A Revamped Quoting And Document Management System That Gets Work Done At Lightning Speed.

• Automating Business Processes

The Benefits

• Increased margins
• Easier business management
• Improved scalability
• Increased sales rates

The Problem

Office Boy is one of Australia’s most trusted office fitout providers, who deliver high-quality commercial fitouts to corporate office spaces across Australia. 

Like most businesses in their line of work, Office Boy spent a considerable amount of time preparing quotes for clients and specifications for staff and contractors.

Most small businesses prepare client estimates and proposals through a combination of Excel, Powerpoint and Word. While this is a great start, it can be time consuming and error-prone. Over years, Office Boy had developed their own unique way of preparing proposals that got the job done, but there was a lot of room for improvement.

Once clients have received proposals, they often request revisions and variations to the project scope. This was done manually with no clear history of variations and sign-offs, and made more difficult when variations were requested even after the proposal had been approved.

Finally, when proposals and variations had final sign off, the process to inform contractors of the work to be completed was completely manual. Office Boy created a specification document  manually in Word and emailed it to the relevant parties. When post-approval variations were introduced, these were also typed up manually and emailed out – resulting in confusion of scope across all stakeholders.

The Solution

We were engaged to solve this problem by developing a consolidated software solution that improved and sped up these processes and added some much-needed functionality.

Our consultants worked closely with Office Boy staff to map out their current method of handling each of these processes. We then focused on articulating their ‘ideal world’ scenario, so that we weren’t just automating processes, but improving them as well. From there we designed a software application that managed the quote and specification processes end-to-end.

Highlights

• From planning to operation in three months – A simple-to-use piece of web software went from an idea to a reality in just twelve weeks.
• Simple management of quotes and variations – Quotations can be easily created and sent out to clients via an inbuilt email system. The solution allows staff to quickly make variations and track changes to the scope and cost over time.
• Instant conversion from proposal to specification – Once a proposal has been approved, staff can convert the proposal to a specification with one click. They can then send the specification to that project’s contacts through an email templating system. As variations are introduced post-commencement, specifications can be easily updated with clear annotations of how the scope has been altered and exported to PDF or Word document.
• Everything is trackable and reportable – As jobs are created, proposals are issued and variations are introduced, everything is tracked and packaged into simple-to-understand business information. By making these key processes digital and keeping them in one place, the analytics system can reveal actionable insights quickly and simply.
• Google Drive integration – Files are synchronized with Google Drive, allowing Office Boy staff to keep the same workflows and have access to everything they need in one easy place.

The Results

The software led to increased margins, easier business management, improved scalability and increased sales rates.

• Structured quote creation

• In-built emailing

• Integrated analytics