Checker Distributors

 

Explore how Checker Distributors streamlined their operations and transformed their project management

“BasicOps is working great for our in-house marketing team. As new projects and tasks come in via Gmail, they are easily added to BasicOps, assigned to a team member, and everyone stays on track until completion.”

— Cindy Abdoo, Marketing & Digital Production Manager 

Meet Checker Distributors:

  • Industry: Wholesale, Sewing Supplies, and Quilting Supplies 

  • Location: Ohio

  • Company Size: 142

Located in Maumee, Ohio, Checker Distributors is a B2B sewing supply and fabric distributor that fills a majority of orders within the same day. Their in-house marketing team, led by Cindy Abdoo, efficiently manages a wide variety of tasks and projects coordinated with the Buying and Sales teams to optimize business operations seamlessly. Their campaigns move quickly: most tasks are completed within three to five days. Checker Distributors needs a platform that can neatly manage a constant influx of tasks, ensuring Cindy and her marketing team can produce quality outputs and streamline workflows. That’s where BasicOps comes in. 

With features that allow users to track and break down tasks, BasicOps makes a decisive difference for Checker Distributors “It’s helpful that I know what everybody’s working on. If a task needs to be completed, I can see if a team member is working on it – without asking them. If they've checked it off, then I know they've started working on that task,” explains Cindy. Purposeful project categorization, built-in communication channels, and the nifty BasicOps for Gmail add-on are all BasicOps functions that guarantee the marketing department at Checker Distributors stays updated on incoming tasks and ahead of project deadlines.

What was Checker Distributors’ journey with BasicOps?

“It was very simple to figure out,” says Cindy, who started using BasicOps in 2018. When she joined Checker Distributors, the marketing department monitored projects and logged tasks with a simple spreadsheet. However, they needed a service with more in-depth and comprehensive organization, and Cindy searched for a suitable alternative. “BasicOps seemed to have the functionality. We gave it a shot, and it worked really well for us.”

The learning curve was straightforward for Checker Distributors, too. While other project management systems seemed to muddle operations with unnecessarily complex features, BasicOps allowed Cindy and her marketing team to structure their tasks and subtasks smoothly.  They easily tailored their workspaces with the project layouts and task hierarchies that best suited their needs.

“Everybody organizes themselves how they want to,” she remarks. “I’ll go look at somebody else’s computer, and they don’t have it organized like mine. However, they have their perfect reason why they organize it the way they do – they want to see it by date, or they want to see what they’re responsible for. Meanwhile, as a manager, I want to see everybody, so it’s neat that we can customize it.” 

How has BasicOps transformed their workflow?

With BasicOps, the Checker Distributors team works in a faster, more organized manner. BasicOps simplifies operations and stores essential information for the marketing team, who needs to execute and re-execute client projects. Using project history, they can access task breakdowns from completed projects, which makes repeating client projects and delegating workloads a frictionless experience. 

The team also uses BasicOps as supplemental communication, sending proofs to each other via the built-in communication channels. Cindy explains, “We’ll communicate back and forth through BasicOps. It’s a good way to keep our projects organized: it keeps everything in one place.” With all resources and assets consolidated into a single platform, the team can effortlessly locate essential documents, saving time and energy.

What BasicOps features are integral to Checker Distributors’ daily operations?

  • BasicOps for Gmail. Buyers often send Cindy and her marketing team crucial task information via email. Using BasicOps for Gmail, Cindy’s team can convert email content – including even the granular details – into actionable tasks within seconds. The BasicOps for Gmail add-on also adds email attachments to the task, which seamlessly syncs workflows and keeps all team members on track. 

  • Project flow. Checker Distributors manages a large number of tasks and subtasks. With the intuitive project and task layout in BasicOps, team members can select individual projects and identify their task workloads efficiently. “I like that I can have main projects with tasks organized underneath them,” Cindy explains. 

  • Duplicating tasks and projects. Project duplication streamlines workflows for Checker Distributors, who often repeat the same types of projects. With duplication, marketing team members can easily copy projects, tasks, and subtasks, ensuring everyone can track task sequences and dependencies. “We create a sales flyer five times per year, and that has a whole series of tasks. It’s great because I can always copy the project,” says Cindy. Using the duplication feature, they can instantly access an organized task breakdown of the flyer-making process, which boosts overall efficiency and prevents details from falling through the cracks.

Overall, the marketing department at Checker Distributors juggles a wide variety of tasks that they need to fulfill at a rapid pace. They’re a well-oiled machine; they work quickly and efficiently to produce quality deliverables and exceed client expectations. With projects and tasks stored and organized in BasicOps, Checker Distributors can operate with confidence that they’re not only getting it done, but they’re getting it done right.

“Projects come in through my Gmail, and I can add them as tasks via BasicOps. I’ll add the attachments from the email too, so everything goes into BasicOps.”

— Cindy Abdoo, Marketing & Digital Production Manager 

Bridget Weingart