Summary: My name is Bill Wax, and I am a Management Consultant with Tuck Consulting Group. We were initially hired to simply build a project plan in ClickUp, but this article describes how we helped a young IT professional services firm set up their entire implementation project management and operations processes in ClickUp.
A young services firm specializing in a niche technical offering is pursuing the development of two business lines to establish itself as a viable offering in the technology space. One business area is focused on skills development to address the lack of resources available to meet the employment needs in enterprise business. The second business area is focused on providing professional services and is anchored by a worldwide organization focused on health.
To support the growth needs of the business, the client conducted a market assessment to identify a platform tool that would support its business needs. After careful due diligence, the client selected ClickUp as its business platform. To set up and enable ClickUp, the client selected Tuck Consulting Group to implement the following needs for the business:
- Coordinate and manage client projects
- Automate and support customer interactions in its training area
- Enable the pursuit of its Objectives and Key Results
- Establish a platform for managing receivables
The following is a more in-depth view of how Tuck Consulting Group worked with the client to address their business needs.
Coordinate and Manage Client Projects
The client’s delivery model is based on leveraging an international group of subcontractors to address the scope of work they have contracted with their end clients. Further, the client required a tool to manage milestones and tasks while asynchronously collaborating on individual work requirements. The solution implemented within ClickUp applied a folder structure for each client, with individual projects contained within the Folder so that project participants could clearly see the timing of the project while working diligently to address the tasks assigned to each individual.
Automate and Support Customer Interactions in its Training Area
Selling and delivering training services to customers required the client to allow for a structured and automated method for prospective customers to interact with the client, through questions and requests for information, to guide the prospective customer through the sales process. Once a customer agrees to participate in the training program, the client also requires a structured and automated method for the customer to interact with their assigned advisor. The solution implemented within ClickUp applied the use of Forms that allows both prospective customers and customers to log requests that are automatically routed to the correct department or individual so that the requests can be tracked and addressed in a timely manner.
Enable the Pursuit of its Objectives and Key Results
To support the growth and scale of the early business, Tuck’s client implemented the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) approach to guide their journey. The OKR approach requires that the client establish quarterly objectives and key results and monitor the progress of the objectives and key results throughout the quarter. The solution implemented within ClickUp created both the objectives and key results, defined by quarter and year, as custom fields and the creation of all internal tasks focused on building the internal processes and efforts around the OKRs required the identification of an OKR. This enabled the client to clearly view the work effort needed to achieve their OKRs and to prioritize the work efforts.
Establish a Platform for Managing Receivables
Given the size of the client, a decision was made to invest in the short term only in Software-as-a-Service tools that would have an immediate impact on growth. This philosophy led to the decision not to implement a financial tool that would have otherwise provided the client with Accounts Receivable capabilities. To overcome this business gap and address the financial needs of the business, an Accounts Receivable folder was created within ClickUp that allowed for the planning, creation, and tracking of invoices that were either agreed to as part of individual Statements of Work with an end client or for the creation and tracking of invoices based on time applied to the needs of the end clients.
If your IT professional services firm is using disparate systems to manage projects and operations, ClickUp could be a good fit for your needs. The wide array of use cases that are supported makes the platform a great choice for most small and medium sized businesses. The 360 degree visibility that the entire organization gets (from top to bottom of the org chart) in ClickUp allows firms to identify issues quickly and understand where each initiative is at a given time. If you would like some help evaluating or implementing ClickUp in your own organization, schedule a call with us, and we can help out.
Bill Wax
Management Consultant
Bill is a management consultant with 20+ years of experience in program management and digital transformation. He is a lean & six sigma coach with deep Fortune 500 consulting experience. Bill has led the digital transformation of a $7 billion/year Fortune 150 group over a 6-year period, implemented a Transformation Program Office for a $500 million privately owned technology services provider, and created and executed the go-to-market strategy for automated testing firm targeting US and European markets.