Frequently Asked Questions about bethebrand


Compliance and Approval

Deployment process

Building a business case

Deployment process

Security & Back ups

Technical Overview

Getting Help

Workflow must cover end to end campaign process (including business proposal approval, stakeholder approval, final compliance approval, proceed to production and facility to upload results). Is this in place?

Yes, this is part of configuring and building your workflows, knowing the various actions to be completed throughout the entire process. A full audit trail is available with all of those actions and approvals as well.

Can Compliance download and upload content to mark-up amends?

Yes, but there is no need to download as the annotation takes place right there on the screen.

Is there an ability to view enclosures at the point of approval, subsequent changes to pack contents and live enclosures?

Yes, we will configure a workflow so that it can be flagged as a "pack" enabling all assets within the workflow to be viewed together at the point of approval. Changes to pack content will need to be managed via a single task "amend pack" workflow.

Is there an ability to preview and approve webpages as they will appear on the live site (linking to CMS)?

You can have web page screen shot functionality to produce a pdf of each page requested using the Print Page functionality. For more dynamic content, our clients use a video tool to capture the customer journey and then mark it up using video mark-up.

Can we review and comment on multimedia jobs?

Yes, we have full video and audio mark-up as well as for the traditional file types.

Can we add comments to be considered for future editions?

We can put a field in the Asset data to capture comments for future versions.

Is it possible to make approval based on final amends being made?

Yes, "Approve Subject to Comments" is a workflow configuration action

Does every asset have a full, historical, audit trail?

A full Audit Trail is captured which is accessible through past projects and workflows or from directly the asset store. All assets checked in through an approvals workflow will have that audit trail associated with it indefinitely. This includes all comments made "time and date stamped" as well as the previous, draft and final versions prior to going live. Assets can be archived easily and users with the appropriate permissions can view those assets and associated activity as well.

What are typical deployment timescales?

We usually work to 8-12 week deployment plan but have helped clients get up and running in 6 weeks. We get the base application ready in the first week and then facilitate a number of iterative workshops to capture configuration requirements which are applied in (near) real time.

What support can you give to help embed the system into my organisation?

Loads. Our client services team facilitates the scoping and configuration workshops, performs the initial configuration and delivers client training. Once live, we provide enhanced support, system administration services and ongoing training, alongside regular update and product development reviews.

How do you manage risk during the deployment process?

We provide and update a risk and issues log as part of the project management of each deployment. These are reviewed and risks (and risk mitigation) are discussed throughout the deployment process.

What support will I get after the system’s launch?

We provide second level support as standard which means that we respond to issues raised by client-side system guardians/ administrators. This can be enhanced with first level support and / or system administration services if required.

How do you conduct system and user acceptance testing?

Typically the users who have been involved in the configuration workshops are invited to perform user acceptance testing on the configured system. This usually involves running some campaigns and projects through the system to ensure that the configuration aligns to the business process requirements. System testing is performed by our technical and client services teams as part of our release cycle procedure.

How do you train users?

For core marketing users we propose two ½ day sessions in groups of up to 10 in a classroom environment. Client Services present and demonstrate a component of the system before helping the 10 users do the same. For non-core users remote training (either live or video) is used to guide them through the system.

What training documents do you supply?

We provide a user guide and an administration guide as standard but have enhanced this with video and quick start guides, posters and mouse mats in the past.

Can your system look like my brand?

Yes. We can quickly update system style sheets to reflect your brand, fonts, colours as needed. We cannot redesign the structure/ layout of pages.

How configurable is the system?

Very. We have made a significant investment to build a configurable solution. Why? So that the solution can rapidly evolve to meet client needs without requiring code to be changed and testing to be done. This means changes can be made to data entry forms (ie asset data and briefing forms) and work flows in real time.

What are the headline benefits for my business case?

Less time reviewing, less time briefing, fewer version reviews, quicker print ordering, quicker final approvals, increased brand consistency, less time creating reports, less time re-creating content, less time looking for artwork, more time creating campaigns, more control.

What is the usual ROI your clients get following the deployment of your system?

This varies a lot... the best we have had reported is a return of 10 times the investment (ie the system cost £25,000 but saved £250,000).. which is a cracking result.

Can you provide me with any references to your existing customers who’ve been using your system?

Yes - existing users are very helpful in contributing their time to talking about both the system and our great client services attitude and approach.

Has your company or the services provided to your customers ever been subject to review or audit by internal audit teams and / or regulatory bodies?

Yes – numerous clients have had their system audited and their promotions processes reviewed; typically with minimal changes being proposed.

Can you demonstrate how your system reduces the cost of producing marketing literature?

Less time reviewing, less time briefing, fewer version reviews, lower final approval rejection rates, more on-time delivery of marketing assets.

How much does it cost to configure and deploy the solution?

This is a time and materials cost driven by the modules in scope, number of assets to upload, number of users to train etc. Set-up costs are unlikely to be less than £5,000. We can provide a price matrix to give a top line budget on request.

What are the ongoing costs?

The solution is licensed on a concurrent user basis (shared licenses) with a base line cost for 50GB of storage capacity. We can provide a price matrix showing how the cost per user falls as volumes increase on request.

How do patches and upgrades get charged?

There is no charge for patches. The system release management time to perform and test upgrades is chargeable.

What is a concurrent user?

Concurrent users are users who are actively using the system at the same time. A user counts as a concurrent user for licensing for a 20 minute period after each page refresh they make. This means inactive users cease to count as using a license 20 minutes after they stop using the system.

Can we self host to reduce the cost?

No. Bethebrand is offered as a SaaS

Is the system secure?

Super secure - Security, privacy and confidentiality is taken very seriously and we get third parties to conduct penetration testing (hacking attacks) on the application to make sure we stay ahead.

Where and how is your infrastructure hosted?

The application is dual site hosted at two data centres in the UK; both of which are Tier 1 (the best available) and the associated network access and infrastructure is managed by Peer 1 (one of the worlds leading hosting services providers).

What is the backup and recovery solution that will be applied to our data?

We have a primary hosting site with a secondary one providing the back up / business continuity capability. Data is continuously updated from the primary site to the secondary site to minimise data loss in the event of having to flip to the secondary site.

What Business Continuity Planning processes and procedures do you have in place?

We have a clear decision making map for triggering a redirection to the secondary site in the event of the primary site becoming inoperable. In addition, our business continuity procedures map out how we will continue to provide client support in the event of an emergency.

How can users login to the system?

The standard method is via a user name and password (the complexity of this process is a configurable option) but we also provide a log in authentication tool (so users logged into corporate networks are automatically logged into the application) and can integrate into client specific user management tools.

Do you offer API integration with third party systems?

Yes. We provide APIs for third party systems to extract data as standard (via webservices).

What are the minimal desktop requirements for my users?

They will need to be on an internet browser - recent verions of IE, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. They will also need to be connected to the internet.

Are the desktop aspects of your system qualified to work in a Citrix Desktop and VMware environment?

Yes – both of these are clients and the system is used successfully at different clients using both environments.

What browser plug-ins or browser specific technologies does your system require?

They will need to be on an internet browser - recent verions of IE, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. They will also need to be connected to the internet.

What is your approach to upgrades and new releases?

We manage a number of release cycles (1-2 per year) for upgrades and ask that clients are not more than two years behind the current release. This does not mean 1-2 upgrades per year as clients can move from an older version to the lastest in one go.

What is your approach to patchs and bug fixes?

These are released either as patch updates to earlier versions (and the change migrated up through versions) or released in a later version and the client migrated up, as appropriate.

Can I test the upgrade before my system is updated?

Yes. Each client has a staging site for testing updates (and training users) prior to updating the live version.

What hosting options do you provide?

We provide the solution on a hosted basis, minimising the IT footprint.

What input will be required from our IT team to launch your system?

Very little. Usually there is some firewall permissioning to perform and a review of our security and business continuity procedures. Sometimes an upgrade of desktop browser versions is required.

What hours is the system available?

24/7/365. We provide notice in advance for scheduled downtime which we perform during periods of low user activity.

What levels of support do you offer?

All clients have second level support, meaning our support desk responds to queries from client side system administrators. We do offer a first level support service to support system guardians when needed. The support desk operates to UK and East Coast USA working times and UK working days.

How can I access your support desk?

Email or phone is the best way to initiate a support ticket. We prefer email as screenshots of the issue can be submitted which helps the team replicate and resolve the issue.

Are service levels in place to manage different levels of urgency for support ticket resolution?

Yes. We have a consistent set of SLAs across all clients with four levels of priority (and associated response times).

What system documentation is provided?

A user guide and system administration guide (pdfs) are provided as part of the initial deployment. These are updated inline with each upgrade release.

How are clients managed – automated tickets or real people?

Our support desk is UK based and delivered by real people who sit next to (and talk to) the technology team. We do use an automated ticket system to manage the support ticket internally but the feedback to the clients is via people, not automated tickets.

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Be The Brand Experience Limited, registered in England and Wales
Company number 04177329
VAT Number GB799224872
Head Office: Unit 5 Culford House, 1-7 Orsman Road, London, N1 5RA
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