Art.com Paints a New Time Tracking Portrait With Replicon

LONDON and SAN MATEO, Calif.—September 10, 2013—Perhaps interior designer Kenneth Brown said it best: “You must love the space you’re in as much as the skin you’re in.” By bringing art to everyone, Art.com is helping people not only adorn their homes and offices, but transform them into highly personal dwellings. Whether that means a small Matisse, an oversized Picasso, or your brother’s best photograph, Art.com ensures that the piece reaches you quickly, framed, and looking stunning.

As it turns out, there’s a lot of elbow grease behind delivering beauty. Art.com, with more than $140M in revenue, is the world’s leading online destination dedicated to experiencing and buying art. That title doesn’t come easily. Finding exactly the right people to work on the Art.com team is critical. Making sure their time is utilized to the utmost efficiency is key to fueling growth and delivering great art to customers.

Art.com’s e-commerce engine is powered by a hardworking team of digital professionals, such as web developers and graphic designers, and hands-on folks like fulfillment center workers who print, crate, and ship art.

All of these workers have one thing in common, besides a love of art: they need to track their time in an easy and accurate manner. Art.com is using Replicon, the global leader in cloud time tracking applications, to modernize its time tracking processes.

“Replicon is picture-perfect for Art.com, said Caroline Papp, Project Manager at Art.com. Our employees are our most key asset. Their time is precious. Replicon has helped us keep everyone focused on their most productive work. Through Replicon, we can truly fulfill our company mission of bringing art to everyone. We’ve even be able take on new initiatives, like integrating our Artists Rising community of independent and emerging artists into Art.com, while knowing the exact impact on our human resources.”

Bringing Art to the Masses Requires Modern Processes

Prior to adopting Replicon, Art.com hadn’t updated its time tracking system in ten years. Forecasting was a matter of writing calculations on a cocktail napkin. Estimating team bandwidth was purely subjective. “You would hear, ‘I think we are operating at capacity and everyone is doing a lot of overtime,’ ” said Papp. “But we didn’t know for sure.”

Through Replicon, Art.com has not only automated its time-tracking, but is driving resource optimization, implementing more effective project management, reducing compliance risk, and building better teams to manage projects.

“Replicon has given us the visibility we need in order to conduct effective demand forecasting and capacity planning for our business,” said Papp. “It’s easy for us to forecast out the work that teams are doing, and what that work is costing daily, weekly, and monthly. We can ensure that individuals have appropriate skills for their projects, and develop better teams as a result.”

Benefits for Everyone

Today, five different Art.com departments use Replicon. Developers, Q/A testers, project managers and members of the fulfillment team submit their time on a daily basis, from mobile devices and their desktops. “Users don’t have to worry about remembering everything at the end of the week,” said Papp. “Our project managers log into Replicon daily to review hourly billing and track progress towards milestones. Management uses real-time data to identify issues quickly and course-correct. It’s a win-win-win.”

The organization-wide benefits don’t end there. Art.com’s developmental directors and executives periodically pull and analyze data to plan capacity effectively. Accountants access Replicon for capital expenditure (CapEx) and operational expenditure (OpEx) reporting. Replicon was there through every step of the implementation.

“The support from Replicon was unprecedented,” said Papp. “It has really been the key to the success of the implementation. The team was so responsive. They took the time to really understand our business challenges and provide thoughtful solutions. Replicon was available 24/7, no matter what happened. We are 110% excited about using Replicon.”