Netformx DesignCentral™

Simplify Processes . . . Increase Collaboration

Netformx DesignCentral^TM is a centralized, structured and automated opportunity-to-management platform that enables you to connect people, information and processes ' and helps to reduce the inherent risk associated with complex network designs.

It all starts with a centralized database where you can store all of your project information in one place including your DesignXpert projects, customer-facing documents, tasks, notifications, dashboards and more.  By connecting people, information and processes, you can increase productivity and optimize project communication, collaboration and control throughout the entire network design lifecycle.

 

The Challenges

Designing complex network solutions often involves participation of many individuals and departments: account managers, sales engineers, product management, special services, pricing, provisioning, third party partners and, of course, the customer. Coordinating the activities and deliverables of all these participants can be a chaotic, time-consuming and frustrating challenge ' often with less than desirable results including design errors, higher cost of sale, longer sales cycles, ineffective use of valuable resources, reduced product quality and customer dissatisfaction. Just keeping track of who changed what, when and why and the ramifications of each change is a major headache.

There is increasing pressure from your customers to go from the requirements gathering stage to implementation stage rapidly, while incorporating the latest products and technologies and staying one step ahead of your competition.  To do this, your teams need a collaborative solution that enables anytime, anywhere access to reliable network design and project information and which enforces the use of standardized processes and best practices that maximize their productivity and results in a quality product for your customer. That solution is Netformx DesignCentral.

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DesignCentral Overview

DesignCentralâ„¢ is a collaboration platform based on a centralized database of all information relating to your enterprise network design opportunities.  DesignCentral can help you increase project implementation speed without sacrificing quality by streamlining and automating business processes and enhancing team collaboration and productivity.  It makes it easier for all individuals and departments involved in an opportunity to be actively engaged in the design and proposal process ' significantly accelerating the opportunity-to-cash cycle.

 

The DesignCentral database can hold projects and outputs from other Netformx Solutions such as Netformx DesignXpert®, SalesXpert, MPLS Designer and Managed Services Designer.  It also stores documents generated by other applications such as price schedules, design and proposal documents and provisioning information.

Workflow sequences, change management controls and management approval levels can be defined to ensure that activities by all participants are carefully coordinated. Multiple individuals may work on the same DesignXpert project simultaneously, which can significantly accelerate the project timeline. DesignCentral's detailed audit trail tracks these changes at the field level and automatically flags discrepancies, which ensures consistency and accuracy of all information.

With DesignCentral, you can:

• Seamlessly integrate inter-departmental teams: account managers, sales engineers, networking experts, network provisioning, service activation and service assurance
• Clearly define business processes for greater efficiency
• Use consistent methods of communication among all stakeholders, including the customer and third party vendors
• Control parallel change management activities, and manage discrepancies between "as-design" and "as-built" systems & databases
• Assess the progress and risks of your projects or change request via dashboards and reports
• Stay on budget and on deadline by tracking action items and tasks

DesignCentral enables a centralized, structured and automated design-to-implementation process that benefits:

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Key Features

• Centralized data store of all project related information including DesignXpert projects, customer facing quotes, statements of work, and design documents
• Supports multiple data formats and sources
• Centralized SQL Database including provisioning information
• Document Management: Integrate DesignXpert Project management, records management and Web content management with policies and workflow
• Site, record and field level audit trail tracks who did what and when
• Workflow Management: assign tasks, email notifications, DesignXpert project approval levels, and status change notification
• Collaboration: shared task lists
• Email integration
• Simultaneously work on DesignXpert Projects with multi-user check-in/check-out and version control
• Allow parallel design activities with conflict resolution
• Administrative Dashboard
• Assign access privileges on a per library basis
• Usage Reports and Metrics including detail and summary reports, workflow and project metrics, tabular or graphical representation
• Microsoft Office Connector
• Integrate with back office applications

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Key Benefits

Reduced Cost of Sale

• Accelerate the opportunity-to-cash cycle
• Use more streamlined, automated workflow processes
• Enforce use of corporate best practices
• Increase control of change management process
• Reduce design rejection rate and associated costly rework
• Enable smooth transition from pre-sales to post-sales teams

Increase Team Productivity

• Simplify and automate the workflow process across organizations
• Easily assign and track activities
• Simultaneously work on DesignXpert Projects
• Reduce exception/resolution cycles using detailed audit trail of changes made to documents (who, what & when)
• Centralized database of all project-related information remains accessible regardless of personnel changes

Increase Customer Satisfaction

• Shorten the time between requirements gathering and contract execution ' both new designs and CRs
• Deliver a higher quality services
• Execute a smooth implementation

Click Here to see how leading design professionals around the world are using Netformx Solutions to increase sales, improve productivity, promote collaboration and minimize errors throughout the entire opportunity-to-proposal cycle.

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