From Silos to Scale - Leading a Quote-to-Cash Transformation

Over the past year, we led and developed a business-critical transformation redesigning and implementing a Quote-to-Cash process that modernised over 15 years of accumulated systems, data, and ways of working.

This wasn’t just a system upgrade. It was about addressing deeply embedded inefficiencies, bridging disconnected teams, and creating a scalable foundation for the future.

The Starting Point - Two Systems, Two Worlds

When we began, the business operated across two core platforms: Salesforce and NetSuite.

Sales teams worked exclusively in Salesforce, logging opportunities with minimal structure or automation. Once a deal progressed, communication moved out of the system, typically via email to account managers and project managers.

From there, everything shifted into NetSuite.

Operations teams manually recreated data already captured in Salesforce

• Booking events were entered manually

• Coaches were sourced and scheduled manually

• Session details and links were created manually using tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams

• Financial data and tracking were handled separately

The result was predictable

• Duplicate effort

• Limited visibility

• Siloed teams

• High reliance on manual processes

Despite having invested in Salesforce years earlier, it remained underutilised, used primarily as a basic opportunity tracker rather than a true system of record.

The Vision - A Single Source of Truth

The goal of the Quote-to-Cash initiative was clear:

Move the business to a single, central platform for managing the lifecycle of a sale—from initial opportunity through to delivery and revenue recognition.

This meant

• Bringing account managers and project managers into Salesforce

• Establishing Salesforce as the primary data entry point

• Automating the flow of data into downstream systems

• Creating consistent, enforced processes across teams

  
  

Laying the Foundations

We started with workshops across sales, operations, and finance to map current processes and identify pain points. This was as much about uncovering inefficiencies as it was about aligning stakeholders around a new way of working.

From there, we focused on building structured workflows within Salesforce

• Enforcing required data capture before progression

• Introducing approval processes for contracts

• Integrating DocuSign for contract distribution and signing

• Automating document storage and traceability

A key challenge was not just designing better processes, but ensuring they were actually followed. Historically, flexibility in systems had allowed users to bypass steps. This transformation required a shift toward accountability and consistency.

Connecting the Ecosystem

Automation and integration were central to success.

Using Celigo as an iPaaS solution, we connected Salesforce to downstream systems:

• Order data triggered creation of records in NetSuite

• Booking data flowed into the Administrate platform

• Accounts and events were automatically generated from Salesforce order line items

We also built reverse integrations, bringing legacy and operational data from NetSuite back into Salesforce, arguably the most complex part of the project. This ensured

• End-to-end visibility

• Data consistency across systems

• Reduced manual reconciliation

On the finance side, we ensured that

• Completed deliveries in Salesforce triggered updates in NetSuite

• Revenue recognition and invoicing could be handled accurately

• Opportunities existed to further leverage native NetSuite capabilities over time
  

Challenges Along the Way

Like most transformation projects, the reality didn’t follow a straight line. Stakeholder engagement was

• Insufficient stakeholder participation made it difficult to align outcomes with expectations.

• Late-stage changes to contract processes required reworking established flows

• Testing engagement from users was limited, increasing delivery risk

• The scale of change, arguably the largest the business had undertaken, meant adoption would be as critical as the technology itself

Despite this, the solution was successfully released in January.

The Outcome - A Platform for Growth

While the journey is ongoing, the impact is already clear

• A unified view of the sales-to-delivery lifecycle

• Reduced manual duplication across teams

• Improved process consistency and accountability

• A scalable foundation for future enhancements

Perhaps most importantly, the business has taken a significant step away from fragmented, manual operations toward a more integrated and transparent model.

Reflections

This project reinforced a few key lessons

• Transformation is as much about behaviour as it is about technology

• Early and consistent stakeholder engagement is critical

• Perfect is rarely possible—progress and iteration matter more

Quote-to-Cash was never intended to be the final state, but rather the first step in a longer evolution. With the right foundations now in place, the business is far better positioned to adapt, scale, and improve.