IST is 13 hours 30 minutes ahead of Vancouver in winter and 12 hours 30 minutes ahead in summer. Support usually replies the same working day in India, which falls during your night, so set up client boards a few days before a campaign kicks off rather than on the morning it starts.

Invoices and currency. You pay per seat in Indian rupees through Razorpay and your bank converts the amount to Canadian dollars. Whether GST/HST or BC's PST is due on a foreign software subscription is a question for your accountant.

Client data. Canada's PIPEDA, and British Columbia's provincial privacy law where it applies, govern personal information such as campaign contact lists. Before uploading any, check the sub-processor list and the security overview against your own obligations and what your client contracts allow.