Technology Integrator Success Story

The Challenge

A Maryland-based national organization that offers a broad array of software products to help manufacturing companies be more productive and profitable was successfully using CRM to manage their customer relationships, sales opportunities, and customer technical support. However, there was no functionality for assessing pre-sales time and out-of-pocket expenses incurred for prospecting time. Management recognized the need for a solution to better manage these activities. While using spreadsheets or a non-integrated application was a possibility, it was clear that a single solution within the CRM was preferred to avoid duplicate data entry.

Also, the company wanted an improved process to track and manage time, expenses, and project workflow for its Services Division. Without visibility into the status of work being delivered, sales teams and project managers had limited information into what specific tasks were causing projects to run over-budget. Company leadership recognized that they needed better visibility into time management. With only a limited number of potential hours to be recovered on any individual project, project profitability was continuously in jeopardy. And with many complex projects being delivered at the same time, a streamlined process was needed to set up and manage all work in an efficient manner.

The Solution

A solution that would take them seamlessly from opportunity identification to project delivery was the answer. They looked for a solution that worked within Infor to link all of their customer’s information within one system. Their first stop was to ask their CRM partner for a recommendation, and they were introduced to TimeLinx.

Management immediately saw that the integration of TimeLinx within the CRM would provide total visibility into “profit management” for every project, as well as time and expense management and cost capture from the beginning of the pre- sales process to the completion of the engagement.  By reducing time spent on non-value-added tasks and activities, more time could be spent on value-added services for customers.

The Results

Now, more than 10 years later, TimeLinx has proven to be a turnkey solution for the Pre-Sales Team and Services Divisions where project and time management are critical for overall efficiency.

TimeLinx has allowed the company to:

  • Track time and costs incurred during the pre-sales process of on-site visits, demos, and proposals
  • Control profit margins from day one of a project engagement
  • Provide sales management greater visibility into sales performance
  • Understand and manage the complete customer relationship within one system
  • Control and manage the financial performance of every engagement from beginning to end
  • Obtain accurate metrics for reporting

“TimeLinx has allowed us to break down and understand our overall processes and workflow. We can focus on areas that are not profitable,” said their Chief Information Officer. “We use TimeLinx company-wide but primarily for tracking and managing projects and time management for our services department. It has allowed us to have a 360° view of our clients.”

In addition to time and expense management, TimeLinx has also allowed them to see the true cost of running a service organization. Greater visibility and proactive management have allowed the company to scale its service business to accommodate larger engagements than before without additional risk to profitability.

“TimeLinx has transformed our CRM system into a complete professional services management system,” said one of the project managers. “We are providing more accurate estimates of required services and better tracking and budgeting of the actual delivery. Managing this with TimeLinx has been critical to our success.”

“We’ve been able to provide better service to our customers by focusing on the tasks and workflow procedures that matter not only to our clients but to our bottom line,” said the CIO.

Better business intelligence and efficiencies have allowed them to scale and grow the business, while TimeLinx user-defined templates have allowed it to do so without additional strain on resources. Using complicated models for building projects meant staff previously spent significant time and energy on creating various projects. TimeLinx templates for projects and tasks now allow them to easily manage and anticipate expenses as well as allocate time and resources with a straightforward and easy-to-use system.

The company continues to grow and leverage TimeLinx for its project and service delivery needs. Management anticipates incorporating more functionality and features into other areas of their operations, resulting in even greater visibility and profitability for the company.