What It’s Like to Partner with Velir’s Client Services Team

Hi, my name is Barron Wernick, I’m the Senior Vice President of Client Services at Velir. If you’re unfamiliar with Velir, we’re an integrated digital agency focusing on large website projects, digital strategy, content strategy, UX and design, data activation, and long-term support and optimization for your digital platforms. In my role, I oversee both Velir’s Project Management Office (PMO), as well as our Account Team. I have a great team to support these efforts and it’s an exciting position to be in.

I was recently asked to meet with a member of the leadership team from one of Boston’s prominent cultural institutions. The meeting wasn’t to talk about a project, new business, or anything like that. It was to talk about how we approach project management. As we got into the conversation, I found myself explaining the origin of our PMO, and the partnership not only between Account and Project Management but also with our clients. We talked about the benefits of a centralized PMO vs. being siloed by department or industry. We also discussed the skill sets needed for different roles within the client services department. Eventually, we touched on a framework or set of practices you may be familiar with as People, Process, Technology (PPT).

There is plenty of material on the web about PPT, but the general idea is that to run an effective project, organization, or team you need a balance between the people, process, and technology. From a technology perspective in Client Services, we use awesome tools including Smartsheet, Jira, Confluence, and Figma. These tools allow us to present data, stay organized, and reduce manual repetitive work.

From a process perspective, we have all sorts of documentation around how to kick off a project, how to generate a burn report, escalation procedures, risk management, and account planning—you name it. And our process repository is constantly growing and being updated.

But what I found the most interesting, and the hardest to explain, was the people part of it. It goes without saying that you need great people to run a successful organization. But what does that mean? Through the lens of client services, I can think of many attributes that make up a strong team member—things like motivation, organization, communication skills, problem-solving abilities, attention to detail, a positive attitude, emotional intelligence, and many others.

But there’s something more to it. So, you have great people, and they’re following a superb process and leveraging the best technology—great you did it! Well, almost. To round it out, I believe you need one more letter in the framework, and that would be another “p” for Partnership. Whether it involves internal teams working together, or the relationship between a client and their vendor, it all comes down to having a great partnership. Transparency, working through challenges as a team, celebrating the wins together, and looking towards the future, all rely on trust and strong partnership.

As the head of our Client Services team, that is the type of relationship I want our staff to strive for internally and with our wonderful clients. Because after all, we’re all humans and we’re stronger and more successful when we work together.

If you’d like to learn more about what it is like to work with us, or for us, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Best,

Barron Wernick