The most complete proofing experience (and I tried them all)
July 20, 2021
The most complete proofing experience (and I tried them all)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Ziflow
We've been using Ziflow for marketing and other content review for
about 12 months, and it has dramatically simplified our review workflow.
about 12 months, and it has dramatically simplified our review workflow.
Previously,
work was circulated by email and reviewed in Word, Acrobat, Google Docs
or simply in the email body itself, leaving feedback scattered and
difficult to retrieve or share. Ziflow ensures we capture the required
information upfront, the activity log shows who's viewed/commented on
the proof and content creators can see at a glance how the review is
progressing.
work was circulated by email and reviewed in Word, Acrobat, Google Docs
or simply in the email body itself, leaving feedback scattered and
difficult to retrieve or share. Ziflow ensures we capture the required
information upfront, the activity log shows who's viewed/commented on
the proof and content creators can see at a glance how the review is
progressing.
Because it's more customisable than some of its
competitors that I trialed, there was a slight learning curve, but
ongoing support and training made for a pain-free transition. We make
use of custom workflow templates to ensure no-one is left off a review,
and the Ziflow support team also helped us set up a smart integration to
monday.com, which one of our teams uses to keep track of ongoing jobs.
competitors that I trialed, there was a slight learning curve, but
ongoing support and training made for a pain-free transition. We make
use of custom workflow templates to ensure no-one is left off a review,
and the Ziflow support team also helped us set up a smart integration to
monday.com, which one of our teams uses to keep track of ongoing jobs.
Our
team has found the proof viewer and tools intuitive and
straightforward, and I've had many comments about how much time they're
saving now.
team has found the proof viewer and tools intuitive and
straightforward, and I've had many comments about how much time they're
saving now.
- Highly customizable - custom workflows, properties etc. fit our team's way of working
- Excellent support - typical response time 1-3 hours or less (and we're in Australia!)
- Intuitive markup tools - reviewers needed very little training.
- Analytics - Ziflow has basic analytics, but would love an admin dashboard to look at the data in different ways.
- Learning curve - some of our less tech-savvy content creators struggled learning their way around Ziflow initially.
- Improved communication
- Improved transparency and clarity
- Improved efficiency
Reviewers now have a consistent experience, regardless of the format of the content, making their jobs much simpler. They no longer need to print or electronically file any correspondence relating to a proof since any communication happens directly on the proof, where it belongs.
Content creators have improved transparency and can action changes more quickly since they can see comments as they happen. They're also able to send nudges to reviewers if they're worried about missing a deadline.
Reviewers can open a proof from anywhere with a web browser, which was invaluable during COVID lockdowns when so many were forced to work from home on short notice. Compared to working with shared offline documents, there's no need to wait for someone else to close the file before another reviewer can open it, or to circulate updated versions via email. The ability to @mention individual reviewers and threaded comment replies make it simple to keep any queries in context.
Do you think Ziflow delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Ziflow's feature set?
Yes
Did Ziflow live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Ziflow go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Ziflow again?
Yes
For our purposes, Ziflow had the right balance of customisation, security and ease-of-use. Some of the others appeared robust, but did not deliver the user-experience, with very slow load times for some files, or did not allow for saved workflows, which would mean content creators would have to manually add a long list of reviewers each time they created a proof.
I would like to give an honourable mention to PageProof, which offers a very clean and minimalistic experience, but lacked some of the more advanced features we were looking for.