Business Operations: Draft List for Discussion

Prepared for Major Customer XYZ

Prepared by:

KS TechPros LLC

October 5, 2005

Business operations cover all aspects of running a business: creating goods and services, acquiring customers, creating profit, motivating employees and improving quality over time. Operations can be grouped into major categories, with subcategories to show detail specific to the industries and markets served by the business.

Operations: Categories

Business Development Pipeline (Marketing and Sales)

Identifying, attracting and confirming new customers for Net-Scale’s products and services. Managing the ‘customer funnel’ as leads turn into prospects who turn into early-stage customers. Describing customer needs and creating a prospective requirements document that can be used for development after the sale is confirmed.

• Public Relations – articles, press, trade shows, conferences
• Website maintenance
• Flyers, product tear-sheets, white papers
• Promotions (no risk trial, for example)
• Accompanying customers at trade shows
• Market segmentation
• Industry analysis
• Product line extensions

Customer Acquisition and Pre-sales

Maintaining a customer database, keeping records of contacts, meetings, preliminary requirements, follow up actions, etc. Assigning an Account Manager during pre-sales for key accounts to ensure complete project management and customer satisfaction.

Software Development and Product Realization

This covers all aspects of creating, testing, delivering and supporting the software package that delivers the functionality to meet customer requirements.

• Requirements
• Offer packaging (content, price, schedule, maintenance,…)
• Release management
• Post-release support
• Scheduling and resource allocation
• Project management
• Collecting and analyzing quality data
• Quality improvement (PQMI)
• Documentation
• Training
• Source code control, version control
• Trouble Reporting (TR) and tracking through version and release control
• Archiving

Customer Relationship Management

This covers setting and exceeding customer expectations. It starts when a customer is identified and a contract is developed, negotiated and signed. It continues during product development, testing and delivery and manages schedule, feature content and quality. And it continues after the product is delivered during the maintenance phase, where maintenance revenue is tracked and new sales opportunities are identified.

• Testing and delivery process (on-site support, beta trial plan and support, remote access to customer servers, …)
• Customer IT, security and accounting department relations
• Acceptance criteria identified and approved after delivery
• Maintenance agreement terms and conditions
• TR process: severity levels, bugs vs enhancements defined
• New sales opportunities: identify, define, price and schedule

Customer Support

This covers post-sales activities with customers and is dictated by the maintenance agreement terms.

• Pro-active monitoring, identifying possible problems
• On-site visits to check system reliability and customer feedback
• TR reporting, recording, scheduling and commitment process

Financial Operations

This covers all aspects of revenue and cash management, from forecasting to collections to expense control. Typically run by the CFO, in collaboration with Marketing/Sales.

· Budgeting

· Accounting

· Billing and collections

· Payroll, benefits, rewards

· Expense tracking and management

Personnel Operations

Covers all aspects of attracting, hiring, leading and rewarding employees and contractors.

· Personnel policy manual

· Goals and objectives

· Feedback and coaching

· Team building

· Quarterly reviews

· Group recognition

· Recognition and rewards

Forecasting and Planning

Requiring input from all other operations, this covers activities typically done by the CEO. Includes strategic planning, competitive analysis, risk assessment, capital budgeting, cash flow planning, contingency planning, staffing plans, resource allocation, etc.