Background:

There are more than 60,000 small and mid-size digital agencies in the U.S., but the tools they’re sold to assemble teams, sell and manage projects, and dial in impact are underserving them. That’s because this software is often old, rigid, and rooted in narrow visions of doing business. Many current professional service automation (PSA) tools, such as Mavenlink and Netsuite-Openair, were designed in the ‘90s. Most over-emphasize top-down decisions and require total integration to get the best value. None deliver tools that meet the specific needs of digital agency pros. 

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This way of thinking is too inflexible for today’s fluid PSA demands. It ignores the input and value of a whole world of sales leads, project managers, and resource planners outside the c-suite—the people who turn the big-picture vision into daily progress. It forces agencies to pay more for tools they may not want or need. Taken together, these roadblocks stop companies from understanding then capitalizing on the full value of their people. 
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Company Specifics:‍

Parallax is a set of solutions for the present and future of pricing, planning, and resourcing projects at professional services organizations. Its suite of predictive analytics and other resource management tools were created by digital agency veterans, with outside help from more than 70 agencies on its product advisory council. Parallax integrates with agencies’ existing tools to build a shared data perspective across the organization, rather than forcing all-or-nothing adoption. And it offers built-in insights that are specifically tailored to the digital agency space that no other tool on the market can deliver. These flexible, insightful solutions let companies understand then maximize the full value of their people, empowering both employees and businesses to grow and be their best.

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Parallax leadership has deep agency project management experience and a passion for building more diverse teams. CEO Tom O’Neill was CEO of The Nerdery, a custom software consultancy with offices around the Midwest, and COO Dave Annis was a Partner and Managing Director at Zeus Jones, a Minneapolis business strategy and brand design firm which works with numerous Fortune 100 brands. Tom was a mentor at Techstars Target Retail, where he met Ryan.