Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations E-Book

Robert Houdeshell

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 309

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Dynamics 365 Project Operations is a game-changing solution set for project-driven businesses that allows you to deliver commercially successful projects in a timely and cost-effective manner, keeping the project teams productive and collaborative. With this book, you'll find out how you can bring more value to the business by winning new projects and driving exponential revenue growth.
Starting with the key principles of Project Operations, you'll understand how it improves project planning and execution. You’ll then learn how to successfully deploy Project Operations along with different integration strategies and get to grips with the best approach for sales through project opportunities, project contracts, and pricing workflow implementation. This book will guide you through setting up direct staffing and centralized staffing models and enable you to manage project changes confidently by getting hands-on with project timeline management, pricing management, resource assignments, and modifications. In the final chapters, you'll find out how to use Project Operations effectively for project accounting and finance.
By the end of this book, you’ll have gained the confidence to deliver profitable projects in a well-connected organization through efficient decision-making and successful customer-client relationships.

Leseprobe

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations

Deliver profitable projects with effective project planning and productive operational workflows

Robert Houdeshell

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations

Copyright © 2021 Packt Publishing

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This book is a milestone of the big project that is my life! The largest milestone was when my wife, Barbara, agreed to join me on this journey of life, and she has since been an incredible force for good! She has always expected the best from me, our life together, and our business pursuits.

I gratefully acknowledge the impact of many people in the Microsoft Corporation and partner firms. Without Microsoft's continued innovation and product development, we would still be drawing Gantt charts on paper! I also acknowledge the partner firms who have put so much into my career. These firms continue to innovate and meet the needs of their clients, thus building a better business world.

I also acknowledge my clients, past and present, who have collaborated with me over the years to build incredible solutions and bring great business, processes, and technology together.

I especially thank the following people at Packt Publishing: Alok Dhuri, whose vision for this book lit the spark that will become a flame! Ruvika Rao, I thank you for working with me through the early chapters and bringing out the best in me! Nithya Sadanandan, you picked up in the middle of the book and really brought this book together. Prajakta Naik, thank you for keeping our project on track for success!

To Friyank Parikh, my technical reviewer, thank you for leveling up the content of this book and bringing together the best read for our readers!

This book and the Packt Publishing team have been a real joy to work with – I look forward to many successes with this book and others!

Contributors

About the author

Robert Houdeshell has over 24 years of project operations experience, with deep knowledge of the end-to-end processes that professional services firms utilize to deliver their projects.

Since 2004, Robert has worked with Microsoft Project Server and online versions that were integrating projects and ERP systems before there was a CRM-based PSA solution. In 2013, Robert's years of CRM, project, and ERP/accounting experience came together in the first end-to-end professional services automation solution of its kind. Built upon the Microsoft Dynamics technologies, this cloud solution was deployed in enterprise and mid-market companies. Therefore, when Project Services was released by Microsoft in 2016, he quickly saw the value of the solution we now call Project Operations.

Robert has worked with the Microsoft Project Operations solution since its beginning and has deployed the solution across multiple enterprise organizations, including a large multi-national Silicon Valley firm and a large Microsoft cloud solution partner. Robert has practical experience in enterprise and mid-size firms, helping them benefit from solution modernization. Excited about Project Operations, Robert passionately writes about his practical experience, offering solution observations and guidance for his readers to enjoy and benefit from.

About the reviewer

Friyank Parikh is an IT graduate from Mumbai University and has over 7 years of experience in Microsoft Dynamics. He is a certified Dynamics 365 Power Platform, Sales, Azure Data, and Azure Administrator Consultant. He is currently working as a senior consultant at Ernst and Young LLP. He is a technical expert with functional and business knowledge of multiple products of Dynamics 365.

He has vast experience with Microsoft technologies such as C#, .NET, MVC, and PowerShell. He has product expertise in technologies such as Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, and Project Operations. He has Azure expertise, including expertise in Azure Functions, Azure Logic Apps, Azure Data Lake, Azure Service Bus, and Azure Storage. He also actively participates in pre-sales and learning, and the development team at Ernst and Young LLP.

He has been recognized with many enterprise awards, such as the I am Exceptional award for the Digital Transformation category.

Table of Contents

Preface

Section 1: Foundation and Framework of Project Operations

Chapter 1: Introducing Project Operations

Key principles and concepts for project managers

Project businesses at a glance

The value of the Microsoft Project Operations solution

Understanding an end-to-end solution with Microsoft Dynamics 365

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Work breakdown structure

Statement of work

Project Operations' impact on profitability

Team member time and expense entry

Project accounting and ERP functionality

Data analysis and presentation

Bottom-line benefits for the company

Summary

Questions

Chapter 2: Using the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Framework for Success

The Microsoft 365 framework

Learning about the history of Microsoft 365

The licensing of Microsoft 365

The Microsoft Power Platform framework

Power BI

PowerApps

Power Automate

Power Virtual Agents

Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE

Let's rewind to 2003…

Fast forward to today…

Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE – sales functionality

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

The Unified environment – Project Operations apps

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Chapter 3: The How-Tos of Setting Up Project Operations

Technical requirements

Understanding the deployment approach

Microsoft 365 framework question

Microsoft Dynamics questions

Organizational questions

Non-dynamics integrated approach

The CE Sales and Project Operations scenario

The third-party CRM and Project Operations scenario

Upgrade path for existing customers

Setting up Dynamics 365 CE Sales

Advanced settings

System Settings

Security setup

Navigation notes

Personal settings

Sales entities

Setting up Project Operations

The Resource Manager view of Project Operations

The Sales/Account Manager view of Project Operations

Project Operations system settings

Dynamics 365 CE – Sales customizations

Customizations and configurations

Data import

Integration strategies

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Section 2: Project Sales through Delivery

Chapter 4: The Account Manager – Project Selling

Technical requirements

Understanding the lead to opportunity workflow

Creating a new lead

Maximizing project opportunities

Business process flow

Collaboration and document management

The quoting process

Creating a quote

Summary

Questions

Chapter 5: Project Contracts and Pricing

Technical requirements

Understanding the workflow from opportunity to project contract

Implementing project contracts and contract lines

The project contract

Project contract lines

Not-to-exceed limit

Developing price lists and custom price lists

Selling rates

Costing rates

Exploring roles and role types to control pricing

Non-chargeable roles

Complimentary roles

Summary

Questions

Chapter 6: Practice Manager Functions – We Won the Contract! What Now?

Technical requirements

Understanding direct staffing models

Working with backlog tracking

Building resources and roles

Skills and certifications

Understanding centralized staffing models

Direct versus centralized staffing models

Using resource forecasting

Using revenue forecasting

Resource utilization tracking

Summary

Questions

Chapter 7: Resource Manager – Staffing for Success!

Technical requirements

Staffing projects for success

Generic resources

Specific patterns

Generating requirements

Submitting a request

Generating bookings

Direct bookings

Booking types

Booking statuses

Booking allocation methods

Maximizing the Schedule board

Configuration and settings changes

Requirement for bookings

Resource utilization management

Summary

Questions

Section 3: Project Delivery through Operations

Chapter 8: Managing the Project to Success!

Technical requirements

Managing the project timeline and activities

Project Summary tab

Tasks tab

Substituting resources

Changing orders to costs and selling price

Managing risks, status reports, and change orders

Collaborating through Microsoft Teams and Outlook

Time entry considerations

Summary

Questions

Chapter 9: Team Member Activities

Technical requirements

Entering time

Requirements of time entry

Using Teams and Outlook time entry

Time entry – Outlook

Time entry – Teams

Entering expenses

Submitting and recalling time and expenses

Summary

Questions

Chapter 10: Approvals and Exceptions

Technical requirements

Understanding the approvals and actuals process

The approval process

Recalling time and expense

Using time corrections and exception handling

Time corrections

Exception handling

Summary

Questions

Chapter 11: Project Accounting and Operations

Technical requirements

Recap of our learning

Getting an overview of the billing process

Billing methods, contract types, and invoicing

Finance and Operations integration

Learning about reporting and analysis

Project Operations Dashboards

Power BI Reporting

Summary

Questions

Assessments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Why subscribe?

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

This one-of-a-kind book, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations, will help you deliver profitable projects with effective project planning and productive operational workflows. What makes it one of a kind is how we build a comprehensive story and working examples that the reader can follow along with and see the results of their efforts. It is designed to outline the foundations for project success while laying out recommendations that are the culmination of years of project operations experience.

Specifically, this book will cover project and sales methodologies, which combine to give the reader a clear picture of the life cycle, from the lead to project close. We will explain the implementation options, configuration, customization, and integration capabilities of the solution. Further, we will solidly present the sales processes from bid to win and the project processes from kickoff to revenue recognition.

By the end of the book, the reader will have a solid understanding of project processes, sales processes, and how they integrate to create an integrated solution for the project operations team. We will also explain the project accounting and operations processes with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations.

Who this book is for

This book is for project managers, project leads, business consultants and leaders who want to have a deep understanding of Project Operations and how it can benefit their business.

This book provides the reader with a solid understanding of how Project Operations builds upon the Microsoft 365 framework, leverages the Dynamics 365 platform, and brings the project manager into a modern Project for the Web environment.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introducing Project Operations, begins with the end in mind by understanding the key principles of project operations and how Dynamics 365 Project Operations meets the needs of a modern project business.

Chapter 2, Using the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Framework for Success, provides a foundational understanding of Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and all the components of Project Operations.

Chapter 3, The How-Tos of Setting Up Project Operations, dives deep into the heart of project operations setup and configuration. This step-by-step chapter is indispensable to the project implementation process.

Chapter 4, The Account Manager – Project Selling, explores the vital part of any professional services firm: selling. Sometimes called business development, account management, or other terms – the results are the winning of new business for the firm.

Chapter 5, Project Contracts and Pricing, provides you with the knowledge to structure multi-dimensional pricing and sophisticated contracts for your clients.

Chapter 6, Practice Manager Functions – We Won the Contract! What Now?, outlines decisions, the practice manager's concerns and duties, and how they will drive the firm's profitability.

Chapter 7, Resource Manager – Staffing for Success, focuses on centralized staffing. Centralized staffing is common among many professional services firms and project businesses. This chapter provides details on how best to accomplish these tasks.

Chapter 8, Managing the Project to Success, focuses on the execution phase, showing how managing the project timeline, budget, costs, and resources is imperative for the success of the firm.

Chapter 9, Team Member Activities, focuses on entering time and expenses, while effectively using Microsoft Teams and Outlook as a single entrypoint will also be outlined and leveraged in this chapter.

Chapter 10, Approvals and Exceptions, outlines project exceptions and how Project Operations handles them through many mechanisms that the project biller, administrator, and other authorized users can leverage.

Chapter 11, Project Accounting and Operations, outlines how billing and accounting for all the good work done through the Project Operations system is critical to accurately capture revenue and provide overall project net profit calculations. This chapter outlines the Project Operations billing integrations and revenue recognition considerations.

To get the most out of this book

To get the most out of this book the reader should have a desire to improve their project management and operations. Anyone concerned with being able to effectively set up, staff, bill, and recognize revenue will be interested in this book. The reader should have an average level of understanding of Microsoft technology, Microsoft 365 (Office 365), and Microsoft Dynamics. The following are some basic skills that you will need:

Microsoft 365 framework administrator knowledgeMicrosoft Dynamics 365 CE administrator knowledgeMicrosoft Dynamics 365 CE customizer knowledgeMicrosoft Project knowledge

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Section 1: Foundation and Framework of Project Operations

Dynamics 365 Project Operations is a game-changer for a project-driven business. Combining the Power Platform and Dynamics 365 Project Operations unifies and optimizes the ability to deliver successful and profitable projects. Keeping large and small teams productive and collaborative means delivering promises that was made to your clients.

In this section, you will learn about the key principles of the Project Operations solution and how it works. You will start by exploring the key principles of Project Operations and understanding how it improves project planning and execution. You'll then learn how to successfully deploy Project Operations along with different integration strategies, and get to grips with the best approach for sales through project opportunities, project contracts, and pricing workflow implementation.

This section includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Introducing Project OperationsChapter 2, Using the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Framework for SuccessChapter 3, The How-Tos of Setting Up Project Operations

Chapter 1: Introducing Project Operations

Microsoft Project Operations begins a new generation of project management capabilities combined with the power of the Microsoft 365 platform! Many years ago, Microsoft entered the office solution category and now Microsoft 365 dominates all other solutions. Project Operations is designed to provide you with the tools to expand your customer base by providing a connected environment from sales through delivery through planning to financial reporting and profitability.

Project Operations optimizes an already-proficient organization by providing optimized resource utilization and project economics. It allows you to amplify communication across project teams, collaborate externally and internally, and act upon up-to-date insights in a project. Furthermore, Project Operations simplifies time tracking and expense management while at the same time evolving with a modern and adaptable platform.

In this chapter, you will understand the key principles of the Project Operations solution and how it works. This chapter will help you to understand the key principles and concepts of the project business industry. People with the titles of project manager, practice manager or portfolio managers and consultants alike will understand the value of the solution and how it will improve project planning, execution, and accounting. Understanding where we intend to be is the first key to success. This chapter will define the success criteria of the Project Operations solution.

In this chapter, you will learn about the following concepts:

Key principles and concepts for project managers, project leaders, or business consultants so that you know how you, personally, fit into the solution for your clientsProject businesses at a glance to get to know how your company fits into similar industriesThe value of the Microsoft Project Operations solution so you can determine how this solution benefits your company, you (personally), and your industry peersKey performance results of implementing a Project Operations solution benefitting the firm by knowing your key performance statisticsThe overall solution value of a connected organization so you can connect internally and externallyHow to achieve more profitable projects in Project Operations so your firm benefits from the hard work performedBetter decision making through better tools so you can spend the most time on the most beneficial activitiesBetter customer/client relationships through communication, collaboration, and information so that you can enjoy the journey with your clients

Key principles and concepts for project managers

Congratulations! Imagine you have just become the project manager of that great new project your firm has won! You have worked hard to get this project and you want nothing but the best delivery of your solution for the client. You may be the program or practice manager who worked with the project manager to win the business and this is one of your many customers or clients (depending on your terminology). The chief operations officer may be looking at your portfolio as a part of a larger segment of business and thus looking at this new project as a part of a firm's overall services portfolio.

Project Operations pulls together the sales and delivery teams to provide a solution in which both sales and delivery can work. From the selling cycle, project contracts are created, which tie directly to the milestones that will be billed. Further along in the process, invoices are created, which drives revenue recognition in the accounting system.

Now, how do you deliver effectively for the clients that you have worked so hard to bring on board and keep happy? Now the project must be fulfilled to meet the expectations of the client. A hundred thoughts go through your mind. How do I turn an estimating worksheet into a project plan? How do I get the right people with the right skills on my project? What other projects am I competing with internally for the right talent? How can I manage all these moving parts?

Many project managers and others have lost many hours of sleep pondering these questions and trying to figure out how to deliver on the success promised to their client. Our goal with this book is to introduce you to a solution called Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations that will be the tool you can use to relieve your mind and get more rest! The goal of this book is to identify the key principles and concepts for you as a program or project manager or business executive in charge of the profit and loss (P&L) of an entire firm.

Project businesses at a glance

First off, what does a project business do for their clients? Well, that answer is wide and varied. In fact, using the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, if you searched on project business categories, you will find a significant variation of business types within almost the same classification. One of my favorite examples from history has been how some firms classify AEC as Architects, Engineers, and Construction. Although classified together, architects, engineers, and construction firms have about as much in common as bakers, butchers, and farmers. They have some things in common but not common business processes. Thus, for the purpose of this book, let's identify the common thread within a project business. Project businesses deliver skilled and certified services by people to achieve a project's purpose.

The following is a representation of the common business sectors or industries included in the project business sector:

Figure 1.1 – The Project Business sector

Within the Microsoft world, we have consultants who are skilled (read experienced) and certified (having achieved Microsoft certification) on services (implementation and training) to set up and implement software for their clients.

Other examples are management consultants who provide business strategy and tactics to grow and build the performance of businesses as a result of a merger or acquisition or simply to grow the business. Information technology (IT) implementation firms may specialize in setting up cloud computing solutions for their clients. Furthermore, some Point of Sale (POS) or security solution companies may have massive hardware configurations they prepare for their clients to be deployed at a retail establishment that requires purchasing inventory, combining it with project business and onsite deployment.

These are only a few examples of what project business is. Let's also determine what project business is not. Project business is not personal services, automotive services, health services, or private services. These do not fit into the category of project business primarily because they do not have the project orientation that requires a level of management not readily available.

Some outliers that fit into the overall services category but may or may not fit into this category of project business include legal services, educational services, and membership organizations. If these businesses need to manage projects along with costing or pricing information they could benefit from Project Operations.

So, what is this Project Orientation that is so important to identify whether an industry is a project business or not? Well, it begins with the basics of a project itself. From the earliest moment of human history, we have been working on projects. From the Pyramids to the Great Temple to the Great Wall, projects have been the backbone of great achievements! I sometimes have mused about the project plan for the Great Pyramid… how many laborers of stonecutters would I need to cut a certain amount of stones to achieve the result of not just an architectural monolith but also an engineering achievement!? Oh, and to add pressure, it has to be done with relatively simple tools and within the lifetime of the Pharaoh! Now, talk about some pressure!

The Egyptians were some of the earliest recorded project managers and with the results of their projects, I would say they have achieved a lot, to their credit. They would have had to be concerned with the overall project (a pyramid), the timeline to get the project done, the labor, and the organization thereof. The resulting pyramid project also had concerns over materials and environmental concerns, emphasizing their achievements. Their projects took on a life of their own, very much like our projects, and a ton of support systems to achieve their desired results. There were support workers building roads and equipment, baking bread, and generally supporting the direct labor to the pyramid.

This is like a commercial construction project as constructed today. Commercial construction projects have very much the same concerns of the timeline, labor, and materials. Let's see what a Gantt chart of a commercial construction project looks like:

Figure 1.2 – A commercial construction Gantt chart example

Therefore, dear readers, this is a challenge for you as you have won this new project and built an additional business for your practice and your firm. I can imagine in that first project, someone was very passionate about their idea and project plan that they were selling to the client. This is not that different from you. You have a passion for what you are doing or you would not be successful and reading this book. Let's capture that passion and turn it into the burning heart that delivers upon your success.

If you are like most of the project management world, you are probably well immersed in the Microsoft world and use many of their products in your day-to-day life. One of the first applications you will interface with in your day is your calendar and your email. You will likely begin your morning (if you are honest with me) by looking at your smartphone and seeing what meetings you have on your calendar for the day or looking at emails that were delivered overnight. The infrastructure that supports this is what Microsoft calls its Microsoft 365 framework. We will go deeper in the next chapter into the overall infrastructure. However, just like you do not really think much of your electricity supplier when you turn on the lights, you really do not think much of Microsoft when you turn on your phone and see that someone put a 7:30 a.m. meeting on your calendar!

Once you have had a cup of coffee (or two), you will bravely fire up your laptop, surface, iPad, or Mac to begin the work of your day. You will likely open Microsoft Outlook for your email, calendar, contacts, and other functions. During the day, you will use many of the Microsoft Office 365 solutions, such as Microsoft Teams for meetings, files, collaboration, and messaging. Further, you might use Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and maybe Microsoft Project to manage project plans.

Disclaimer:

There is no judgment in how you manage projects today. I just mentioned Microsoft Project and some of you may be playing in your mind the most erudite of thinking. Oh, yes, I should be using Microsoft Project but because of whatever limitations I cannot use Microsoft Project. Hey, there is no judgment here! I have managed many projects in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and many other tools, so do not feel any need to level up to Microsoft Project before you read on! This is a safe place for all of us who are working hard!

Now that we have that out of the way, let's turn our attention to how we can grow through our project management capabilities. We know that we grow from level to level (or level up) throughout life. Where we are today is not where we will be tomorrow and we will grow from level to level as we progress in our careers. Thus, we should look at ways that we can grow quickly throughout the discipline of project management. We do know that to achieve more for our clients, we must focus on delivery processes and repeatability of success to continue to succeed from project to project. It is here that we do need to interject with some structure and tools to achieve the business objectives your firm has.

The value statement of Project Operations is to provide the overall framework together for you and your firm to connect your various systems and processes together to grow from one level of maturity to another. This is the value of Microsoft Project Operations.

The value of the Microsoft Project Operations solution

Looking at projects in a more modern way takes a modern solution approach. Furthermore, it requires collaboration, communication, and flexibility in the project delivery to be successful in tomorrow's world. In order to work best together, we need to have more modern tools and capabilities. This is the value of Project Operations.

The following screenshot shows what a project plan in Microsoft Project Operations looks like:

Figure 1.3 – Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations

Like Neo in the movie The Matrix from 1999, you are about to swallow the red pill. The red pill represents an awakening that could be difficult and painful. Your world will be totally changed with the red pill and you will see the truth in the success you can have in your career with the right tools in place. You can take the blue pill if you want and go back to the cold comfort of believing that you have all your projects under control and you are delivering profitability to your firm. The choice is yours, Neo!

Welcome to the project awakening! Now that you are here, let's talk about some of the facts of the projects you have been managing. You have been doing a great job over the years and that is why you have been promoted so many times. However, the underlying understanding of your purpose is something that may be missing. Your purpose for the delivery of projects on time, on budget, and meeting your client's needs has been to meet and exceed the performance expectations of your firm.

With the tools you have used, you have achieved much success. However, you are now on the verge of realizing your full potential by connecting with your firm's purpose. Let's get that out of the way first. In a most capitalistic circumstance, your firm may be engaged to make a profit from every project, every time to a profit margin that is prescribed by the firm. In other firms, the purpose may be to provide the highest quality services and solutions to the clients within a given industry or solution segment. In other firms, you may be directly connected to the welfare of your customers and your ability to deliver will directly impact the success of real people and their lives and livelihoods.

Let's now connect this with the tools we use to gain more success and align more tightly with the end-to-end processes in your firm. Microsoft Project Operations is an end-to-end solution built upon the Microsoft Dataverse utilizing Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CE) for project sales, resource management, planning, scheduling, time and expense entry, billing, and project accounting functionality in one solution. The end-to-end integrated environment combines the power and functionality of the CE Project Operations solution with the accounting power of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.

Embedded into the Microsoft 365 framework, Project Operations provides an all-encompassing solution to the project professional's daily life! The reason this is important is that when a solution is designed to work together in your daily life and support the end-to-end processes of a project, it provides the infrastructure needed to succeed.

Imagine, if you will, your home. Would you tolerate different settings on your faucets in different rooms? Hot on the right, cold on the left in one room while the opposite is true in another? How about your light switches? What if, randomly, they were different in different rooms? More so, what if your kitchen was wired for 230 volts while the rest of the home was 110/120 volts and had different plug configurations? Sounds like a mess, does it not?

Technologically, this is what businesses tolerate every day when they use one solution for the sales team, one for project task management, one for billing, and yet another for accounting. Yes, you can produce a best of breedintegrated environment but the results are highly dependent upon the technical skills to pull this solution together. Furthermore, the solution is only as good as its weakest link and will break (not may break, will break) at the most inopportune time! These solutions proliferate through businesses today. Small armies of technologists support these solutions to keep them running and even at the best of their performance, they simply ensure an end-to-end transaction works through the system without error.

Building the right solution for tomorrow's project manager requires decades of innovation combined with the latest technological foundation. The entire solution must work seamlessly together while continuing to improve as workforces change, technology improves, and technical capabilities increase at exponential rates. Let's check how an end-to-end solution with Microsoft 365 works.

Understanding an end-to-end solution with Microsoft Dynamics 365

In a connected world, the project selling begins in a connected solution with the rest of the ecosystem. The people selling projects are typically business development managers seeking to sell new projects to new clients. These can also be partner-level players in a firm who are both landing or winning new accounts for the firm and/or keeping existing accounts active and happy with the firm's results.

In the following sections, we will be reviewing the components of Project Operations and how they apply to the different functions within a project business.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

The project seller works to bring business into the firm and works in the overall Project Operations solution, which includes account management, contact management, and entering and processing opportunities and quotes, which become the projects that you deliver against. The project seller is concerned with receiving leads in the system from the marketing team and qualifying them against the firm's known sales methodology. The sales methodology will determine how to qualify or make sure that the lead is worth the time to pursue business with. This will involve having contacts with the lead's main contact person or potentially a team of people who are asking you to pursue business with them. The kind of information shared at this beginning step in the process is critical to have throughout the entirety of the project delivery. Expectations set at the beginning of the sales cycle will be the same or more than what you are expected to deliver in the project delivery cycle.

The project business development life cycle includes the following:

Business strategy planning to create a sales methodology Leads, which are the first marketing engagement with a prospective clientOpportunity, which is the first, fully qualified sales entityA quote, which represents a proposal to a prospective clientA contract or project contract, which is a client's order to confirm the project contract termsA transaction, which is the actual transactions produced through the project life cycleAn invoice, which is the billing produced as a result of our workProfit and loss reporting, showing our firm's profitability

The expectations grow as the sale progresses through the lead qualification process and the potential sale is collaborated on with other team members. Once a project seller has qualified the lead, meaning that the lead truly intends to buy a service that your firm provides and has the budget, authority, and intention within a given timeframe to do so, it becomes an opportunity. Note that this qualification process may take days, weeks, or even months to process. Therefore, capturing all the information from the beginning is important as the project seller will be working on many leads and opportunities at one time. This will be critical to the success of the client relationship and communication that happens on an ongoing basis after this point.

When an opportunity is created, existing information persists and is visible from within the account, contact, and opportunity workplaces. The account is simply the business demographic and main information of the potential buyer. The contact or contacts related to the account are the people who you have been working with throughout the lead qualification process. In some scenarios, you may be working with one, a fully empowered buyer who has the ability to make decisions and see them through to completion. In other scenarios, you may be working with a committee of people who will make these decisions. Either way, being able to track their known preferences, buying habits, and other information will greatly increase your selling success.