Case Study

Closing a 7-Day Data Gap: How Outsourcing Unlocked Real-Time Decision-Making at Scale

Client Profile

Industry

AdTech

Software & Web Development

SEBPO Services Utilized

Ad Operations

Creative & Technical Services

Size

300 Employees

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Challenge

As this global ad management and analytics technology company scaled, their existing workflows introduced operational complexity that eroded efficiency, visibility, and leadership capacity at an important moment of growth.

With strategic investigation, our team unearthed the critical efficiency bottleneck: these client workflows caused SEBPO Team and Shift Leads to spend disproportionate time on administrative coordination, fragmented reporting, and manual data reconciliation. Before SEBPO’s innovation, each of our team leads was responsible for compiling and maintaining detailed spreadsheet updates, meticulously tracking task performance while calculating completion percentages. These compiled reports were then aggregated and submitted to the client every two hours. This process was not only time-consuming and prone to human error but also diverted valuable Team and Shift Lead time.

Time that should’ve been spent on strategic oversight, project execution, and workflow optimization.

A more streamlined solution was crucial, but existing, off-the-shelf tools weren’t equipped to resolve the following issues that impacted the SEBPO Team’s ability to drive revenue-generating results for the client:

Adaptability: A solution was needed that allowed for individual team customization of tasks for use in any SEBPO vertical
Communication Gaps: User handoff notes and internal conversations were being generated outside of the client’s workflow, leading to a loss of context
Complex Multi-Shift Workflows: There was no effective way to manage multi-user types within each assigned role to account for cross-time-zone shift workflows and handoffs
Platform Disunity: There was a lack of a unified platform to link and centralize all SEBPO platforms
Task Ingestion Complexity: Tasks were being pulled in from three separate sources, including manual inputs, API Pulls, and email aliases

These complications kept our teams roughly seven days behind on data, impacting the client’s ability to course-correct spend and staffing in time while delaying data-driven decision-making.

To ensure our client could keep up with competitors in the adtech space, our team put their heads together and devised a solution that reduced administrative tasks for both the client and the SEBPO Team by over 25%, freeing up 10 hours per week.

Strategic Intervention

The client needed a tool that could deliver the flexibility or strategic control required to keep up with their growth and the speed of their decision-making. A custom-built solution became the answer to satisfy the need for a centralized platform that eliminates efficiency bottlenecks and replaces disparate systems.

SEBPO designed and deployed a proprietary, custom-built workflow and reporting application called Hourly. Building internally instead of buying a new tool allowed us to:

Create a differentiated capability that provides more transparency and operational clarity
Design around real operational complexity
Protect margin by eliminating layered tooling costs
Scale seamlessly across teams and time zones

This robust, cloud-based platform was engineered to serve as the single source of truth for resource management, project tracking, and performance reporting across any SEBPO vertical.

The platform now offers the client immediate and transparent visibility into the SEBPO Team’s production and value, providing a direct view of the workflow and real-time delivery. This level of information and open communication elevates the client’s experience and empowers us to achieve a higher standard of transparency and collaboration.

In everything we do, SEBPO moves the client relationship beyond a “black box” to become a seamless extension of their own team.

Outcome

The introduction of the SEBPO Hourly platform has yielded significant and immediate efficiencies for both our team and the client, fundamentally changing how project performance is tracked and communicated.

Increased Focus on Production and Strategy: The platform automated the aggregation of shift reports and streamlined core HR and administrative functions. This fundamental shift removed the manual administrative burden from SEBPO’s Team and Shift Leads, allowing them to redirect their focus from paperwork back to strategic oversight

Immediate Performance Visibility: Hourly provided leadership with an instant queue view of all tasks and an instant view of “actual vs. scheduled” hours, highlighting utilization leaks and inefficiencies immediately
Optimized Workflow Management: The platform provides a Team and Shift Lead Dashboard for easy workflow management. It offers granular workflow tracking and displays both the user’s and the client’s local times, which is essential for streamlining cross-geography collaboration and handover processes during multi-shift workflows
Real-Time Data Centralization: By automating data aggregation, Hourly closed the critical 7-day data gap, providing real-time, actionable insights

Unified and Flexible System: Hourly unifies all SEBPO platforms and links them in one location, centralizing all project intelligence. The tool is built for adaptability, ensures consistent handoff notes, and preserves conversation context

Overall, the Hourly platform reduced SEBPO Team and Shift Leads’ administrative time by 25%, allowing them to reclaim at least 30 hours per week. With this time back, they could refocus on revenue-generating tasks and team mentorship. They also reviewed current task workflows and automated certain evergreen versioning tasks, significantly reducing manual effort from days to hours.

With our team leadership freed from administrative burden and able to operate strategically, this client experienced the full breadth of their SEBPO partnership, beyond just task execution.

Client Fully Replaced Their Internal Stand-Up System with SEBPO Hourly

The platform’s utility extends beyond traditional reporting and has been fully integrated into the client’s internal operational rhythm. Recognizing the superior detail and clarity offered by the Hourly platform, the client has strategically removed their own established, internal Stand-up tracking and updating protocols.

Instead of relying on their former, separate system, the client now utilizes the SEBPO “Hourly” platform as the single source of truth for all project progress and status updates during all scheduled stand-up calls. The reason for this complete adoption is straightforward: the client is consistently receiving more comprehensive information and clearer, more granular insights into all aspects of task performance and project velocity directly from Hourly. This seamless integration has streamlined communication, improved data transparency, and unified the understanding of project status across all stakeholders.