The Challenge
Like many companies, this technology integrator in Birmingham, England, found they were growing faster than their current CRM application’s capabilities – their prior application had grown outdated for both their sales and support needs. Previously using a standalone application for time & expense capture, they were also in search of a tool to make the capture easier for the consultants both inside and outside of the office, and easier for the finance staff by including accounting integration, rather than retyping the captured information for billing.
The firm needed a solution to provide real-time insight into accounts being serviced, sales performance, consultant utilization, and the profitability of each of the company’s customer projects. As they were also unable to easily create customized reports using their current multiple systems, they had limited visibility into overall business performance.
Management listened to the recommendations of another software reseller and ultimately selected TimeLinx for their needs.
The Solution
They chose TimeLinx because of its integration with their CRM as well as its ability to bridge CRM to ERP while providing a complete turn-key solution for its service and support needs. Bridging these applications has allowed their Project & Account Managers to manage complete engagements from beginning to end in one system. Tracking workflow from the initial sale to engagement and work performed has allowed them to manage their customer relationships while providing prompt and accurate service and support to all of its customers.
TimeLinx has allowed them to grow and expand its software reselling business by providing them the tools necessary to:
- Manage projects and engagements with greater detail for all aspects of the business
- Track time and expenses for their remote workforce
- Reduce the time from work completion to invoice production
- Increase profitability by having greater visibility into work performed
- Create customized reports for greater real-time business intelligence
- Manage services performed against service fees collected for better budget management for customers
- Capture unbilled revenue resulting from staff performing out-of-scope work “to be nice”.
The Process
Now, they are able to provide tight controls over time and expense entry for their remote consulting workforce while reducing back-office adjustments at the end of the month. Project Managers are also able to manage consultants’ time more efficiently than ever before. Account managers have noted that the increased ‘checks and balances’ in work performed has reduced the number of errors in billing as well as enabled invoices to be sent much faster than previously allowed.
Profitability is always on the forefront of any company’s mind and they were no exception. The unique integration capabilities of TimeLinx have allowed the company to track profitability with great detail and accuracy. Removing the manual steps of combining data from multiple systems has reduced billing errors while significantly reducing the amount of cost and time spent by finance staff. The staff is now able to focus on other projects and tasks while knowing that the greater visibility company-wide is up-to-date and accurate for sales, support and project management.
“We’ve been able to break down projects and profitability in a way we didn’t think was possible,” said the CEO. “This increased visibility has allowed us to track and manage projects based on billable vs. non-billable time which is helpful in allocating resources when and where needed.”
They continue to look to the future and plan to expand the use of TimeLinx to other areas of its business. As its staff of consultants grows, they plan to expand the TimeLinx deployment to support their business growth as well as the increasing size of its projects and engagements with no loss of responsiveness to its customers.