Owen & Associates ClickUp Migration & Project Management Overhaul

The Problem

Our client, a prominent Employee Benefit & Retirement Plan Consulting Firm, needed a comprehensive overhaul of their task management and repeatable processes. The team was handling numerous processes with rigid timelines, assignees, and other critical details, but lacked a consistent system for documenting and applying these procedures. Management’s goal was to streamline workflows, making it easier for the team, including new hires, to pick up and execute tasks. Unfortunately, their existing setup made this nearly impossible.

One of the biggest challenges was the absence of a clear, client-level overview of where clients stood in each process. The team needed a centralized system that would allow them to quickly see how many clients were in each phase of their multiple services, all without unnecessary clicks or searching.

Additionally, while projects often start with the best intentions, delays and bottlenecks are always common and should be planned for. The team struggled to adjust timelines and predict how delays in one area would affect the entire project. They needed a solution to quickly shift due dates and visually track the pending impacts of those changes.

Ultimately, their existing system was failing to support efficient operations, and it was clear they were not working at their full potential. Management needed greater transparency and a streamlined process to reduce the time spent clarifying tasks, processes, and project timelines with the fulfillment team.

What We Did

For starters this business needed a Project Management Software to organize their work. We recommended ClickUp as the ideal solution, given its powerful dashboards, automations, templates, date remapping, and dependency features—all of which could solve the issues they were facing.

We began by meeting with the team and transforming their existing processes into well-structured task lists. Working closely with the management team, we captured the implicit knowledge of each process and converted it into specific, actionable tasks. These tasks were then organized into distinct project phases—such as Onboarding, Introduction Call, Marketing, Report Creation, and Pre-Launch—helping to clearly define the scope of work at each stage.

We also focused on minimizing manual data entry by preloading critical information into each task, including setting due dates linked to dependent tasks. This allowed us to leverage the full power of ClickUp’s dependencies and remap timelines when needed. By identifying key timeline tasks and linking them to dependencies, we ensured that when delays occurred in one phase, the entire project timeline could be adjusted seamlessly, keeping the team on track.

We refined the task lists, project phases, due dates, and dependencies into reusable templates. This meant that, with each new project, the team could immediately start working with preloaded tasks, timeline expectations, and other key details—eliminating the need to consult management for every new project.

Finally, to address the need for overall client visibility, we created an automation that provided a visual snapshot of each client’s progress using ClickUp’s “Tasks in Multiple Lists” feature. This allowed the team to access a single, consolidated view of each client’s project status, without the need to manually check individual task lists. We also designed custom dashboards that offered insights into the progress of each service, enabling the team to track client progress like never before. This new system provided easy access to consolidated data, enhancing both transparency and efficiency.

The Result

1. Increased Efficiency Template Creation: By converting implicit knowledge into standardized, actionable task lists with predefined due dates and dependencies, the team was able to save 5-10 hours per project that were previously spent on clarifying processes, searching for information, or manually entering data. Also the creation of reusable templates for each project phase significantly reduced preparation time for each new client, enabling the team to begin work on new projects 50% faster compared to the old manual process.

2. Improved Transparency and Client Progress Visibility: Implementing an "Overall Client View" list within ClickUp provided the management team with a consolidated, visual representation of each client’s progress across all phases of their services. This cut down the need for management to field queries about project status, saving 10 hours per week previously spent clarifying progress.

3. Better Timeline Management and Flexibility: By using due date remapping with dependencies in ClickUp, the team could automatically adjust project timelines when critical tasks were delayed. This feature ensured that project delays didn’t lead to chaos in later phases, and the team could continue to predict timelines with higher accuracy. This led to a 20% reduction in project delays and better ability to meet deadlines, even with unforeseen setbacks.

4. Reduction in Manual Effort and Improved Data Accuracy: By preloading critical client and project data into templates, the team no longer needed to manually enter information for each task, ensuring higher accuracy and reducing the likelihood of errors. This reduced manual data entry time and improved the accuracy of timelines and client information.

5. Enhanced Team Collaboration and Knowledge Transfer: With clearly defined and automated processes, the team could proceed with projects independently, reducing the need for management to constantly clarify steps, timelines, or assignees. As a result, 30% of management’s time spent on supervising and clarifying tasks was freed up, allowing them to focus on higher-level priorities.

6. Improved Client Satisfaction & Faster Response Times: With the improved system in place, management and the team could respond to client queries faster, as they had an up-to-date view of all project phases.