Bridging the gap between Workfront and Harvest

GenuineBee partnered with a prominent creative team to address a critical operational challenge: improving the quality and quantity of hours registered in Workfront projects. 

The main objective was to gain more accurate and insightful reports from the creative department. We successfully implemented a synchronization system, conducted a pilot plan, selected an effective tool (Harvest), communicated with designers, and gathered feedback. This iterative process significantly informed and refined data synchronization methods. 

We are  continuing to monitor and report on the progress of this ongoing pilot test.

The challenge

At the heart of our client’s project management was a pressing issue: ensuring that hours were properly reported in Workfront, their central project management system. Although Workfront was a critical tool for their  200-strong creative team, its interface left much to be desired. The creatives, primarily designers, found it less than user-friendly and even cumbersome for time-tracking — an essential but often tedious task. This resulted in imprecise and inefficient reporting of hours, undermining the potential for accurate project tracking and reliable reporting. GenuineBee faced the challenge of not only identifying a more intuitive and user-friendly time-tracking solution but also ensuring its seamless integration with Workfront to reflect accurate project data. The solution needed to respect the individual work preferences of the creatives, offering an alternative tool for those who were struggling with Workfront’s standard interface, without imposing a mandatory change on those who preferred to continue using Workfront in the standard way.

Our approach

GenuineBee implemented a collaborative and research-driven approach. The team held meetings with the designers, explored the capabilities of different tools, and presented potential solutions. A key part of this approach was open communication, ensuring that designers were part of the decision-making process so that their feedback directly influenced the solution design.

Key features and results

GenuineBee’s custom solution has seen significant adoption among the creative team. Users have permanently adopted Harvest as their single time-tracking tool, leading to efficient and complete logging of hours. The quality of time recorded has improved since the implementation of this pilot plan — with hours worked correctly allotted to the relevant  projects. While specific numbers are not yet available, the success of this pilot plan has led to considerations for a broader roll-out across the client’s creative team.

Impact and outcomes

The project increased user satisfaction, as the design team were presented with alternative, more efficient ways of logging their time. This success represents a positive step towards a comprehensive digital transformation of the client’s time-tracking processes.

Technical stack

GenuineBee employed a selection of tools and technologies to bring this project to life. These included Node.js (utilizing NestJS) for the main application and MongoDB for data persistence. The APIs of Harvest and Workfront were crucial for synchronization, with Workfront’s webhooks playing a pivotal role in real-time updates.

Let’s face it, detailed time logging and creative teams are not a good match. It’s usually a drag and takes time away from what they do best – coming up with ideas and designing brilliant content. But given that hour tracking is a business essential, we wanted to see how we could make the process as easy and fuss-free as possible for them. These teams get a kick out of smart, alternative ideas and we think we got it just right with our solution.