The Customer Success team at House of Control has helped hundreds of private and public companies to establish a full overview of their contracts and obligations. Here are their tips for how customers can succeed even better in the start-up phase.
Complete Control is cloud-based software that companies can use to register assets, active contracts and other obligations. Users gain access to a faster and better overview of costs; they can generate better reports, prepare budgets more promptly and – in particular – cut costs because contracts can be cancelled when you discover deliveries that are not being used at all.
The Customer Success team at House of Control is there to assist customers in the start-up phase. They have observed how some customers start enjoying the full benefits of using Complete Control faster than others. Here are their tips for how all customers can reap more benefit from the solution more quickly.
1. Involve employees from multiple departments
The greater the proportion of the company’s assets, contracts and obligations registered in Complete Control, the bigger the benefit from using the solution. When multiple people from multiple departments are involved in the start-up phase, this in itself will generate mutual obligations to start working with the solution. Don’t forget: the IT department isn’t the only one to enter into contracts. Nor is the HR department, the purchasing department, sales … Get everyone involved!
2. Ensure deployment in the management team
This could actually have been the first item on the list, but in practice we’ve noticed that many customers only manage to convince decision-makers in senior management at a (slightly) later stage that, from now on, the company is to use Complete Control on all assets and/or contracts and obligations. While having more participants involved in the project will help set up informal obligations and commitment, deployment among the senior management will establish formal authority.
3. Have a clear project manager
Choose a project manager who has the capacity to keep several plates spinning at the same time, who is a good communicator across all levels of the organisation, who is adept at encouraging others to take on responsibility, and who is passionate about establishing a better overview in the “contract jungle”.
4. Be clear about different roles in the start-up phase
In practice, the work begins with collecting contracts and contracts from all parts of the company. Who is to take responsibility for the collection? Will multiple people actually be entering the contracts in the system? Don’t forget that the more people who are familiar with the solution, the more people will be convinced of its usefulness and be able to generate reports. We, at House of Control are not in favour of person dependency – this is one of the things Complete Control helps to eliminate when contracts are registered centrally. Clear roles help reduce person dependency.
5. Set aside time, and have a progress plan
Once the four preceding points are in place, it will be much easier to find room for a binding plan for progress. However, it still happens that customers postpone start-up and/or put progress on hold along the way. The most satisfied customers are the ones who set aside sufficient time for the start-up phase, and who quickly get “up and running”.
6. Pick the low-hanging fruit
Across the various departments, there tend to be numerous examples of poor control of assets, active contracts and obligations. Identify the biggest contracts and the ones set to expire in the immediate future. This quickly provides a sense of control, and once the first notifications appear about contracts that are on the point of expiring, most people have an “Aha!” experience of the benefit of using Complete Control.
Are you ready to make a start?