Alessandro Serena, web producer

Each company has their own workflow, sometimes it’s official, sometimes it’s not. The role of the web producer is to interface at various points of this flow and the point of this article is to identify practical examples of how this can be done.

PREMIUM FLOW: the web producer influence any one of the following stages and supervise a project from start to finish, from the concept to after-sales. That’s the best-case scenario, allowing the agency to delegate complete production, whilst using its own resources. In actual fact, these stages are all part of the existing work flow, with resources already assigned. The web producer will guarantee schedules and budget, and also knows which professionals to contact in case of urgencies or for specific skills.

This is the complete work flow (the stages handled by the web producer are in bold):
- initial contact with the client
- initial contact with the client, gathering information needed for a quote
- web production study (analysis of form and substance of the project, analysis of competitors, project feasibility)
- preparation of quote
- second meeting, to present the quote and solutions proposed
- any bargaining (for upscaling or downscaling, analysing profitability with the client and inclusion or exclusion of suggested functions)
- start of work
- interfacing with in-company (or external, if required) resources
- supervision of work performed by in-company or external resources
- regular reporting to the agency
- reporting to the client on work-in-progress
- delivery of completed project
- after-sales service (technical and content updates, design and implementation of new functions)

BASIC FLOW: the web producer may be involved only in the creation stage, which cuts out the pre- and post-sales contact with the client. In this case the agency shoulders most of the responsibility but web producer costs are lower.

This is the complete work flow (the stages handled by the web producer are in bold):
- initial contact with the client
- initial contact with the client, gathering information needed for a quote
- web production study (analysis of form and substance of the project, analysis of competitors, project feasibility)
- preparation of quote
- second meeting, to present the quote and solutions proposed
- any bargaining (for upscaling or downscaling, analysing profitability with the client and inclusion or exclusion of suggested functions)
- start of work
- interfacing with in-company (or external, if required) resources
- supervision of work performed by in-company or external resources
- regular reporting to the agency
- reporting to the client on work-in-progress
- delivery of completed project
- after-sales service (technical and content updates, design and implementation of new functions)

OUTSOURCING FLOW: a third option is to delegate production and creation to a web producer, so in-company resources aren’t used. For agencies who don’t have creative and technical resources in house, or are too busy to develop the project, this is a popular solution. This workflow is identical to PREMIUM.