Articles

  • OpenAir Tips and Tricks eBook Series This eBook series is the accumulation of tips that we have shared with our customers throughout the years as we have worked with them in implementing or reviewing their OpenAir system. This is a way to get all our tips in one easy place!
  • Are Your Customers Your Virtual Sales Team?   Jan 2013 Inside Tech Services Written by:  Jodi Cicci   For a consulting firm to be successful, it’s important to have a solid reputation—to be referenceable by all or a majority of your customers. Running a consulting firm can be a ...
  • 7 Questions to Ask Before Augmenting, Replacing, or Upgrading Your Operational Software Systems So you have a system in place for your sales tracking (CRM), project management and time tracking (PSA), and accounting (ERP) along with one or more marketing communication systems, contract tracking systems, document storage and asset management solution...
  • Top Three Items to Consider When Aligning Global Operations How much should I align my offices to support a global business model within a PSA tool?
  • NetSuite OpenAir Admin Guide 1.0 This admin guide is full of good helpful and reliable information for administering your NetSuite OpenAir system.   TOP Step Consulting authored this guide and due to the rich and up to date information partnered with NetSuite in order to make easily avai...
  • Attrition: A Customer Relationship Opportunity When an employee leaves for another job opportunity, it may be difficult to fill the hole, especially if he or she is responsible for managing a number of projects, initiatives, or engagements with your key customers. These projects will need a new team leader or manager…so how do you approach finding someone to fill those shoes?
  • Big or Small - There is Work For Us All When you work in a small consulting company, a big challenge is how you differentiate your company enough to stand out among all the others vying for the same business.
  • Cultivating a Project Manager In general a project manager must have the 3 ‘tions’ to be successful: Communication, coordination, and organization.
  • The Importance of Community and Communication What is the most effective way to communicate with your team and your organization? Take the time to determine if you need to inform people, if you need responses from people, or if you are looking to encourage feedback/discussions among your group. Not all of your communication needs to be handled with a single approach.
  • Integration is More Than Just Connecting the Dots Are you considering connecting your systems to remove that double data entry overhead? Where do you start?
  • Catch 22's with Technology vs. Business Processes Are you looking for a tool to introduce business efficiency and perhaps automation? Tool selection involves evaluating products against defined requirements and making a best fit selection. The result of marrying business process with tool usage should be efficient business operations including data tracking and reporting. Not a test of how many tool features you can use.
  • Professional Services and Sales In a pure consulting organization, the sales team has a keen focus on closing the deal - this is the bread and butter of the company. In a product company with services, it isn’t this clear. You may be surprised by this statement but consider this - what is the driver of the company?

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