Dramatically increase business efficiency: four things you need to ask

Friday, 26 February 2010 12:29

Written by Russ Levanway, CEO of TekTegrity, Inc

Do you get the feeling that there is an easier way to centralize processes and information in your company? Are systems such as customer contact databases, billing, project management, sales prospects, sales cycle and finance completely separate and independent from each other? Are you frustrated with having to spend too much time on administrative tasks, juggling programs and information, and investigating what is going on at any given time with clients, projects, staff and sales?

Chances are, there is a simpler, streamlined solution. We learned a lot from working through this process in our own company, as well as finding solutions for our clients. This article will provide insight and inspiration if you are encountering a similar challenge.

Several years ago, our company performed an internal analysis of every action that had to be taken when we prepared to provide Information Technology support to a new client. In order to setup a new client “in our system", it was necessary to create information in many different locations:

Contracts were stored in files on the server
Business contacts were stored in ACT
Billing information and invoicing was setup in QuickBooks
Time tracking for billing was in a Time Tracker utility
Passwords were stored in a secure, encrypted database
General info was stored in an internal wiki document
System Management was performed in a special management console
Any specific vendors were stored in Outlook Contacts
A work order system tracked all tickets and cases
Project Management was tracked in Microsoft Project

There was little or no connection between each system so some information had to be inputted nine different times. Changes in a company name, address or telephone number had to be tracked and made in these multiple locations. Changes in billing involved a tedious process of manually counting the number of computers each client had. Technical staff had to record work performed for a specific client, then separately track their timesheets. All of these manual processes created an administrative headache and led to the occasional error.

Is your company experiencing some of these same time consuming issues?

With the current economic climate, many companies need to streamline and become more efficient in the administrative tasks they perform. This may be the year for your company to retool and rethink your processes to make them more efficient.

Four key questions to ask yourself

How many hours – or days – does it take to gather the information and work details you need to properly bill your clients or follow up on billing questions?
Do you have automated systems in place to track and manage your distributor, prospect, customer and employee communications?
How is your sales pipeline being managed and nurtured? Do you have a reliable system for tracking your prospects from a lead through the final sale?
How much time is wasted entering duplicate data and information into disparate locations, files, applications, etc.?

Customer Relations Management (CRM) and Professional Services Architecture (PSA) solutions are engineered to address these problems.

To tackle our situation, TekTegrity deployed a sophisticated PSA system that allowed most business processes to happen in a single software platform. This time savings and efficiency gains were dramatic, and have resulted in our PSA system paying for itself many times over. Here are some of our highlights:

Bi-monthly invoicing was cut from four days to just on day, even as we grew over 100 percent.
Bi-monthly payroll processing time was cut from two days to a half-day, even as we hired additional staff and developed more complex commission structures.
Sophisticated reports gave the administration a top-down view of sales, work orders, technician utilization, and many other key measurements.
Many work flows are now automated, with each person getting tasks automatically assigned to them for completion of their portion of a process.
Dramatic reduction of errors and mistakes from reduced duplication of data.

The biggest benefit was that client satisfaction skyrocket due to  faster turnaround and lack of errors all around.

Could your company benefit from retooling processes and implementing a CRM or PSA? Are you losing valuable time building and maintaining stand-alone programs, platforms, spread sheets and homegrown applications?

Maybe you should take a look at the various CRM and PSA options out there that are built specifically for your industry, business model, needs and goals. In an economic climate like this, there is no better time to make a change, and much to be gained.