The RoviSys Company has grown considerably since its inception nearly 20 years ago. When you have a good project methodology and a vast wealth of experience, which for us includes over a couple thousand projects with a multitude of customers, you start to notice patterns and common questions whose answers can lead to even greater efficiency... and repeat business.
Have we worked on a project using technology ABC? Have we performed service for industry XYZ? When was the last time we completed a project using the specific technology required by our new customer? Who worked on the project and how familiar are they with the specific tools? These questions and more can be answered using the new Category features in GrandView!
Categories in GrandView are essentially labels that can be applied to any Proposal, Project, or Contact. We focus on proposals and projects now, and will discuss contacts in a future post. Categories can be applied to any proposal or project directly -- however, when an order is created from a proposal and the order becomes a project, any categories tied to the proposal are conveniently copied to the resulting project. This process is shown in the diagram below.
GrandView defines four types of project and proposal categories. The Industries > Applications category defines industries in which we do business, while the Services and Manufacturers > Products categories describe services we offer and the technologies we use to implement projects. Finally, the Keywords category is used to apply common labels to projects. Once we have categories applied to our proposals and projects, we can easily search for proposals or projects having a combination of categories using the new Sales > Proposals > Proposal List and Projects > Projects List pages. Or, for a simpler search matching just one category value, you can use the SideBar proposal or project search and select Industries, Services, Technologies, or Keywords in the Advanced search options.
Labeling proposals and projects with specific categories is not a difficult task until you've worked on more than a couple hundred projects, so it's a good idea to start early. As always, if you have any questions using these new features, click the Support link next to your company logo and we'll be ready to help!
Jeromie L. Walters
GrandView Business Solutions Developer