Anticipating tomorrow’s challenges today
One of the most important parts of any great implementation partner’s role is encouraging the business to think not just about optimisation of existing processes, but also about the challenges that might arise in the future. For example, a seemingly minor disconnect between two separate revenue processes might not seem significant at this stage but could become a major issue as the company scales up. Equally, on the technical side, a ‘make do’ solution may only be storing up problems for the future…
“As a partner, you should guide the customer towards best practice. Trying to get the best out of the platform without building in technical debt. Fix minor problems today that could become massive problems in the future.”
Justin Wheatley, Director of Lead-to-Ledger
Embracing a greenfield attitude
For maximum value from the project, Lead-to-Ledger transformation should not be a case of new tech sitting on top of old processes. Instead, this is a prime opportunity to question the value and efficacy of ways of working, right across the business. Justin likened this particular project to a greenfield: GemOne was refreshingly open to remodelling and replacing whatever processes could benefit from optimisation. From sales to finance, this attitude can help you to drive efficiency and free up valuable resources.
“We wanted a partner that really understands what we do – and thinks with us. I really believed that this whole process should make GemOne better. We should not start from what we have today and then try to build a system around it. I wanted to ask ‘What does the easiest and most straightforward process look like?’, and then we will change our processes internally”.
Patrick Smets, CEO, GemOne
Realising the benefits
For GemOne, the chosen solution comprised:
1. Salesforce Sales Cloud CRM for lead/customer management
2. Salesforce CPQ and Billing (Salesforce Revenue Cloud) to streamline quote and invoicing processes
3. FinancialForce ERP which enables the company to draw key resource planning insights from across all revenue processes.
4. Avalara for tax compliance
“What you get is end-to-end visibility from lead stage to cash. We have a full view of what orders are coming in, and an overview of inventory. It means we can pull reports and analyse things across all flows. Having that visibility in one single system allows everybody to move faster, reduces workload, reduces time and effort and human error.”
Lynn Van Der Laan, COO, GemOne
“Beyond the back office, salespeople can now see when something has shipped, they get the tracking number automatically. Clients get visibility on what’s happening, salespeople can see stock levels, so it’s creating transparency across the whole company.”
Patrick Smets, CEO, GemOne
With PhiX as their implementation partner, it took just 90 days for GemOne to achieve an international Lead-to-Ledger rollout.
