Company:
M/C/C
Dallas, Texas

Business:
Full Service Ad Agency

Staff:
52 full-time

System:
Clients & Profits Classic
My Clients & Profits!
Macintosh
Windows NT

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efore dot-coms, PDAs, and everyday techno-gadgetry, Mike Crawford was a top-notch marketer for a global telecom company. As an executive looking for a high-tech marketing partner, he quickly figured out that there wasn't even one agency that specialized in high-tech. So in 1986, Mike set out to fill a growing need. He founded MC Communications (later shortened to M/C/C) and gave himself 90 days to get his first client. In only three weeks he had his first client and was well on the way to creating one of the nation's leading high-tech marketing agencies.

His strategy is simple: "You have to understand technology to sell technology," Mike says. And he certainly understands technology. Now M/C/C is ranked in the top 25 business-to-business agencies by Advertising Age magazine.

Eliminating barriers between departments

With a staff of more than 50 and annual billings of $15 million, inter-departmental communication is crucial to create a consistent message. In fact, M/C/C flattened their hierarchy by eliminating the barriers between traditional departments.

"Most companies have a chain of command," says director of operations Angela Doucet, "but we don't have that." All employees are empowered, so everyone holds a stake in the final result. And with Clients & Profits in place, all the information the employees need to get the job done is in one, central database.

With workflow integration and employee empowerment key to M/C/C's success, selecting Clients & Profits was a natural choice for its management software. As an integrated, easy-to-learn system, everyone has been able use it.

The agency first purchased Clients & Profits PLUS in 1993, then upgraded to Clients & Profits Classic 4 in July 2000. They use all the features of Clients & Profits Classic, from electronic job tickets to traffic, time keeping to job costing, and media to financial accounting. Angela can quickly generate any report she needs using Clients & Profits. "It's enlightening," she says.

"What were we thinking?!"

When Angela joined M/C/C, the shop already had Clients & Profits PLUS, an early '90s forerunner of Clients & Profits Classic. It was chugging away in the background, tracking jobs and managing the books.

While there weren't any major problems with the way the staff was using the software, Angela soon realized that people who were using it weren't properly trained - or if they were, they weren't using the software correctly. She knew Clients & Profits could be used more productively, so she started investigating the newest upgrade, Clients & Profits Classic, which was released in 1997.

After two years of drooling over an upgrade, the agency finally purchased Classic. Angela was so thrilled with the new software. "What were we thinking?," says says, "We should have done this sooner!"

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