In a nutshell…
- Project Management
- System Integration
Global CCS Institute was looking to implement a user-friendly and straightforward project management CRM. Their project management program at the time was not being utilised efficiently and not achieving the possible advantages system integration can bring. Squirrel optimised the overarching CRM Global CCS Institute already operated by incorporating more specific project management and analytical software which could operate in tandem.
Global CCS Institute
Global CCS Institute is an international non-profit think tank tackling climate change through the promotion of carbon capture and storage (CCS). The company offers a range of services to its members (who include governments and NGO’s), including providing consultancy services such as CCS market and policy analysis, feasibility studies, legal and regulatory framework assessment and design, community engagement and education services.
The brief
Having worked with Squirrel before in implementing Zoho CRM, Global CCS Institute was confident in their choice to refresh Global CCS’s CRM with further automation, implement Zoho Projects and create a custom integration between CRM and Projects.
It was important that Squirrel’s design allowed for straight-forward and user-friendly project management and yet included automation of complex costing and resource planning for projects. Further, Global CCS Institute required software that was able to provide reporting at both individual project and organisation wide level, for detailed budgetary and time resource comparisons.
“We needed to streamline our system into something user-friendly and straightforward, and eliminate mistakes which come from using manual pricing modules” – Canaan Ridge, Global HR Manager
The solution
- Zoho CRM
Squirrel implemented a one-way integration between Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects to allow for automated project creation and eliminate time spent translating data from the CRM to specific projects and proposals. The automations were designed to reduce manual administration and to speed up the quoting process. The integration to Projects allowed for any closed won deal to trigger the creation of a Project with the relevant template applied.
In order to supply Global CCS Institute with the reporting function they desired, Squirrel also integrated Zoho Analytics, which allowed trustworthy data from Zoho Projects and Zoho CRM to be utilised in the creation of reports and dashboards.
Zoho CRM to Zoho Projects
The Zoho CRM system already set up for Global CCS Institute was further optimised by Squirrel in a number of ways, including:
- Incorporation of proposal approval rules giving managers the ability to verify quotations before they were sent.
- Optimisation of the opportunity module to incorporate an automated costing and resource planning tool, facilitating multiple currencies for international projects.
- Layout rules to guide the user to input or update data as the Opportunity and proposal progressed in the sales pipeline.
Zoho Projects was then integrated with this optimised Zoho CRM in order to allow:
- Automated creation and update of projects based on data input from Zoho CRM. The appropriate project template selected and data automatically synced is based upon information in the Opportunity.
- Task management within individual projects, including the automatic creation and tracking of tasks within project dashboards, and notifications of approaching resource ceilings and overspent resources tailored to specific project types.
- Optimisation of Zoho Projects to facilitate the integration of Zoho Analytics, including timesheet creation to capture resource and time data.
Zoho Analytics
Squirrel integrated Zoho Analytics with Zoho Projects and Zoho CRM to fulfil Global CCS Institute’s desire for project and member reports:
- Data from Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects is automatically synced to Zoho Analytics for analysis and review.
- Complex SQL queries were used to join the data, resource cost and bill out rates along with custom scripts to provide accurate currency conversion.
- Creation of reports and dashboards in order to track various data such as:
- Budget: Comparison of forecasted project budget obtained from the costing tool in Zoho CRM with actual resource timesheet hours logged in Zoho Projects.
- Resource Utilisation: comparison of resource allocation to billable or non-billable hours for individual projects at an organisation level.
The benefits
- Increased efficiency and accuracy of forecasting due to the creation of an automated pricing tool, which also ensures projects can be quoted more accurately.
- Ease of project management and task monitoring due to automatic creation of tasks and task reminders tailored to specific project types.
- Automatic generation of reports and analysis of reliable data, allowing resource allocation to be optimised and efficiency to be increased, resulting in better outcomes for Global CCS Institute and their clients.
Project management is much more straightforward, and the pricing model has been great. We now have reliable and trustworthy data which we didn’t feel confident we ever had before. It’s such a huge improvement!
Canaan Ridge
Global HR Manager
Global CCS Institute
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Squirrel Business Solutions implements and integrates CRM and other cloud-based systems, and provides training and support, for small and medium-sized businesses all over Australia, including Melbourne, Bendigo, regional Victoria, Tasmania, Sydney and Brisbane. This empowers them to automate their processes and improve their efficiency.
Squirrel Business Solution’s founder, Kylie Harker, is a Melbourne based consultant who assists business owners find and implement the best fit CRM and other systems for their business. Squirrel focus on four core principles: integrating your systems, streamlining your processes, enhancing your customer experience, and unlocking the value of your data.