The Future State chapter of Gilles Muys’ bestselling book, The Definitive QTC Guide, is the first chapter of Part Three—a discussion of various best practices employed in the quote-to-cash space. First and foremost is the strategy and analysis that precede any transformative implementation or technology support, or, as we call it at Simplus, setting the future state. 

We’ve compiled a selection of Gilles’ insights on this initial first step that marks the beginning of a quote-to-cash project. Gilles discusses the methodology, metrics, and importance of future state visioning and alignment. 

1. Obtaining alignment and consensus before moving forward

“You may intuitively understand that you need QTC to streamline and modernize your sales processes. But that doesn’t mean everyone will be on board with the change. That’s why you need to develop a rock-solid business case for implementing QTC—one that will convince even your toughest critics that you’ll be able to achieve a solid return on investment.” —Gilles Muys 

2. How clearly defined metrics can make or break your QTC value

“Central to building a business case for QTC is having a well-defined, robust plan for tracking ROI. You should develop a variety of metrics that quantify ROI. Toward the beginning of QTC implementation, you should have some sort of metric that quantifies user adoption rates, an indication of the value that your stakeholders get out of the new system. Later on, you will need a metric that quantifies whether QTC is reducing inefficiencies, such as a lower error rate or faster processing times for key steps.” —Gilles Muys 

3. The need for an implementation roadmap

“A roadmap offers a unified plan for when you’ll implement specific capabilities and components, how you’ll prioritize your finite resources, and how the components of QTC will build off one another to get you where you want to be. Implementation roadmaps are critical for long-term success. You should develop your roadmap alongside all of your stakeholders.” —Gilles Muys 

There’s more to learn about planning for your organization’s future state and the role of advisory services. Read more by ordering The Definitive QTC Guide, available on Amazon.