Production Resource Group

Efficiency, time savings, and easy client collaboration on important files.

When clients like The SEMA Show, Oprah Magazine’s “O You Weekend,” Auto Trader, and Phillips want a spectacular convention, trade show, or corporate or special event, they turn to the Corporate and Trade Show Services Group of Production Resource Group (PRG), a worldwide leader in event technology. PRG delivers audio, video, lighting, LED technology, rigging, staging, scenery, and a suite of presentation services for events worldwide.

Creating and producing a remarkable event requires collaborating with hundreds of people and sharing thousands of project files. Many of these files are extremely large CAD drawings of floor plans, lighting schematics, and the like.

Efficient file sharing and collaboration used to be a big challenge, according to Cindy Hearn, Sales & Marketing Specialist for the Corporate and Trade Show Services Group. “Our CAD files were too big to email and took too long to FTP. What we really needed was a client portal where we could share and transfer large files easily and set access permissions at various levels.”

Then a client turned them on to Onehub for secure, online file sharing. “We liked its cost, ease of use, and the ability to brand our client sites,” says Hearn. “It’s been great for everyone, including our clients, to have the real-time collaboration, notifications, and efficiencies that come with using Onehub.”

PRG has 40 locations around the world, and their highly mobile teams work in offices, on the road, on location, and remotely. In the U.S., it’s common to have an event’s project manager in Chicago, the audio/video specialist in Las Vegas, and the sales manager in Atlanta—plus photographers, lighting designers, production managers, engineers, technicians, and the clients themselves working from all over the country.

PRG’s Corporate and Trade Show Services Group uses Onehub in various offices to help everyone share files quickly, easily, and securely. Such streamlined project management and collaboration enables them to keep a project moving while staying abreast of progress.

Using Onehub’s activity feature, PRG project managers monitor their own Onehub workspaces, some of which are for clients and others only for internal teams. They simply drag large files to Onehub for data storage, organize the files in workspaces and folders, and then share them as needed with clients and team members. Because Onehub is cloud based and all files are stored in the cloud, people can access and collaborate on important files from any location with security.

“The ability to transfer large files fast via drag and drop has been really important,” states Hearn. “Everyone is saved the painful process of sending files by email or FTP.”

Of course, not everyone needs access to everything, so PRG relies on Onehub’s user permission settings to both speed up the users’ experience and control how files are used. A hired photographer, for instance, may only need to download a certificate of insurance, and some internal documents aren’t meant for everyone to see.

“Onehub’s permission features are a great asset,” says Hearn. “We can just point someone to a certain file and not the entire workspace, or only allow certain people to use a file.”

PRG also depends on Onehub’s automated email notifications to help improve project collaboration. As the many plans, permits, and other parts come together, they’re posted to a Onehub workspace and everyone gets informed at once. There’s no need to call or email each other when a new version is ready.

“Notifications are one of the many ways Onehub makes our event management process more efficient. Our Sales and Operations teams have a clearer line of communication within and across their locations,” explains Hearn.

Such collaboration and efficiency features, plus the ability to brand client workspaces with PRG’s identity (white labeling), are important to PRG’s success. “To be competitive, we have to provide a project management solution that lets clients collaborate on projects, saves them time, and is easy to use, while maintaining the security of their information,” concludes Hearn. “Onehub is the solution that offers this and more.”

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