Case study
Case study: a mid-market manufacturer cut quote-to-cash from 11 days to 3
An illustrative example of the kind of engagement we run — not a named client.
- Client
- Mid-market manufacturer
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Size
- ~180 employees, two plants
The problem
What they were dealing with
Quote-to-cash took eleven days. A quote started in a spreadsheet, went to a sales manager for pricing, then to the plant for a lead-time check, then back to the customer — each hand-off by email, each step waiting on someone to notice it.
Once an order was won, the same numbers were re-keyed into the accounting system and again into the warehouse. Nobody could answer "where is this order" without calling three people, and the re-keying introduced errors that surfaced at invoicing.
What we built
The system we delivered
We wrote the blueprint first: one document that named every step of quote-to-cash, who owned it, and where it currently stalled. We configured Zoho CRM to draft and price quotes against live stock, Inventory to hold one source of order status, and Books to invoice from the same record — so a number is entered once and read everywhere.
A short Creator app handles the plant's lead-time check, the one step that genuinely needed a custom screen. We kept the ERP as the system of record for stock and synced to it rather than replacing it.
One deliberate decision: we routed the cross-app hand-offs through Zoho Flow rather than writing custom Deluge. Flow is easier for the client's own team to read and adjust, and this process had no logic that justified bespoke code.
Zoho apps used
- Zoho CRM
- Zoho Inventory
- Zoho Books
- Zoho Creator
Key integrations
- Two-way sync with the existing ERP for stock levels and costs
- Shipping and logistics provider for live tracking on dispatched orders
Timeline
14 weeks, discovery to go-live
Outcomes
What changed, measured
- Quote-to-cash fell from 11 days to 3.
- Order-entry errors down roughly 80%, because order data is entered once.
- About 12 hours a week of manual re-keying eliminated across sales and finance.
“We can see exactly where every order sits without phoning the plant. Quotes that used to take a week and a half go out in three days, and the numbers are right the first time.”
The team
Who led the work
Lead consultant: Senior consultant, US office
The eleven days were never about software speed — they were about hand-offs nobody owned, so we fixed the process before we configured a single app.
Want results like these for your team?
Book a 30-minute discovery call with a senior consultant. We will tell you honestly whether we can help.