Learn How We Use Our Own Software Every Day

Our product is versatile enough for everyone to use, including ourselves!

We’re always delighted to hear from our users on how well they’ve adapted Accelo for their needs. But for those of you who may not already know, Accelo uses its own software to run its day-to-day operations, too! We thought we’d give you some more color on exactly how Accelo uses its own product in various departments throughout the company. Plus, take a look at our system here and start a free trial. 

1. Operations

"I run my entire day out of Accelo - flipping between different request queues to reply to vendors, servicing our customers with their billing inquiries or fielding inbound partner requests (just to name a few). I look for ways to further customize my own processes within Accelo to help automate all the little things that I manage. Managing operations for Accelo can be a challenging role, as there are many pieces that I manage across different business units. Automation and workflows within the request queue, sales objects and so much more, make it all possible to better serve our customers in an easy, time-efficient manner," said Alana Zimmer, Accelo's Business Operations Manager.

"Working with integrations also not only helps me run my processes more smoothly on a daily basis but also helps keep our various teams up-to-date on activities. Internally, we integrate with Xero to manage our books. Our invoices are automatically generated in Accelo and pushed to Xero. I am able to clearly generate and reconcile these invoices - so our bookkeeper, accountant and account management teams are all up-to-date on the client billing activities."

"Managing so many little pieces can seem a bit overwhelming but through the use of Accelo, I am able to prioritize my team and time to managing the most pressing concerns, filling in the gaps and leaning into better servicing our customers in whatever needed most. Having all this within a single application makes it all possible; in many ways, Accelo is a perfect hat rack for my many hats that I put on throughout the day," added Alana.

2. Implementation

"I live in Accelo, flipping between my Inbox, the Scheduling Dashboard, and the Project Overview. I utilize the Inbox for managing client emails as well to keep track of any meetings I have scheduled and to log my notes. I have my notifications set up so that I get notified on any Activities logged against a client in Implementation, which helps me keep track of everything that is happening with a client, from support requests to completed implementation tasks by our managers," said Danielle Oruska, Accelo's Implementation Product Manager.

"The Scheduling Dashboard is my tool for making sure we aren’t falling behind on a client’s Implementation. I can easily see what is scheduled out over the next several weeks as well as which client’s do not have anything scheduled. I have filters set up for each Implementation Manager that allows me to keep track of their bandwidth as well."

"Lastly, my main point of focus revolves around the Project module. While the Schedule Dashboard is great for understanding where we are with an Implementation, details such as a list of key client contacts (Team); links to documentation in Google, LucidCharts or Dropbox; billing information as well as keeping a pulse on recent client communication in the Stream, are the core components that I reference on a daily basis," said Danielle.

3. Account Management

"Working in both Support and Account Management roles, I rely on Accelo throughout the entire day. When working on Support tasks, I heavily rely on the Tickets module. Since there are multiple users monitoring these ticket queues, it is easy for us all to see what needs to be taken care of right away. I have saved filters that I regularly check on to show all the unassigned work, tickets the team is working on, and tickets assigned to me. This is extremely helpful if someone on the team is out of the office and a client responds to a ticket, the rest of us can hop on it and make sure they get an answer sooner rather than later. Having a filter for my own work, I can balance multiple tickets at once. This gives me an overview of all my assigned tickets that need updating, depending on the tickets’ statuses. I also rely on Accelo’s integration with JIRA. We can see when developers make changes or comments to issues we have submitted, making it easy to update a client on the ticket’s progress."

"On the Account Management side, I can see all requests, emails, and activity right there on the company stream for each of my accounts. It makes prepping for calls significantly easier to have everything in one place. When a client emails in to check in on a request or ticket, I can quickly look for it in the work tab of the company stream. Usually, it is something recent, which I can see right away in the company's Overview stream," said Macks Schmeidler, Accelo's Customer Success Manager.

4. Dev Team

"While our Dev team utilizes many different features, the main way we use Accelo is for Project Planning and Estimates. Once we nail down our requirements for larger new development projects, a product development team will take those requirements and break down what needs to be done to bring it to life. They take those plans and put in their estimates regarding how long they expect each bit of the project to take. We then take those estimates and build up our project plan in Accelo including dependencies and time estimates. We are then able to see what sort of timeframe we're looking at and discuss whether this timeframe is acceptable or whether we need to re-scope to fit specific deadlines. As the project kicks off we make use of our Accelo <-> JIRA integration. We build out tasks in JIRA for our weekly sprints that sync back to the Accelo project we scoped out. Devs can then log their time in either Accelo or JIRA, whichever suits them best. Many of us find the timer in Accelo quite handy when we've got our heads down working," said Christine Higgins, Accelo Co-founder & Software Engineering Lead.