The Challenge
A Professional Services firm providing Enterprise Resource Planning and Human Resource Management System solutions – had been experiencing challenges with its time management and service billing systems. The Oklahoma company had been using one system to track project work and another system to track support issues, resulting in double entry by consultants using multiple applications. With the recent acquisition of a new company, a third time-entry application was introduced.
Compounding the situation, none of the systems communicated with one another, requiring manual balancing and re-keying of data. “It was a real fight to get billing done on a timely and accurate basis,” explained their vice president of consulting.
The Solution
After investigating a number of alternatives, they chose to implement TimeLinx™, that would run within their existing CRM system. TimeLinx added functionality to the CRM that combined all time entry from project work, customer support and project management. The resulting system met all of the management team’s objectives:
- A single point of entry for all consulting, service and support work.
- Invoicing that is generated via approved time capture, facilitating fast, accurate billing via a TimeLinx interface to the firm’s ERP system).
- A single repository for all customer information, including sales, service, support, contracts, resources, documents, and project
- Complete visibility into client, service, support, and project information by anyone in the organization to improve customer
- A single, stable and scalable application that utilizes an enterprise-level database, Microsoft SQL Server, to facilitate continued business
The Process
Before implementing TimeLinx, “we followed the same advice we give our own clients”:
- Establish reasonable, written goals.
- Identify measurable, not subjective, objectives.
- Carefully review and document all relevant internal This includes both existing processes as well as new processes that leveraged Best Practices provided by TimeLinx.
“Keep an open mind about change,” the VP of Consulting advised. “Everyone thinks their own baby is perfect. By staying open- minded and working with our TimeLinx consultant, we were able to improve the way we do things, implementing new business processes that give us a competitive advantage today. “
In many ways, choosing TimeLinx was easy. The sales team had recently implemented the CRM “so it made perfect sense to extend the CRM into Support and Project Management,” noted their Accounting Consulting Manager. “During that process, we received great onsite and phone support from TimeLinx who managed the conversion and integration of our various systems,” she said.
The new system came with unexpected benefits. The TimeLinx Accounting Platform (“TAP”) allowed them to integrate TimeLinx with their ERP system. Invoice and statement clarity have been greatly improved.
They were also able to implement electronic invoice distribution. These improvements have resulted in faster delivery of invoices, reduced calls for clarification from customers, and improved collections. In addition, because TimeLinx data is readily accessible within the CRM system, they were able to implement tailored reporting and data monitoring systems of their projects and service calls to manage and improve key performance statistics.
TimeLinx’s ability to integrate service-ticket management with time entry has improved activity tracking on open service tickets. “With our old systems, we tracked service tickets in one system and did time entry in another. Because the two systems didn’t communicate, a consultant had to record activity on a service ticket in both systems. Not only was this process time consuming and clunky; we frequently found missing entries between the two.
The end result was incomplete documentation of work performed and, ultimately, missed time and lost revenues. We also had difficulty in reporting and answering client inquiries.”
“They understood and agreed with our product vision that all client data belongs in as few systems as possible” said Mark Engelberg, TimeLinx Software’s CEO. “TimeLinx allows our clients delivering professional services to take advantage of integrated information. It produces improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and gives a 360-degree holistic view of your customer relationships. TimeLinx has allowed this customer to take advantage of this concept. It makes perfect sense and has been a great success for them”.