posted on Thursday, September 27, 2018
Decision Innovation Solutions (DIS) has the opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients who all have their own unique needs. The team of professionals at DIS bring a wide range of skills and experience into each client’s project.
While every client’s needs are unique, there are many significant aspects of the way DIS completes these project that are similar.
DIS has a Microsoft Office 365 cloud-based account. Included in this environment are the typical Office products like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, etc. In addition, DIS uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to make sure we can effectively communicate with prospects and clients and ensure timely follow-ups and updates.
Another key feature of the Office 365 system is SharePoint Online. The DIS SharePoint system contains a group of sites each dedicated to an internal or client-oriented process. This architecture enables DIS to isolate project sites, so our clients can interact with DIS team members in a secure setting. Leads, prospects and clients can be confident the information DIS needs to meet their needs is maintained in a secure environment.
A summary of the advantages to our clients mentioned above are:
- Secure storage of data with versions and backups maintained offsite.
- Version management providing history of project documents.
- Tracking of communications for reference and follow up.
- Ability to collaborate with the DIS team when needed.
- Interactive communication through built-in project-specific newsfeeds.
- Ability to use a group calendar for each project.
- Real time editing of project documents by multiple individuals simultaneously.
At DIS, a typical project begins with an opportunity tracked in Dynamics CRM leading to a proposal submitted for consideration by our potential client. When the proposal is accepted, a dedicated project site is created in SharePoint. From this point all activity is posted in the project site. Depending on the project, remote access to the project site is set up for named client representatives. After projects are completed, the sites are always available for support and follow-up.
To give you an example of how effective this process can be, let me tell about a project we completed for a client who needed our services in preparing a state grant application. Our client was actually multiple entities. Each of these entities provided one or more persons to work on the project. The application documents were placed in a DIS SharePoint project site. All client representatives were granted edit access to the project site. As the project deadline drew near, there were times when we had 6 people working on the document at the same time. The end of the story. The grant application was completed on time. The grant was approved, and everyone was pleased with the process.
The best testimony to the value of the DIS way of managing projects is satisfied customers giving us opportunities for repeat business. The DIS team will continue learning and improving this process to retain that customer confidence.