Business Development Services
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Many of us at Northwest Technology Resources have spent the last 5+ years
in the CRM industry working to design, develop, market and sell an Outlook based CRM package.
We lead the CRM product development process including: product feature analysis, product design,
development, testing, product documentation, support and eventually sales.
We will employ any of the following services to whatever degree is appropriate
for the current state your CRM project. When engaged from the beginning of your project, we will
typically use the following steps in working with you to reach your CRM goals.
Business Process Analysis
Understanding your existing sales and related processes is key to achieving a successful CRM implementation.
- We will analyze your current sales process documentation (or assist you in developing appropriate documentation) to ensure
that our understanding of your current processes are accurate and well understood
- Work with you to identify areas of potential process improvement
- Identify appropriate processes for automation, as well as those processes that are best handled manually
Requirements Definition
Clearly defining CRM requirements is essential to effectively analyzing CRM
product alternatives regardless of whether you are considering using in-house tools/development
or purchasing a commercially available CRM package. We will work together with you to:
- Define and document your CRM:
- Functional requirements (categorized and prioritized)
- Usability requirements
- Data requirements
- Data interface points and technologies
- Target architecture and platform
- Assist in RFP preparation and evaluation
Product Analysis & Selection
We will work together with you to analyze appropriate CRM product alternatives.
Utilizing our understanding of the CRM market we will help you select the most cost
effective solution to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales organization.
- Industry search for CRM product alternatives that effectively satisfy your critical
requirements
- Analysis of pros and cons relative to your requirements
- Coordinating product demos and/or evaluation copies
- Product selection recommendation
Integration & Customizations
Once your CRM product is selected then our team will assist your technical
staff in implementation and required customizations.
- Prepare integration plan
- Assist technical staff with integration specifics
- Prepare customization plan for management approval
- Identify potential technical resources to perform the customizations
- Recommend customization resource
- Manage the customization process to ensure a smooth implementation
Implementation & Training
Implementation and training are key to getting your staff to gracefully
transition to your new CRM system and to effectively use the product so that your
organization maximizes the return on your investment.
- Prepare implementation plan
- Assist technical staff with implementation specifics
- Analyze training requirements of your staff to maximize acceptance and productivity with your new CRM Product
- Prepare training plans and materials for your different groups of users
- Assist as necessary in delivering the product and functional training
- Follow-up with staff to ensure a successful transition to your new CRM product
Contact us to see where we may assist you with your CRM process analysis and implementation.
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Workflow Process Analysis & Implementation
Streamlining business processes is essential in today’s competitive
business environment. Implementing appropriately designed automated workflow processes
is a cost effective to improving your business efficiency. We will employ any of the
following services to whatever degree is appropriate for the current state of your
workflow project. When engaged from the beginning of your project, we will typically
use the following steps in working with you to reach your workflow goals.
Business Process Analysis
Understanding your target workflow business process is key to achieving
a successful workflow implementation.
- We will analyze your current business process documentation (or assist you in developing appropriate documentation) to ensure that our understanding of your current processes are accurate and well understood.
- Work with you to identify areas of potential process improvement
- Identify appropriate processes for automation, as well as those processes that are best handled manually
Requirements Definition
Clearly defining workflow requirements is essential to effectively
analyzing workflow product alternatives regardless of whether you are considering using
in-house tools/development or purchasing a commercially available workflow package.
We will work together with you to:
- Define and document your workflow:
- Functional requirements (categorized and prioritized)
- Usability requirements
- Data requirements
- Data interface points and technologies
- Target architecture and platform
- Assist in RFP preparation and evaluation
Product Analysis & Selection
Our product strength in the workflow space can be very effective in working together with you to analyze appropriate workflow product alternatives and to select the most cost effective solution to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your business process(es).
- Industry search for workflow product alternatives that effectively satisfy your critical requirements
- Industry search for workflow product alternatives that effectively satisfy your critical requirements
- Analysis of pros and cons relative to your requirements
- Coordinating product demos and/or evaluation copies
- Product selection recommendation
Integration & Customizations
Once your workflow product is selected then our team will assist your technical staff
in implementation and required customizations.
- Prepare integration plan
- Assist technical staff with integration specifics
- Prepare customization plan for management approval
- Identify potential technical resources to perform the customizations
- Recommend customization resource
- Manage the customization process to ensure a smooth implementation
Implementation & Training
Implementation and training are key to getting your staff to gracefully transition
to your new workflow system and to effectively use the product so that your organization
maximizes the return on your investment.
- Prepare implementation plan
- Assist technical staff with implementation specifics
- Analyze training requirements of your staff to maximize acceptance and productivity with your new workflow Product
- Prepare training plans and materials for your different groups of users
- Assist as necessary in delivering the product and functional training
- Follow-up with staff to ensure a successful transition to your new workflow product
Contact us (or email) to see where we may assist you with your workflow process analysis and implementation.
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Business Throughput Constraints Analysis
Every business is a system… a process that produces revenue.
Every business has constraints. There is always one critical constraint that throttles the
revenue producing capacity of the business system. Other non-critical constraints can be made
more efficient but the revenue producing capability of the business system will not change
until the critical constraint is identified, addressed and “broken”.
As your critical constraint is made more efficient your revenue will correspondingly increase
until your critical constraint changes to another function within your business system.
This cycle of identifying and breaking the critical constraint is a continuous process as
your business matures.
We assist our customers with the following services directed at maximizing
the revenue producing capacity of your business:
- Investigate and document your current business macro processes
- Analyze the constraints within the business system to identify the current critical constraint
- Implement appropriate process measurements for accurate assessment of any process/constraint changes
- Work with management to develop and implement appropriate plans to break the critical constraint
- Measure the business system continuously to ensure accurate identification of the critical constraint
- Improve processes continuously as appropriate to reach management goals
This process of measuring, identifying and breaking the critical constraint
to your business system is simple in concept but very profound in its effect on the revenue
producing capacity of your business system.
Contact us to see where we may assist you in maximizing the revenue from your business system.
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Offshore IT Labor Alternatives
Today’s economic pressures have resulted in ever increasing pressure on overhead
internal IT staff. Competitive pressures to increase the business revenue and market
share necessitate renewed IT systems to help gain a competitive edge. Decrease internal IT
staff spending and enhance your IT systems to stay competitive - a dilemma not easily
resolved… until now!
The internet and advances in electronic communications have opened the
doors to new thoughts and new approaches. Employing offshore IT development resources is
now a very viable alternative, a reality to remaining competitive in today’s declining
economic conditions. Consider this:
- India now has more universities that any other nation on earth
- Southwest India is a hotbed for universities focused on IT development training
- English is a standard language in this region
- Our offshore staffing company is centered in the politically stable southwestern tip of India
- Staff turnover in India for this company is 2% (20% is typical)
- They take care of their people so their people can take care of your IT needs
Offshore staffing rates are a fraction of typical internal IT staff
rates. Often, for the price of one onshore IT consultant, you can deploy an entire
offshore team. To take advantage of these offshore labor rates the company very
effectively utilizes a senior onsite person to provide customer interface and
coordination with the offshore team. Your one local senior IT person simplifies
your interface and streamlines the project team for maximum efficiency.
Many alternatives and staffing configurations are possible with this offshore company:
- Offload your legacy systems maintenance in order to free up your local staff to address your current IT system requirements
- Offshore your conversion projects. Technology platform and tooling conversions are now possible without overburdening your current staff.
- Establish a beachhead for your organization in the latest internet technologies and languages. Offshore the development of the first few critical components and bring one of the offshore leads to your location for technology transfer to your people. Now you have the new system for a fraction of the cost and you get your IT people trained to continue to support and enhance the system in the new technologies.
- Complete projects that will not fit into your current IT budget. Move the overloading projects offshore, so you do not kill your current staff trying to jam it onto their already overloaded plate. Increasing your staff’s moral and leaving their jobs in tact. It’s a win/win!
- 24/7 technical system support
- 24/7 call center support
Contact us for your IT staffing requirements.
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Software Systems Development Services
Business Case Analysis (Make/Buy/Keep Existing)
If you are taking a fresh look at your business systems and would like assistance
analyzing appropriate alternatives, we can help.
Sometimes manual is better, less is sometimes more! We can help look at your business
and proposed systems to determine the most cost effective approach (make/buy/keep existing).
- Look at your business processes
- Analyze your system requirements
- Perform alternatives analysis
- Develop management recommendations
Contact us for business case analysis.
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Functional Analysis & Design
A new IT system is only as its ability to support the functional
requirements of your business. There are, of course, other success factors but this one
is critical! Here is how we assist you:
- Make sure your business processes are defined and documented
- Identify functional components and associated data and document them.
- Identify opportunities for improvement (don’t want to automate inefficiencies).
- Identify functions to automate and those best left manual (simple is good!).
- Design processes, functions, systems and data structures & interfaces to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of key areas within the organization.
- Prepare management recommendations
Contact us for Functional Analysis and Design services.
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Workflow Software Customization
Workflow systems provide significant opportunities to maximize an
organization’s efficiency. Eliminate manual routing to allow your staff to focus on
critical issues of your business instead of worrying about something “falling through
the cracks” of a manual process. If you need help with your Workflow Process Analysis
& Implementation effort, we can support you.
Northwest Technology Resources is a certified product reseller of the
Outlook based TeamScope TeamWork workflow product and a certified TeamScope solution
provider.
We specialize in implementing workflow applications within the
Microsoft Outlook and Exchange environment. Outlook based systems simplify the interface
for users while providing nearly limitless possibilities for integration with other systems
within your organization. The architecture of TeamWork also nicely supports automated
lookups and data feeds which greatly reduces human error.
TeamWork basic workflow is operational right out of the box.
If you need the product adapted to your specific business needs, customization is
straightforward and easily implemented by our team.
Please Contact us for:
- Additional information on the TeamScope TeamWork Outlook workflow product, demos and pricing
- Customization services for your workflow implementation (fast and efficient!)
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Outlook Digital Dashboard Design and Development
Imagine for a moment the digital and graphic displays of a modern jet.
These displays provide real-time visibility of the state of the systems elsewhere in the
aircraft. You can have the same type of real-time digital and graphic displays on the
state of your various business functions and departments displayed right within your
Microsoft Outlook interface (no separate applications).
Digital Dashboards are available today and provide a very powerful tool for data access
and display (right from within Outlook!) For a simple example, click on your “Outlook
Today” folder – it’s a Digital Dashboard to display a summary of your Outlook data.
Data can be retrieved from:
- Outlook
- Exchange Public Folders
- Your computer
- Other applications
- Corporate databases
- Corporate intranet websites
- External internet websites
Your Outlook window can be divided up (like a dashboard) to support the display of many different:
- Lists (like your Outlook Task list for today or group Tasks, etc)
- Graphical charts (typically using Excel charting)
- Live spreadsheet displays of tabular data
- Formatted reports
- Real-time stock performance charts from your favorite financial website
You will find this Digital Dashboard technology to be very powerful for rapid delivery of critical information right to your Microsoft Outlook application interface.
Our Digital Dashboard services include:
- Identify and analyze potential information and display formats
- Information requirements analysis
- Dashboard component layout and design
- Dashboard construction
- Integration of desired dashboard components into an efficient display
- Implementation within your organization
Contact us for to discuss your Digital Dashboard requirements.
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Exchange Development
Microsoft Exchange is a very powerful repository of unstructured data.
It has been designed as a platform capable of hosting a wide variety of applications and
data repositories. Exchange is widely used as an email routing engine but that is just
the beginning. Exchange Public Folders open up a whole new world of collaborative
application possibilities. These Public Folders not only can hold all the normal
Outlook form types (Contact, Journal, Task, Email) but also a very wide variety of
documents and files (like: Word, Excel, text, graphics). The Exchange Folder Events
service can be used for automated background processing of folder items, even populating
of a SQL database with selected information from the folder contents.
We can help you with Exchange based:
- Collaborative applications business applications and unstructured data sharing
- Exchange Events service application development
Contact us for to discuss your Exchange development requirements.
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Software Development in .Net, VB, C, C++, C#
Application development and deployment using Microsoft technologies has become a mainstay for corporate applications both large and small. Projects of all sizes are welcome. We have a number of resources available to us to satisfy your application development requirements. Depending on your application requirements, delivery timing requirements and project size we help you:
- Move the project offshore for large projects (faster delivery and lower cost)
- Collaborate with our business partners which specialize in the required technologies of your application
- Support your application development in house with our current resources
Contact us for projects that require development in any of these languages.
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Excel / Word Macro & VBA Software Development
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc) combine to form a very powerful and flexible application platform for delivering end-user applications and data displays. Whether used alone or integrated together the functionality of these applications is usually only limited my one’s imagination and creativity. Delivery of corporate data to the desktop with sophisticated analysis and formatting all within a familiar end-user interface is now possible.
Each of these applications contains their own powerful internal programming language call Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Depending on your application requirements and implementation plan we also have the option of using the Microsoft COM Add-in technology. Both technologies have strengths, what we use depends on your application needs.
Consider the power of:
- Data reports from your corporate SQL Server database to the desktop in Excel. The report can be locked or left dynamic for additional analysis and “what-if” scenarios.
- Graphical charts of data automatically retrieval local or corporate data repositories
- Sophisticated data merge and report generation displayed in Microsoft Word
- Centralized document repositories in Outlook / Exchange
- Customized multi or single user Contact, Journal, Task forms to meet your management information requirements
We would be happy to discuss your thoughts, ideas and information requirements with you.
Contact us for design and implementation of your application requirements on the Microsoft Office platform.
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SQL Server, MSDE, ADO Software & Database Development
Data storage and retrieval is critical to every application. SQL Server is at the heart of data management in the Microsoft development environment. Whether it is corporate centralized data on SQL Server or local data on MSDE we can assist you in:
- Database requirements analysis
- Database design
- Implementation
- Interfacing current applications to your existing database
Contact us for design and implementation of your application requirements
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