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1 Prospects and Pipeline Administrators Guide DOCUMENTATION Phone: Fax:

2 CHANGE HISTORY ORIGINAL DOCUMENT AUTHOR: MICHELLE HARRIS DATE: NOVEMBER 2012 AUTHOR DATE CHANGE MICHELLE HARRIS SEPTEMBER 2014 UPDATE TO V9 MICHELLE HARRIS MARCH 2015 UPDATE TO V9.2 MICHELLE HARRIS JANUARY 2016 UPDATE TO 9.3 MICHELLE HARRIS APRIL 2016 UPDATE TO 9.5 Chapter: Change History 2

3 CONTENTS Change History... 2 Overview... 4 Using the Prospects and Pipeline System... 5 The Prospect Lifecycle... 5 Prospects... 6 Business Cards... 6 Name Tab... 7 Details Tab... 7 Business Tab... 7 Opportunities Tab... 7 Events Tab... 8 Attributes Tab... 8 Opportunities... 8 Converting Opportunities... 9 Prospect Events... 9 Attributes Managing your Pipeline The Prospect Dashboard My Prospects page All Prospects Page Set Up Of The Prospects and Pipeline System Standard Categories Prospect Opportunity Ratings Prospect opportunity roles and Target roles Prospect Events Prospect Attributes Chapter: Change History 3

4 OVERVIEW This document provides information on the use and set up of the Prospects and Pipeline module for Practice Engine. The Prospects and Pipeline module for Practice Engine provides the ability to generate and track business opportunities, and attempt to turn them into real business. This in turn indicates the flow of prospects or potential clients. The module is a completely integrated part of the system and works around the base components of Business Cards, Prospects, Opportunities, Attributes and Events. It uses very simple concepts; which follow the real world. It starts with a business card or an existing contact/ client. Where a business card, contact or client has potential sales opportunities it becomes a prospect. Prospects are tracked through the system by a user configured scale Opportunity Ratings. This administrator s guide provides information on both the use of the module and the setup of the various user defined categories. Chapter: Overview 4

5 USING THE PROSPECTS AND PIPELINE SYSTEM This section provides information on the use of the Prospects and Pipeline system. It assumes that the various categories have already been set up. Please refer to a later section for the setup of categories. The Prospects and Pipeline Management pages are accessed from the Assurance menu of the main Practice Engine System. There are three available pages: All Prospects My Prospects Prospect Dashboard THE PROSPECT LIFECYCLE The lifecycle of a prospect has many stages and can depend on whether the prospect is fresh or whether it is from an existing client/ contact. The diagram below describes the stages that are passed through: Business Card Client/ Contact Add Opportunity Lose Prospect/ Opportunity Becomes a Prospect Win Prospect/ Opportunity becomes an Assurance Request in PE and opportunity becomes a new job. Win opportunity on an existing client. New job created for client. Chapter: Using the Prospects and Pipeline System 5

6 PROSPECTS A Prospect is any business card, contact or client that has a current opportunity attached. The Prospects tab provides a grid view of all current prospects, refined by All, Opportunities and Just Business Cards. Each line displays the various columns that can be chosen from the Columns button. There is also an Action button that allows the Business Card/ Prospect to be opened, or an Opportunity or Event to be added to the Business card. Clicking onto any Prospect will open the Prospect Details. For further information please refer to the sections below. Prospects can be pinned so that they display in the My Prospects page by clicking in the Star column next to the opportunity. The Return To My List option within the Prospect Details page will return the user to the My Prospects page. BUSINESS CARDS Business cards are the starting point for all prospects that are not originating from an existing client. They are the basic details of people/ organisations that provide an opportunity of selling a service to. They are created from either the All Prospects page or from My Prospects. In the first instance a Business Card is added to the system by clicking onto the Add button. This will display a form where the prospect type and basic details can be entered. Field: Prospect Type: Company: Salutation: First Name: Last Name: Description Options of selecting to add either a Person or Organisation type record. If the person who is being added is attached to a company, enter the company name. Enter the salutation of the person to be attached to the business card. Enter the first name of the person. This is a mandatory field. Enter the last name of the person. This is a mandatory field. Enter the address of the person/ business card. Existing contacts and prospects will be displayed to the right hand side of the Prospect details. Click onto the Add To Prospects or Add Opportunity button to add a new prospect to an existing Contact, or to add an new opportunity to an existing prospect or client. If the suggested existing contacts are not relevant, click onto the New Prospect button to create the new prospect. The Just Business Card tab of the module displays all business cards (prospects) that do not have an opportunity attached. Each line displays the various columns that can be chosen from the Columns button. There is also an Action button that allows an Opportunity or Event to be added to the Business card. Chapter: Using the Prospects and Pipeline System 6

7 Clicking a prospect will open the business card summary to show tabs that provide further information on the attached Details, Business, Opportunities, Events and Attributes. A description of each field is described in the following sections: NAME TAB The details on the Name tab are the same as those initially entered when creating the Prospect, and are detailed above. DETAILS TAB The Details tab holds the contact information for the Prospect. BUSINESS TAB This tab holds marketing and source information. Field: Industry: Business Type: Office: Source: Source Contact: Source Name: Rating: Ownership: Staff Responsible: OPPORTUNITIES TAB Description This field comes from the Client Industry category in Categories etc. It is used to segment Prospects by Industry sector. This field comes from the Business Type category. It is used to segment Prospects by their business type. This is the office that the prospect will belong to. This field comes from the Source of Client category. Also known as referrer. This field is look up field against the Contacts already held on Practice Engine. This field is a free text field that allows a referrer to be entered when they are not already a contact on Practice Engine. This field is controlled by the Client Rating category. This is used to provide a way of categorising clients. This field comes from the Ownership Codes category. It is used to determine the type of entity that the prospect is. Allows a staff member or staff members to be tagged against the Prospect for responsibility. This tab displays any opportunities that have been defined for the Prospect. It also allows opportunities to be added from here. Please refer to the section on Opportunities for detailed information regarding adding an opportunity. Chapter: Using the Prospects and Pipeline System 7

8 EVENTS TAB This tab displays all events that have been recorded against the prospect as well as allowing for events to be added. Prospect events will only appear in the Prospects pages, even after the Prospect has been converted. ATTRIBUTES TAB This tab displays the available attributes for the prospect. These only appear in the Prospects pages. OPPORTUNITIES An opportunity is the possibility of selling a service to a business card, contact or client. The opportunities refiner provides an overview of all live opportunities. Each opportunity is colour coded according to the opportunity status. Opportunities can also be viewed from the Opportunities tab on the Prospects refiner. The opportunity is displayed initially as a summary line which provides information based on the columns selected for the grid. Opportunities can be pinned so that they display in the My Prospects page by clicking on the Star icon next to the opportunity. Clicking onto the opportunity will open the Opportunity tab within the Prospect details pages for the selected Prospect: Field: Service Department Job Template Job Name Budget Value Hours Rating Partner Opportunity Roles Target Roles Description This drop field allows the service that the opportunity relates to, to be selected. This is derived from the same services as used in the main system. The department that the opportunity belongs to. This can be used for reporting purposes. Select the job template that the opportunity will use if won. Enter the name for the Job that will arise if the opportunity is won. Enter a figure for the proposed budget for the opportunity. This will be carried through to the job details if the opportunity is won. Enter the number of hours the opportunity will represent. This will be carried through to the job details if the opportunity is won. Select the rating for the opportunity. The values that appear in this selection field are user definable and are configured within Categories Etc of the main system. These ratings determine the colour associated with the opportunity and the rated value. Enter the partner who is responsible for the opportunity. These are user defined roles that are created and maintained within Categories etc. They identify the role of staff working on the opportunity. These are also user defined fields in categories Etc. they are used to define Chapter: Using the Prospects and Pipeline System 8

9 Recurring Target Start Date Notes Incumbent Accountants Incumbent Staff Competitors the role of the contacts at the opportunity. This check box will indicate whether the job that is created when the opportunity is won is to be a recurring job. Select a target start date for the opportunity. Enter any additional notes about the opportunity that are required. Enter the name of the current accountants of the opportunity. Enter the name of the current staff member at the incumbent accountants Enter any known competitors New opportunities can be added to the Prospect using the Add Opportunity button. CONVERTING OPPORTUNITIES When an opportunities rating is marked as Sold, it is passed through to the main PE system. If the opportunity was attached to a non PE contact, an Assurance request will be created with the basic details as entered on the Prospect Details. On passing through the requisite validation stages of Assurance the client will be created and a job set up to represent the opportunity. If the Opportunity was with an existing client in the system, then a new Job will be created from the details held in the Opportunity. PROSPECT EVENTS Prospect Events can be added to either a Prospect or a Business Card. They can be added from the Action menu on either the Prospects refiner or the Opportunities refiner of the My Prospects or All Prospects pages. The form contains the following fields: Field: Subject: Date Opportunity: Attendees Complete Staff Action Description Enter a description for the subject of the event. This is a mandatory field. Select/ Enter the date that the event refers to. This is a mandatory field. Select which opportunity the event refers to, or leave as Not Specific to an Opportunity. A free text field to enter the name of the person that the event refers to. Marks the event as either Incomplete or Complete. This is an autocomplete field to indicate the staff member responsible for the event. These actions are derived from the Prospects Action category within categories etc. They are user configurable and can be used to indicate the status of the event or what action is required. An Event Type of Prospect Actions needs to be entered with a code of PROSPACT if it is not already in the Categories Etc list. Chapter: Using the Prospects and Pipeline System 9

10 Notes A text field to enter any narrative regarding the event. A maximum of 2000 characters can be entered. Events can be viewed from either the Events tab within the Prospect Details, the Business Card details; or from the Opportunity details. ATTRIBUTES Prospect Attributes can be used to add additional details that need to be recorded against any prospect. Examples include any invitations that may be sent to the prospect, networking events that the prospect attends, professional associations etc. Attributes can be attached to the prospect from within the Prospect or Business Card details. MANAGING YOUR PIPELINE Your Pipeline can be managed through the My Prospects page or the Prospect Dashboard. Special Portfolios, Views and Reports can also be used to generate meaningful information for decision making and tracking purposes. THE PROSPECT DASHBOARD The Prospect Dashboard provides an overview of current prospect activity. It displays pinned prospects and opportunities, new opportunities and a colour coded activity feed of recent activity. Clicking onto an opportunity or prospect will allow navigation through to the detail pages for editing of information. The graph in the middle will update as part of the period end routine to show conversion rates and activity. MY PROSPECTS PAGE The My Prospects page displays a list of all pinned Prospects and Opportunities, as well as listing any events that the staff member is responsible for. Clicking onto the Prospects refiner at the top of the page will display all Prospects sub divided into further refiners of All, Opportunities and Just Business Cards. From here any prospect can be selected to view and edit the main prospect details. The Opportunities refiner will display all opportunities which are colour coded based on their opportunity rating. The Events refiner will display all prospect events which the staff member has created. ALL PROSPECTS PAGE The all Prospects page displays the same information as described above for My Prospects for all prospects and prospect events within the system. Chapter: Using the Prospects and Pipeline System 10

11 SET UP OF THE PROSPECTS AND PIPELINE SYSTEM A number of the drop down fields in the Prospect and Pipeline module are derived from categories that can be created and edited within Categories Etc of the main Practice Engine system. Customising these categories allow the module to be tailored to individual business requirements. This section will detail the categories that can be created/ edited and the behaviour of each category. STANDARD CATEGORIES The standard categories of Industry, Business Type, Source, Rating and Ownership all come from standard categories defined within Categories Etc. PROSPECT OPPORTUNITY RATINGS Prospect Opportunity ratings dictate the behaviour of opportunities within the Prospect and Pipeline module. They create the colour bandings that display the opportunities, the rated value and the outcome. Prospect Opportunity Ratings are created from within Special Categories of Categories Etc. The table below describes the information that is required when creating the ratings: Field: Description Description Enter a name for the rating type. E.g. Target, Suspect, Prospect etc Style Rate Factor Display Order Colour Status This field provides 5 colour options when opportunities are displayed on the Prospects page and Dashboard. The available styles are: Muted Text, Muted Text with blue background, Blue background, Green background and Red background. The percentage that the budget value will be multiplied by to create the rated value of the opportunity. Lower expectation ratings generally have a lower rate factor. The order in which the ratings will be displayed in the list within Categories Etc. This field does not affect opportunities. This field will link the opportunity rating to one of three hard coded ratings used in the Prospects and Pipeline module Active, Sold and Lost. Opportunity ratings linked to Active will remain displayed in the module. Ratings linked to Sold will create either a new Assurance request for nonclients or a new job for existing clients. Ratings linked to Lost will remove the contact from the Prospects tab and place it back to a business card. Two mandatory Opportunity Ratings are Lost and Sold. Chapter: Set Up Of The Prospects and Pipeline System 11

12 PROSPECT OPPORTUNITY ROLES AND TARGET ROLES Prospect Opportunity Roles allow different staff to be associated with an opportunity in different roles. Prospect opportunity roles are a category controlled field within Categories Etc > Categories. Prospect Target Roles allow different contacts at the opportunity to be assigned roles. These are also created within Categories Etc > Categories. PROSPECT EVENTS Prospect events are linked to Actions which are user definable within Categories Etc. The Prospect event type has a category code of PROSPACT. This in turn needs to be added to the Category of Categories with the same code, if it is not already there. The Prospect Actions are added by selecting the category from the list of categories and selecting Add New. PROSPECT ATTRIBUTES Attributes can be exposed in the Prospects module by assigning the Attribute page that they reside on to be visible for Prospects. Attributes and Attribute pages are created in the same way as the main system. Please refer to System Administration - Administrators Guide for further information. Chapter: Set Up Of The Prospects and Pipeline System 12

V9 Jobs and Workflow Administrators Guide DOCUMENTATION. Phone: Fax:

V9 Jobs and Workflow Administrators Guide DOCUMENTATION Phone: 01981 590410 Fax: 01981 590411 E-mail: information@praceng.com CHANGE HISTORY ORIGINAL DOCUMENT AUTHOR: MICHELLE HARRIS DATE: APRIL 2010 AUTHOR