The in-house team at Boston University has changed a lot in recent years. We’ve gone from a customer service group to a project management group to an account management team. And we're going to change—or should I say, evolve—even further.

Early on our group was exclusively focused on print-design projects. Over the past five years, we’ve grown to an integrated model where wehandle print and web projects, and now we're working on bringing photography in as well. Years ago, our focus was getting the work done and while that's still important to us, it's also important for us to focus our time on the right work, and the right strategy for the work, which obviously allows our work to be more successful.

This shift has been fundamental to our operating efficiency. My boss and I often reflect back on the “timeline” of how far we’ve come in such a short time. And although it doesn't seem like things are changing overnight, we’ve done a lot in a few short years—especially for higher education, an industry not known for being quick to change, especially the administrative side.

Operational excellence is something we strive for, though I don’t believe it is place we’ll ever fully land. If history proves correct, just when we think we're there, we’ll discover something else that could be improved, something that needs to be fixed, or a new idea or system what we want to test.

Although our creative services group is modeled after a true agency, we're idiosyncratic too. For example, most of the “business” of our internal agency resides within the account team. Not only do we handle client strategy and service, we handle budgets, billing, process, traffic, research, brand work and whatever else doesn’t fit in other areas. It certainly makes us a bit different than other agencies. And although it can be a challenging to wear such a variety of hats on any given day, it's one of the things that I personally find energizing!

That said, our most successful account team members are adaptable, flexible and excited by change—which fits well into how we have and continue to strive for operational excellence.

Pam Sarian is the Director, Account Management of Marketing & Communications at Boston University.