Streamlining the Quote-to-Cash Process for Project-Based Service Firms

For project-based service firms, the end-to-end quote-to-cash process—from quoting to revenue realization—is often hailed as the holy grail of project automation. The key is to establish a “Data First” culture. This involves identifying the data your firm needs to make decisions and improve operations.

Once you define the data you require, you can then find the right technologies to automate the processes for compiling, sharing, and analyzing the data. One way to do this is to utilize an integrated software solution that centralizes data and automatically moves the data through each phase of a project—quoting, resource planning, delivery, billing, and revenue recognition.

The Challenge of Isolated Data

Centralizing data is vital because a common problem for many project service firms is isolated data. For many—spanning management consulting, IT consulting, engineering, architecture and construction design, and software subscription services—vital data seems to live in spreadsheets managed by individual end-users.

The sales team, project managers, frontline resources, and the accounting team all rely on standalone applications to manage their piece of the process. Valuable project information collected during the quote stage does not automatically flow into project management and accounting systems.

Essential Guide for the Modern Professional Services Firm

This can include the required number of resources, project costs, the customer’s budget, timelines, and other valuable information. Instead of everything flowing automatically, users have to rekey all that data.

This manual process not only slows down projects but also creates the possibility of inaccurate data that can lead to projects that go over budget or take too long to complete. Before you know it, customer satisfaction quickly decreases.

Without project templates that ensure all the necessary data is collected and centralized, people create their own free-form project planning forms. This adds to the confusion as project managers and resources try to make sense out of how each salesperson sets up their quotes.

The Value of Dynamics 365 Project Operations

• Manages entire project lifecycles.
• Offers multiple business-model deployments.
• Provides a framework to integrate external apps.
• Scales to accommodate fast-growing businesses.
• Allows non-technical resources to customize and configurable workflows.
• Integrates easily with the Microsoft tech stack including Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform.

Manual Processes Lead to Inconsistent Information

The lack of standardized sales processes and templated service offerings also forces manual project creation, which leads to inconsistent contract translations and rate variances. Plus, it’s nearly impossible to forecast the required resource capacity and to coordinate projects with the procurement of any required products.

As projects reach the execution stage, the problems continue to mount. The time-entry app is not integrated with resource management, and when a change order emerges, the process to document billable vs. non-billable work becomes manual, which will impact the ability to invoice and track margins.

On the financial side, the accounting team has to rely on spreadsheets to manage costs, revenue, budget burn rates, and the earned value of each project. Overall, there’s a lack of real-time KPIs and analytics, making it difficult to manage project risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies (RAID).

By the time managers finally collect accurate project information, it’s too late to take corrective action. The firm will either need to eat the unplanned costs or bill the customer for the additional fees.

It’s a no-win situation for both parties.

Streamlining Projects to Solve the Quote-to-Cash Process

To take on the quote-to-cash process challenge, many professional services firms have turned to Microsoft Dynamics D365 Project Operations. Powered by the Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Copilot artificial intelligence to streamline project processes, the application provides standardized templates to help manage project lifecycles.

In addition to connecting sales, finance, project management, and resourcing teams, Project Operations includes processes to manage costs, budgets, invoicing, and compliance. The solution also empowers sales teams to generate accurate quotes and then streamlines the onboarding process as quotes transition from estimate to execution. The resourcing team can then more easily align the right resources (skills and bandwidth) with the right projects.

From an analytics standpoint, Project Operations provides insights on resource availability, gross margins, spend tracking, time and expenses, and milestone tracking throughout the project lifecycle. This ensures on-time delivery within the projected budget.

Preparing for a Project Operations Implementation

• Develop strategic objectives.
• Document business pain points.
• Determine analytical requirements.
• Develop functional mapping.
• Prioritize the requirements.
• Define personas/roles and their functions.
• Develop process roadmap based on costs and desired future-state.
• Consider integration of external applications.
• Determine change management protocols.
• Project the impact on the current culture.

Free Webinar: Learn More About Dynamics 365 Project Operations

To learn more about Dynamics 365 Project Operations and how it streamlines the quote-to-cash process, check out this Velosio webinar, Unpacking Dynamics 365 Project Operations – A Functional Deconstruction. You can discover what Project Operations provides for project-based services firms and its core capabilities that differentiate it from traditional project management tools.

Guide to Moving from Salesforce to Dynamics 365 Sales

In addition to learning why Project Operations is becoming a critical solution for firms managing complex project lifecycles, we provide tips for evaluating how well Project Operations fits with the way your firm operates. This includes integration with other Microsoft solutions (like Dynamics 365 Finance and Power Platform), scalability, and the ease-of-use for all stakeholders—from frontline resources to project managers to the C-suite.

The webinar is ideal for service professionals new to Dynamics 365 Project Operations who want to gain a solid understanding of its role in automating and streamlining project-based workflows. We also give you a structured framework to assess its potential ROI, how to prepare for a
deployment, and the next steps to take.

For more information on Dynamics 365 Project Operations and how it can integrate into your existing applications and workflows, contact Velosio today. We’re ready to answer all your questions.