Honeywell SalesFunnel
A shared view of sales opportunities, from Europe to global use
For a sales organisation spread across countries, seeing the whole pipeline matters. Honeywell Building Solutions needed to move beyond paper-based forecasting and separate spreadsheets to give its people a clearer view of sales opportunities.
Anatec designed and built SalesFunnel around Honeywell’s business. What began as a European system developed into a global application used by around 1,200 salespeople to input and manage their opportunities. It gave managers the information to coordinate activity across regions and direct resources where they were needed.
“SalesFunnel has been one of our greatest IT successes. The quality of the design and implementation has enabled us to deliver a value added business solution.” — Mark Rand, IT Director EMEA, Honeywell Building Solutions
A clearer view of sales opportunities
Honeywell’s growing European sales operation relied on paper-based forecasting and numerous spreadsheets. With more than 300 salespeople in EMEA alone, visibility of the pipeline was critical. Managers needed to understand which opportunities were progressing, where support was needed and what the forecasts meant for the business.
The opportunity was to establish a shared way of recording and reporting sales activity. Information entered by salespeople could then support decisions throughout the organisation, from managing individual opportunities to reviewing the wider pipeline.
A system shaped around Honeywell’s business
Honeywell considered both internal development and off-the-shelf software. It wanted to keep its internal IT resources focused on other core activities, while the packages it examined at the time did not adequately support its European sales infrastructure. It chose Anatec for its technical expertise and approach to development.
We began with requirements gathering, systems analysis and design, establishing clear deliverables and project control. The first phase was implemented as planned and within budget. Salespeople could enter opportunities through a standard web browser, while managers gained access to pipeline information, opportunity histories and reports, with permissions controlling access.
Anatec designed and implemented the ASP.NET web application, SQL Server database and system maintenance functions. The system ran on a powerful multi-processor server managed by Honeywell’s IT department.
Developing with the sales team
SalesFunnel continued to develop as Honeywell’s needs changed. When the business introduced a formal sales methodology, the system evolved to support it. Actions and risk analysis helped salespeople manage their opportunities, while graphical reporting made the health of the pipeline easier to understand.
The details of everyday use mattered too. Salespeople wanted to enter an opportunity in no more than 30 seconds. Anatec redesigned the interface in response, without compromising the information captured or system performance.
These changes kept development connected to the people using the system. SalesFunnel could adapt to new working practices and practical feedback as well as wider management requirements.
From Europe to a global sales organisation
Honeywell’s US sales operation adopted SalesFunnel after seeing its capabilities and how closely it matched the sales methodology. Multi-currency support allowed opportunities to be entered and reported in different currencies, and localised help supported users in different countries.
The system’s design made expansion relatively straightforward. Rigorous testing preceded an incident-free global implementation, and SalesFunnel grew to serve around 1,200 salespeople.
With visibility across the global sales organisation, managers and executives could share information about multinational opportunities, coordinate support and allocate resources at the right time. The system connected regional sales activity to a wider view of the business.
What became possible
SalesFunnel gave Honeywell a practical foundation for managing its sales pipeline:
- Shared visibility. Salespeople, managers and executives could work with pipeline information relevant to their responsibilities, with a view across regions when needed.
- Better-directed effort. Forecasts and activity information supported decisions about opportunities, resource allocation, coaching and mentoring.
- Room to develop. Later enhancements added competitor information, richer reporting and automatic creation of a service opportunity when an order for a solution was confirmed.
The value extended beyond recording sales activity. By making that information available to the people who needed it, SalesFunnel supported a more coordinated approach to pursuing opportunities and managing the business.
Could this help your business?
You do not need a global sales organisation to recognise the problem. If your teams depend on separate spreadsheets, managers struggle to see what is happening, or standard software does not fit an important process, a custom system may offer a better way of working.
SalesFunnel shows how a system can start with a clear business need and develop as that business changes.
