...
We have published a separate deep-dive guideline page for the Communication Hub, which also provides one or two handy ways to access your projects. You can follow this link to learn more.
...
In many cases you might have a project that fits into more than one category (for example, a personalised animation). Please choose the most relevant one and give the project a name that makes it clear what sort of video it is, so that we can find it later (eg: “Membership Renewal Personalised Animation”).
Completing the Project Summary
...
Congratulations! Your project now exists in the VMSX database. In addition to the data that you have already provided, your new project now has a project number and its status is set to “Draft”.
It is worth understanding that now that the project is a draft, it is already visible to your client on the Client Hub, but it has not yet been confirmed. You can start chatting with your client using the built-in project chat. The only people who have access to this chat are your project Contacts, the Relationship Manager, and the Project Manager.
| Info |
|---|
We have deep-dive guidelines on the built-in VMSX project chat and the Communication Hub. Check it out to learn more. |
You now have the opportunity to define a lot more information for your project, your team, and your client.
The core project data
The core data fields on the left-hand side are compulsory. You already provided these when creating the project. However, most of these are not set in stone. You can edit them by floating your cursor to the right of the field and clicking on the edit pencil.
...
The Product Type is locked in. This cannot be edited once the project has been created.
Project Contacts
Underneath the left-hand core data fields is the list of client contacts for this project. You can add any number of registered contacts to this list, provided they belong to the same Office that is associated with the project.
...
These contacts can also be removed — unless there is only one. There must always be at least one project contact.
...
The project contacts on this list can see, access, and interact with all of the project details on Client Hub. They can:
participate in the project chat,
order shoots,
review pre-production information,
upload files and assets,
review and approve the videos
| Tip |
|---|
Reminder: To add a new contact to the VMS database, access the Contacts page via the Clients Menu in the old VMS. |
Your clients can also add and remove their own contacts via a similar method using the Client Hub.
The optional data
The 12 additional fields of information that you can now provide for your Project Summary are all optional, but they are very useful data points for communicating project specs and targets — to both the production team and the client. These fields can all be filled in by your client at any time — it is strongly encouraged to have your client provide the information to help with briefing the project
To start editing them, click on any of the pencil edit icons.
...
All of this data also plays a significant role in the VMSX system providing valuable production analysis.
Production Coordinator & Director — choose from the curated lists. Only specific VisDom production staff are available to be selected for these roles. If assigned to one of these roles, the staff member will be added to the project chat and begin to receive email communications.
Budget — This one is mostly for the clients. It is intended for them to give us broad idea of what their budget will be. They can choose from the few lower-budget options, or select “unsure”.
Primary platform — Your project may be looking to provide cuts for multiple platforms, but you are asked here to nominate one primary platform where the client intends to publish the finished video. This ensures that the client has considered this question from the project outset.
Allocated hours — nominate how many hours you are allocating for the delivery of the entire project
Topic & Target Audience — Open text fields. Provide whatever apt information you like here.
Project Start Date & Project Deadline — Calendar date fields. Use these dates to communicate your scheduling intentions to your team and the client. When it comes to delivering, each of the specific production jobs that require scheduling (editing, shoots, pre-production, etc.) will be handled by the jobs that you will add to the other project tabs shortly.
Video example — Add text and/or HTML links to online videos that can serve as inspirations for your project.
Goals & Additional Notes — Larger and expandable text fields that allow you to share bulk commentary and notes with your team.
You do not need to provide all of your detailed project information in the Project Summary. There is plenty of scope for detailed information within the Pre-Production, Filming Details, and Deliveries sections. We will briefly look at those sections shortly.
| Tip |
|---|
Once you are done editing this information, don’t forget to submit the data with the blue “Save” button. |
All of the optional data provided here will be visible to the client within the project on Client Hub. These fields will remain editable throughout delivery.
Receiving a draft project from a HubSpot deal
The second way to create new projects in VMSX is to receive draft projects from sales processed by our Relationship Managers.
In all likelihood, you are probably going to start many more projects via this method, then you will be creating new projects from scratch.
How does the project get from HubSpot to VMSX?
Our Sales/RM team uses a marketing platform called HubSpot to manage their sales and marketing communications. When a successful sale is ready to be formalised, HubSpot calls this “closing the deal”.
When a Relationship Manager (or sales person) closes their deal on HubSpot, they will provide a handful of project data that will correspond to the VMSX Project Summary information that we have looked at above.
The closed deal will also assign a Project Manager and Relationship Manager to carry this project forward with the client.
Both of these production contacts will receive an emailed “NEW ORDER” notification. This email will include two primary buttons:
View HubSpot Deal — Takes the Project Manager back to HubSpot to assess all of the information provided by the salesperson. This is includes additional information like previous email conversations, file attachments, and in-depth company details.
Create Project — Takes the Project Manager straight into the VMSX to start completing the draft project set-up. The draft project will automatically include most of the information provided by the closed HubSpot deal.
Creating the draft project from a HubSpot deal
...
| Note |
|---|
Warning — added 4pm Friday 12 Nov. When you create a new project, you should ensure that you add a production price or at least one production job (video, shoot, pre-production) before navigating elsewhere in the VMS — eg, to check your calendar appointments. This will ensure that the project is not immediately considered abandoned by the system. Not to worry if you do, though. You will be able to discover your “abandoned” project in the VMS Archived Projects list. This is a recently discovered quirk of the VMSX release version that will hopefully be resolved fairly quickly. —Matt |
Completing the Project Summary
...
Congratulations! Your project now exists in the VMSX database. In addition to the data that you have already provided, your new project now has a project number and its status is set to “Draft”.
It is worth understanding that now that the project is a draft, it is already visible to your client on the Client Hub, but it has not yet been confirmed. You can start chatting with your client using the built-in project chat. The only people who have access to this chat are your project Contacts, the Relationship Manager, and the Project Manager.
| Info |
|---|
We have deep-dive guidelines on the built-in VMSX project chat and the Communication Hub. Check it out to learn more. |
You now have the opportunity to define a lot more information for your project, your team, and your client.
The core project data
The core data fields on the left-hand side are compulsory. You already provided these when creating the project. However, most of these are not set in stone. You can edit them by floating your cursor to the right of the field and clicking on the edit pencil.
...
The Product Type is locked in. This cannot be edited once the project has been created.
Project Contacts
Underneath the left-hand core data fields is the list of client contacts for this project. You can add any number of registered contacts to this list, provided they belong to the same Office that is associated with the project.
...
These contacts can also be removed — unless there is only one. There must always be at least one project contact.
...
The project contacts on this list can see, access, and interact with all of the project details on Client Hub. They can:
participate in the project chat,
order shoots,
review pre-production information,
upload files and assets,
review and approve the videos
| Tip |
|---|
Reminder: To add a new contact to the VMS database, access the Contacts page via the Clients Menu in the old VMS. |
Your clients can also add and remove their own contacts via a similar method using the Client Hub.
The optional data
The 12 additional fields of information that you can now provide for your Project Summary are all optional, but they are very useful data points for communicating project specs and targets — to both the production team and the client. These fields can all be filled in by your client at any time — it is strongly encouraged to have your client provide the information to help with briefing the project
To start editing them, click on any of the pencil edit icons.
...
All of this data also plays a significant role in the VMSX system providing valuable production analysis.
Production Coordinator & Director — choose from the curated lists. Only specific VisDom production staff are available to be selected for these roles. If assigned to one of these roles, the staff member will be added to the project chat and begin to receive email communications.
Budget — This one is mostly for the clients. It is intended for them to give us broad idea of what their budget will be. They can choose from the few lower-budget options, or select “unsure”.
Primary platform — Your project may be looking to provide cuts for multiple platforms, but you are asked here to nominate one primary platform where the client intends to publish the finished video. This ensures that the client has considered this question from the project outset.
Allocated hours — nominate how many hours you are allocating for the delivery of the entire project
Topic & Target Audience — Open text fields. Provide whatever apt information you like here.
Project Start Date & Project Deadline — Calendar date fields. Use these dates to communicate your scheduling intentions to your team and the client. When it comes to delivering, each of the specific production jobs that require scheduling (editing, shoots, pre-production, etc.) will be handled by the jobs that you will add to the other project tabs shortly.
Video example — Add text and/or HTML links to online videos that can serve as inspirations for your project.
Goals & Additional Notes — Larger and expandable text fields that allow you to share bulk commentary and notes with your team.
You do not need to provide all of your detailed project information in the Project Summary. There is plenty of scope for detailed information within the Pre-Production, Filming Details, and Deliveries sections. We will briefly look at those sections shortly.
| Tip |
|---|
Once you are done editing this information, don’t forget to submit the data with the blue “Save” button. |
All of the optional data provided here will be visible to the client within the project on Client Hub. These fields will remain editable throughout delivery.
Receiving a draft project from a HubSpot deal
The second way to create new projects in VMSX is to receive draft projects from sales processed by our Relationship Managers.
In all likelihood, you are probably going to start many more projects via this method, then you will be creating new projects from scratch.
How does the project get from HubSpot to VMSX?
Our Sales/RM team uses a marketing platform called HubSpot to manage their sales and marketing communications. When a successful sale is ready to be formalised, HubSpot calls this “closing the deal”.
When a Relationship Manager (or sales person) closes their deal on HubSpot, they will provide a handful of project data that will correspond to the VMSX Project Summary. The data the Relationship Manager can provide is the following.
Contact / Email*
Company*
Product Type*
Price*
Project Manager*
Project Start Date*
Delivery Deadline*
Credit Amount
Allocated Hours
Disbursements
Invoice Terms
Accounting Contact Email
Goals/Aim of the project
Deliverables
Additional thoughts
Video Examples
Key Details for the shoot
Proposed shoot date
Shoot Location
| Info |
|---|
*Mandatory data |
The closed deal will also assign a Project Manager and Relationship Manager to carry this project forward with the client.
Both of these production contacts will receive an emailed “NEW ORDER” notification. This email will include two primary buttons:
View HubSpot Deal — Takes the Project Manager back to HubSpot to assess all of the information provided by the salesperson. This is includes additional information like previous email conversations, file attachments, and in-depth company details.
Create Project — Takes the Project Manager straight into the VMSX to start completing the draft project set-up. The draft project will automatically include most of the information provided by the closed HubSpot deal.
Creating the draft project from a HubSpot deal
The VMS will do everything it can to automate this process of beginning a project, but sometimes one extra step may be required from the designated Project Manager before you can build out the project and that's to confirm the Office that the Project and the Contacts belong to.
Sometimes Contacts can belong to multiple Offices within the Company, so we need the Project Manager to confirm exactly which to go with. This question will only be asked when the Office is unclear and it will appear like the image below, upon opening up the Project.
| Note |
|---|
Until an office has been selected, you cannot proceed with the Project. If you are unsure, ask your Relationship Manager! |
...
Once the system is happy with the Office that's been selected, you will be taken straight to the Project Summary page and asked to confirm the left-hand column core data fields. All of these will have been pre-populated from the deal, including the Product Type. It is important that you confirm the Product Type is correct before you continue building out your project.
...
Each of these production tabs are covered in great detail within their respective deep-dive pages, linked here:
Pre-Production — can be set-up later, but might be helpful when confirming project scope and price. If you intend to provide a storyboard and script in pre-production, it would be pertinent to set these up at first, as these will be represented in the Project Confirmation email.
Filming Details — can be set-up later, but might be helpful when considering project scope and price.
Deliveries — The client sees the number of video deliveries in the Project Confirmation email and in the draft presentation of the project on Client Hub. It is recommended that you attempt to establish the basic details for all of your video deliveries prior to project confirmation.
Uploaded Files — You and the client can upload and share files and assets for the project here. You can also access any stored VMSX Brand Hub assets specific to this client.
...
| Info |
|---|
We cover all of the Invoice tab elements and options within the Invoices deep-dive guidelines. It is recommended that you go through those guidelines before confirming and activating a project. |
...