Digital Agency Life: The Things We Couldn't Live Without
Here at Parallax, we’re always striving to create the best work that we can. From websites to Facebook apps, we’re working on some really exciting projects at the moment. But what’s it like working at a digital agency and what things couldn’t we live without in order to deliver our client work?
We caught up with a few of the guys in the Parallax office and asked them what they rely on the most to get their work done:
Chris Mills – SEO Manager
“I’d say most of the tools I use are for ‘Technical SEO’ with Screaming Frog, SEO Spider or NerdyData excellent examples. SEO Spider allows me to see everything from response codes to redirect chains then export them into Google Docs or JIRA for analysis. NerdyData is another tool I’m using a lot recently, it’s a search engine for source code that lets you check things like hreflang=X implementation or search within tags.
Furthermore, with great products like Expose or jsPDF it’s always nice to see who’s using your code. Other tools like MozCast or Algoroo have also found their way into my daily routine, keeping track of day-to-day Google ranking changes in the form of a daily weather report like MozCast are excellent ways for predicting updates.”
Lawrence Dudley – Director and Account Manager
“I end up using all sorts of stuff – one of the tools I use, maybe not the most but certainly amongst the most useful, has to be the Automator app in OS X. It’s underused, no-one really knows about it but when you have a big batch of repetitive tasks to do and essentially need to do some quick and dirty, gaffa-tape style programming it’s pretty neat.
For similar tasks that need to happen online, Zapier is well worth looking at as well. You can take “stuff” from one place and put it somewhere else without having to get bogged down in writing any code yourself, which is awesome.”
Barnaby Cotter – Back-end Developer
“Working in a highly technical environment like Parallax, there are a host of different technologies we use to ensure we keep our development process running smoothly. However, switching between programs and tools all the time to manage deployment, testing, and actual coding, you can end up easily sidetracked. PHPStorm has a selection of plugins which lets me do all of my day to day tasks from within a single window, and helps me keep my focus.”
Jack Sails – Project Manager
“As our team – and indeed our client base – have grown, keeping tabs on the sheer amount of things that are all going on simultaneously was becoming challenging for our Project Management team.
For me, 10,000ft has made my life significantly easier recently as it elegantly combines timesheet management, team scheduling and budget/fee reports into one app. Having all of these things in one place means that we can easily manage the team, and the budgets for our clients in one place, where all of the relevant information ties together and we get a much clearer big picture. The UI is great to use and looks fantastic, and the way it’s analytical tools present information is not only easy to understand, but looks presentable enough to even pass on to our clients if we need to.”
Want to know a bit more about what our digital agency does? Head over to our work section and learn about the recent projects that Parallax have completed. If you’re looking for a digital agency in Leeds or just fancy dropping in for a coffee then get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.