Never underestimate the power of CRM
February 28, 2014
Never underestimate the power of CRM
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Privia Small Business
Modules Used
- basic
Overall Satisfaction
We use Privia across the organization for the entire opportunity management process from business development leads through post-proposal submission. The main problem it addresses is configuration management of the myriad aspects of opportunity processes and procedures from the time a business development executive sees a lead twinkling in the eye of a customer to the herding of a large partnership team members involved in the many-hued review stage of the Shipley proposal process (or any other process you care to design in Privia's customizable workflow tool). Along the way, like the customizable workflow process, Privia gives the manager enormous flexibility in role assignments, role level security, internal and external user accessibility, automation and standardization of repeatable procedures, customization of data fields, and metadata search potential. I must add that it is not all things to all people and there are limits to this customization, but if you get that far you will be an appreciative user.
- Easy to customize workflow process design with accountable and acceptor assignments, among other configurable properties, that can track the most demanding procedures and provide real-time reports on their status.
- Built-in browser toolbar that automates the capture of volumes of information on government (and private sector) opportunity postings on FBO, GovWinIQ, and others.
- Although there are some limitations, it has a powerful reporting capability that allows you to customize your view of the data by selecting fields and adding filtering to generate selected exportable data.
- As mentioned in strengths, there are limitations to reporting in that some fields are not available or only available in one of the four report "types" when you'd like that field in another report type. Some fields are not selectable at all it would seem. My understanding is the Privia can accommodate further customization for each customer at a price, so even this limitation can be overcome.
- Privia has a great version control and commenting capability that includes commenting on graphics files, but the check-out and in process are not always intuitive to many of our users and require some hand-holding. In addition, the commenting capability, which supports concurrent users, produces an export to Word with comment fields but doesn't mark up the document itself - whether that is a blessing or a curse is really up to your team and editing style.
- Improved efficiency in capturing opportunity data and keeping timely information available across the organization
- Improved senior management reporting capability for pipeline meetings
Its been too long since we did our due diligence, I don't even remember the names of the competitive products. Privia stood out at the time and meeting users at their annual conference was a strong reference for the product.
Product Usage
5 - Business Development, Proposal Management
1 - Basic software administration knowledge
- Managing the business development pipeline
- Managing the proposal response process
- Reporting opportunity management to executive leadership
- customizing the workflow for better monitoring
- expanding the license base to include more users directly
Evaluation and Selection
- Product Features
- Product Reputation
- Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
Presentation of the product features and invitation to the annual conference influenced our decision
The only factor might be an extended trial utilization prior to decision but who has time to learn a system completely just for evaluation?
Implementation
- Vendor implemented
Yes - Contributor training followed by executive training
Change management was a major issue with the implementation - Strong senior leadership commitment and enforcement is a must. If the targeted participants resist learning and using the system and get away with it, the implementation will not be successful. You need to ensure that all players in the workflow are committed to following the accountability and acceptance process and that they use the information capture tools, supplemented by their personal knowledge, to capture all known data into an opportunity.
- Lack of participation in training
Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
The Privia stuff worked past normal working hours for us to make sure we were prepared and successfully implemented the most recent version upgrade.
Usability
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Process Designer
- Administration and user account management
- Importing from outside opportunity sources
- Metadata
- Customizing the Opportunity Info view of fields