Customer support from A to Z
Success story from spheos GmbH
Spheos distinguishes itself in the market as a team of consultants and IT specialists that supports its customers in the optimisation of business processes both in an advisory capacity and in the implementation of IT solutions developed for this purpose.
spheos – we digitise companies
spheos develops user-centred online platforms for your digital strategy. Today's target groups and employees of companies expect an individually convincing user experience and diverse, easy-to-use online services. The strength of spheos is to design these solutions in a future-oriented way and to realise and support them in an agile manner. This includes self-service platforms, sales, e-commerce and chatbot solutions as well as corporate websites. Since 2003, spheos has been working with its customers to develop online platforms that meet a wide range of requirements and always deliver measurable benefits for their business and their users.
spheos focuses on these goals:
- Fulfilling customer expectations through an optimised user experience
- Improve sales processes and increase turnover with new and existing customers
- Save costs through automation and self services
The experts at spheos draw on extensive experience from online projects for more than 100 clients. Leading companies from all sectors, such as the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, msg life, the City of Kempten, Bühler, DAAD, Coop, KfW Bankengruppe, VHV Versicherungen and Voith rely on the digital expertise of spheos.
Project management for digital platforms
Most current projects focus on the application of future-oriented information management technologies such as portal applications, content management systems and solutions for the optimal organisation of documents and product information. We use software packages from leading manufacturers and adapt them precisely to the customer's needs.
spheos already has long-standing business relationships with many customers, some of which date back to the early days of the Internet. spheos implements both large, clearly defined projects for customers and ongoing maintenance orders that further develop or update existing applications. The individual work packages usually follow one another continuously, but it is not unusual for weeks or months to pass between their completion.
These diverse activities not only have to be fitted into the internal capacity planning of spheos, but also closely interlinked with the realisation planning of the respective customer. Special attention is paid to the relationship of trust between the project managers at spheos and in the client company, which has grown in the course of cooperation. It is therefore not enough to simply allocate a required capacity; rather, the "well-rehearsed" team should be deployed wherever possible in order to build on its experience with the client's project environment and to be able to face the client with familiar faces.
The use of Projektron BCS at spheos
A service company like spheos lives from the invoicing of working hours performed for customers in projects. Therefore, in our view, effective project management software must fulfil four central tasks:
- Revenue generation: Customer drawings are continuously monitored.
- Revenue realisation: The work performed in projects is fully reflected in the invoices to the clients.
- Revenue assurance: The realised work packages can be comprehensibly documented for the client.
- Cost control: The services invoiced by freelancers can be allocated to items that have been further invoiced.
As the aforementioned long-term business relationships already indicate, customer orientation enjoys the highest priority at spheos. The initial focus is on maintaining personal contacts with decision-makers and project managers on the client side.
However, the development of a sustainable working relationship begins long before the first order is placed: interesting discussions at congresses or trade fairs, enquiries on the Internet or recommendations from satisfied customers always provide worthwhile starting points for our sales activities. After that, however, several months can pass - filled with follow-up telephone calls, presentations and discussions with potential clients - before the desired project is realised.
With Projektron BCS, we start at this early stage and record all relevant contact data in the database, including resubmission dates, so that we can regularly remind prospective customers - and in the run-up to Christmas, Projektron BCS ensures that no customer is forgotten in the greeting cards. If a concrete offer is made, it is also stored in Projektron BCS with its most important key data. The time and quantity estimates for the offers are entered into the database by the respective project manager in dialogue with the employees who will take over the implementation if the order is placed. In this way, we achieve a high level of identification of the colleagues with the individual project and its economic goals right from the start.
As a result, we expect to keep to the estimated effort figures in the realisation phase, so that we do not exceed the budgets approved by the customer under any circumstances. Provided no unexpected difficulties arise, this works out very well because the target figures in Projektron are based on the qualified assumptions of those involved. However, since delays and problems are part of everyday project life, the database gives the project manager a good overview of the current status of the work at all times and supports him in closing any capacity gaps that may occur by shifting other items.
The basis for the meaningful usability of all entries is the careful annotation of the completed work packages, which we have made obligatory for all project participants. At this point Projektron fulfils an important function as an instrument in customer contact: used correctly, the system saves both sides surprises at a (later) point in time when it is no longer possible to correct the work done. Experience shows that clients are willing to accept additional effort if the moment that triggers it is addressed at an early stage. Since cost discipline enjoys a high priority in larger projects, more and more clients are attaching great importance to the option of being able to do without certain parts of the project if necessary in order to avoid budget overruns.
When a project section is nearing its scheduled end, the overviews and printouts from Projektron of the hours worked facilitate our invoicing. If the client wishes, he receives these lists as proof of our performance in addition to his invoice. At the same time, we provide them with a meaningful basis for making internal cost allocations.
The freelancers also use printouts from Projektron BCS as the basis for their invoices. This shortens the checking process and the internal processing time. After the acceptance of a project, the circle closes: memos and comments in the database help us to constantly track what information was exchanged with the respective customer in addition to the "hard project facts" - no matter which employee kept in touch.
Conclusion and outlook
It can therefore be said that Projektron BCS is not only used as a project management system at spheos, but also as a tool for the comprehensive management of our customer relationships. The software has proven its worth at spheos in this range of applications!
