WinCenter drives the full business development life cycle. It provides work management for capture and proposal activities. It is the system of record for opportunities and the repository of most of the data that is created and used across the phases of this process. It uses work management automation to drive the work amongst the users that commonly use WinCenter – the application users.
So, what are referring to when we speak of automating business processes for WinCenter?
We are talking about defining and automating discrete process workflows that support the work that you do in WinCenter. Some of these processes may principally involve just Business Development people (BD, capture, proposal) and be decision oriented. Most involve work with other departments and lines of business across the organization in the form of requests.
One of the core things to recognize about any application with the breadth of WinCenter, is that there are many people across the organization that need to get involved that are not day-to-day users of the application. They play a supporting role in the work. R3 My Work does a very good job of making it easy for people from across the organization to participate in processes without having to learn any specific application. It is a way to bridge this gap.
A sample process
The Bid & Proposal Budget Request process is a good example of such a structured process. You can read about this process and watch a video demonstration here. In the situation covered in that article/video the B&P process is tightly tied to WinCenter. The outcome of the process updates WinCenter. However, most of the participants in this process would not be day-to-day users of WinCenter. My Work works well for this process.
Like any cross-organizational process, you use a tool like My Work to define the process and then use the process workflow to drive the work, track the actions along the way and maintain historical records of what happened. The key benefit of My Work is that it sits outside of the application and provides users with a single place to go and a consistent user interface to work on any processes across the organization. You might say it is “neutral ground” for work.
Processes to Consider
Below we list some processes for you to consider automating that relate WinCenter work.
Decision Processes
- Gate Decisions
- Bid/No Bid Decisions
- Proposal Submittal Signoff
- Teaming Partner decisions
- Bid & Proposal Budget Request
Request Processes
These are typically requests of other departments. They are not processes that you can just define and implement. You will need to work with the departments. Sometimes you will use their existing process and tools and sometimes you’ll be able to create them in My Work.
- HR Staffing Requests
- Resource allocation (such as Solution Architects, SME writers/reviewers)
- Finance requests for capex or operating expenses
- Travel requests
- Outside vendor contracts (graphics, SME’s, consultants)
- Partner Onramp
- Partner NDAs
- Partner Teaming Agreements
- Partner SOWs
- Legal Organizational Conflict of Interest Checks
- Request for Estimate/Pricing
Summary
The work you do in WinCenter requires work from others across the organization who are not day-to-day users of WinCenter. Using My Work, you can structure and automate these cross-organizational work processes and make it easy for users to participate.
For more information visit the My Work section of the R3 web site.