CodeIT Case Study: Resource Planning & Scheduling System

01

Project overview

The resource planning & CPQ system for professional services is an innovative solution that helps businesses automate more than 90% of the paperwork burden.

The key features of the software are:

Ultra-fast and innovative quoting system
Automatic sales documents generation
Simple quotes review and approval
Seamless integration with third-party software

The system can fetch data from connected sales software like customer relationship management (CRM) or professional services automation (PSA) software.

It can analyze all the data and update sales pipelines simultaneously to receive accurate forecasts. Hence, businesses always have access to data-baked reports on resources spent and expected revenues.

02

Our task

Several CodeIT experts were hired by the product owner during the initial product development phase. Our specialists have joined the client’s on-site team to help develop new features.

After establishing the collaboration and communication environments, our experts were assigned to develop a part of the resource planning and CPQ software with the following functionality:

Monitoring of assigned resources
Management of the available resources
Work planning and scheduling
Comprehensive analytics

During the CPQ system development process, the client decided to scale up the on-site team by hiring more specialists. Eventually, we were requested to allocate 28 tech-strong experts and integrate them into the client’s on-site team.

03

Implementation

We have applied the tried-and-tested workflow that implies the following stages:

Problem identification

To identify the problems, our team has conducted thorough requirements analysis. Our specialists have defied the following problems:

Since data is fetched from various sources, it is mixed and unstructured.
All the documents changes made by clients and sales representatives should be monitored
High risk of inevitable mistakes, miscalculations, and misinformation because of shared access to documents in a collaborative environment.

Solutions discovery and implementation

After pointing out the main challenges, our team started working on developing digital solutions to address the defined problems.

The top solutions developed by our team of software engineers are the following:

Comprehensive synchronization with a CRM. All the data changed in a CRM gets updated in the system simultaneously. Also, it automatically adds new records created in a CRM and performs re-calculation.
Complete access to data. All executive managers and decision-makers can access all the documents for constant monitoring.
Top security and version control. All the documents are stored in a secure cloud-based database. Moreover, all versions of the documents are saved, so managers can track all the updates.

Let’s explore the system’s functionality that our software engineers helped develop.

04

Main Features

The one-of-a-kind CPQ system developed by CodeIT’s specialists involved in the client’s team implies many innovative features.

Let’s explore the system’s functionality in more detail below.

Dashboard

Dashboard Dashboard Dashboard

The dashboard aims to present all the helpful information in a convenient way. It implies all the required metrics that are gathered in one place.

All the information presented on the dashboard is updated in live time, using the progressive web apps (PWA) technology. Hence, there is no need to refresh it manually to check updated information.

The data presented on the dashboard is divided into the following sections:

Resources — already spent human resources and money;
Backlog — approved budget of the ongoing projects;
Quotes — estimates requested for the upcoming projects;
Pipeline — already allocated budget;
Planning — not quoted projects that should be estimated in the future.

Quoting

Quoting Quoting Quoting

Users can create new quotes by using the drag-and-drop interface. They can select the required resources and adjust information about the hours spent, milestones achieved, etc. The CPQ software performs all the calculations automatically in live time.

Automated proposals and guided selling

Users can utilize pre-built templates to generate quotes automatically. Also, they can create similar documents in bulk to automate the process.

Approvals

Approvals Approvals Approvals

A new document can be submitted for approval in one click. After hitting the “Submit for approval” button, an executive manager receives an email notification about the need to check and approve a quote.

Quote analytics

Quote analytics Quote analytics

The configure-price-quote system monitors all the data constantly. If some crucial metrics, like margin, fall below the minimum allowed thresholds, executive managers get notified simultaneously.

Human resource management

The functionality of the system foresees the opportunity to manage the available human resources. Users can choose roles using the skills matrix and define the number of specialists needed for a project.

Scheduling and forecasting

Scheduling and forecasting Scheduling and forecasting

The system provides real-time information about the employees’ availability, projects they allocated to, etc.

All the data input by users and generated by the system is stored in a cloud and processed to generate detailed reports and useful insights for data-baked forecasting.

CRM integration

CRM integration CRM integration CRM integration

The inbuilt integration with SalesForce and Microsoft 365, the two popular customer relationship management software solutions, helps establish an automatic resource planning system stress-free.

05

Testing

A team of quality assurance (QA) specialists to ensure that the developed functionality works perfectly by performing manual and automated testing.

Also, we conduct acceptance testing so that the released features work as designed.

06

Post-development user support

Customer care managers were allocated to the client’s team to help establish the user success department. The main two responsibilities of post-development user support are:

Functional consulting

Dedicated customer care managers help new users gather business requirements, set up the system, create templates of documents, etc. Dedicated managers help new users grasp new skills and learn how to use the configure-price-quote system.

Customer support

The customer support department is responsible for maintaining a high level of user satisfaction. Customer care specialists collect feedback from users, process tickets, and troubleshoot unexpected problems.

07

The result

CodeIT has helped to scale up the client’s team to develop new features. The client is completely satisfied with the result achieved during the ongoing collaboration.

Our specialists keep helping the client achieve business goals. 28 tech experts allocated by CodeIT have seamlessly integrated into the client’s on-site team. They help develop and test new features, maintain the resource planning and CPQ software, and support users.

08

Feedback

Ali Safadi, Co-founder

“CodeIT integrated seamlessly with the internal team,

continuously improved their management processes, and

promptly addressed any problems. Their technical proficiency and

dedicated work ethic made them a valuable and reliable partner.”

“CodeIT integrated seamlessly with the

internal team, continuously improved their

management processes, and promptly

addressed any problems. Their technical

proficiency and dedicated work ethic made

them a valuable and reliable partner.”

“CodeIT integrated seamlessly with the internal team, continuously improved their management processes, and promptly addressed any problems. Their technical proficiency and dedicated work ethic made them a valuable and reliable partner.”

Resource Planning & CPQ System For Professional Services