Many of our customers are now using Workbooks Business Edition to run their entire ‘prospect to cash’ process.

This means they are using Workbooks to: Manage leads and convert them into opportunities; create quotes and convert quotes into sales orders; manage their fulfilment process with sales orders and then invoice creation. In many cases our customers have implemented Workbooks Business to either streamline an existing process, or to provide a platform to scale their business.

These customers derive real value in having their transaction data sitting alongside their CRM data in one consolidated system. However the implementation of a system this broad really begins to highlight the importance of consistent business process across an organisation. With many customers, the processes they used prior to implementing Workbooks had ‘evolved’ over time and were designed to be used with the tools available – typically Excel or Word.

So as part of the implementation process we actively encourage people to review their existing process to see if they really are: Efficient Measurable Clearly understood. It is not unusual to find people still performing specific tasks within a process ‘because that’s what we always do’; regardless of the value it may have to the business.

We often find it useful to ask people to consider why the process exists and see if there is a more effective way to meet the requirement, as opposed to replicating the existing process in a new system. In many cases ‘the right process’ is the one that is easiest to execute, assuming it provides the metrics (for your reports) and controls that you need.

This planning doesn’t need to be complex, but it does mean having a common understanding about how your business is run. A good question to ask is: “Does everyone in the business have a consistent view on how things should be done?” Questions like: What are the criteria for converting a lead into an opportunity? What are the stages of our sales cycle? When should we forecast a deal? How do I sign-up a new customer? What constitutes a new order, what information do I need to capture? Work through your key processes and ensure they are relevant to your business today. Frankly this is a good exercise for any business, even if you are not implementing a new business application.