Clearwater / Wrike
Replacing Wrike in Clearwater.
Clearwater firms and marketing operations running Wrike at the heavy end pay for tiers, add-ons and metered automations and still build the numbers in a spreadsheet. We build the system that replaces Wrike and your company owns it. We held a Wrike partnership once and walked away from it. Our focus is replacing Wrike. For Clearwater teams, discovery can happen across a table.
Who this is for, in Clearwater
Clearwater teams running Wrike at the heavy end. Firms and marketing operations with request forms, blueprints, and proofing flows, plus cross-tagged folders that have grown into a tangle nobody can draw. Then a renewal that counts seats, add-ons, and a separate analytics product, while the numbers that actually matter still get built in a spreadsheet.
The work, in order
What replacing Wrike looks like from Clearwater
Audit
The session worth having is watching one request travel from form to approval in your real Wrike account, with the people who run it in the room. We map the folder and cross-tag tree, because that's where inflated counts hide, and document every request form and blueprint from the live account, since none of it exports. If the tangle came from setup rather than from Wrike's limits, we say so and point you at a Wrike partner. Untangling isn't our focus.
Migration
Folders, projects, tasks, subtasks, custom fields, comments, and approvals all come through Wrike's API, so approval history survives with its dates. Cross-tagged tasks force a decision. One home, or a true many-to-many. We make that mapping explicit with you before the import runs, because the alternative is finding it in the data afterwards.
Build
The replacement gets built while Wrike stays live. Intake and approvals get designed first, and the budget and executive report move inside the system instead of a spreadsheet. Both systems answer the same questions until they agree. Seats and add-ons then lapse at renewal, so nothing has to be broken early.
Handover
Repository, database and hosting are created in your name from the start. Training at handover happens at your Clearwater office or ours, with documentation and administrator access you can remove. Outside reviewers get a link, not a seat. An optional support plan covers the system we built, held a short drive from yours.
Our focus
Our focus is replacing Wrike. If what your Clearwater team really needs is Wrike working better, not replaced, we'll say so on the first call rather than sell you a build. What we build is the system that replaces it.
Why teams here leave Wrike
Wrike prices its depth in layers. A higher tier applies to every seat, serious analytics is an add-on, integrations are another one, and automations are metered per seat. A team that needs a fraction of that still pays for all of it. The pattern ends the same way every time, with Wrike holding tasks and approvals and a spreadsheet holding budgets and the report.
The work
We're at 1221 Turner Street. The session worth having is watching one request travel from form to approval in your real Wrike account, with the people who run it sitting in the room. The Wrike knowledge behind that is first-hand, built on years of setting it up for marketing operations and PMOs, and on a partnership we chose to end.
Questions Clearwater companies ask
What people ask about leaving Wrike in Clearwater
Were you a Wrike partner?
Once, and we walked away from it. Building replacements pays us to be honest about the tool. If Wrike fits your team, you'll hear exactly that across the table, along with a pointer at who should configure it.
Can you untangle our cross-tagging without a migration?
That isn't our focus. If the tangle came from how the workspace was set up, a Wrike partner or your own admin can untangle it, and we'll say so. If it came from Wrike being asked to model something it can't hold, no amount of untangling fixes that, and the answer is a system that holds the relationships properly. The audit tells you which case you're in, with evidence, before anybody talks about building anything.
What happens to approvals and proofing history if we leave?
They come across. Approvals, comments, and custom fields arrive through the API with their dates preserved, and counts reconcile before cutover. History like that is exactly what a careless migration drops without telling anyone. We treat it as a first-class object in the mapping.
Tell us where Wrike stopped fitting
Book a strategy call, or send a short note about the workarounds your team runs today. If staying on Wrike is the right answer for your business, you will hear that first.