CRM and Bill of Materials Process Improvement

About The Business: Proline Corporation is a specialist manufacturer of bespoke high-end fit-out products, employing around 70 people and working with customers including Citibank, HSBC, Waitrose, M&S, Spar and Starbucks. The business combines a highly experienced workforce with a number of manual and spreadsheet-based processes across estimating, design, customer management and production. As the business looks to improve efficiency and communication between departments, it has identified an opportunity to better manage customer, project and production information digitally. Currently, information can be distributed across spreadsheets, emails, separate departmental plans and people's knowledge.

Overview: The internship will help Proline understand, select and trial a practical CRM solution while investigating opportunities to improve BOM management. The intern will work with employees to understand current processes, establish requirements, research appropriate solutions, configure and run a small-scale CRM trial, gather user feedback and recommend an approach for wider implementation. The project should leave the business with both a working proof of concept and the knowledge and documentation needed to decide on its next steps.

Desirable Skills: Process mapping; Data analysis; Research and Strategy

Job Description:

1. Understand the current processes and requirements 

The intern will initially familiarise themselves with the business and work with relevant employees to understand how information currently moves through the company.

This will include reviewing relevant stages from initial customer enquiry and quotation through order management, design/drawing approval and handover towards production. ,

The intern will identify:

• what information is currently captured;
• where and how it is stored;
• who requires access to it;
• duplication between spreadsheets, emails and other systems;
• key information gaps and manual hand-offs;
• requirements for a future CRM;
• current challenges associated with BOM creation and management.

Particular attention should be given to the existing challenges around duplicated information, changing customer dates, drawing approvals and information being distributed across different plans, emails and individuals.

Deliverable: Documented current-state process and prioritised CRM/BOM requirements.

2. Research and evaluate potential solutions

Using the agreed requirements, the intern will research a focused shortlist of appropriate CRM solutions, including Monday.com, and assess their suitability for the business.

The comparison should consider areas such as:

• required functionality;
• ease of use; 
• configuration requirements;
• integration with existing ways of working;
• scalability;
• ongoing administration; 
• costs;
• training requirements.

The intern will also investigate options for improving BOM management.

This should establish whether the immediate requirement can be addressed through better information structures, templates and processes, or whether additional specialist software should be considered in the future.

Deliverable: Short options appraisal and recommendation for the system and approach to take forward into the trial.

3. Agree the proposed approach

The intern will present their findings to the relevant leadership team members and employees. The purpose will be to confirm the requirements, discuss the proposed CRM approach and agree a manageable workflow for the pilot before configuration begins.

Deliverable: Agreed CRM pilot process and implementation plan.

4. Configure and introduce the CRM pilot

The intern will configure an initial version of the agreed CRM platform. Rather than attempting to digitise every business process, the pilot will concentrate on an agreed, manageable workflow.

This could, for example, provide visibility of: Enquiry → Quote → Order → Design/Approval → Ready for Production/Delivery

The exact stages and information fields will be agreed with the business during the requirements stage. The intern will populate the system with an agreed sample of live or representative information and provide basic training to employees taking part in the pilot.

Deliverables: configured CRM proof of concept; agreed workflow, fields and user responsibilities; initial records/data populated; basic user training and guidance.

5. Run and refine the trial

Following initial setup, the CRM will be used operationally by a selected group of employees.

During the trial, the intern will gather structured feedback from users, monitor how well the system supports the intended process and identify problems or unnecessary administrative steps. Where practical, the intern will make configuration changes and improvements based on this feedback.

Deliverables: completed operational trial; documented user feedback; updated CRM configuration; and assessment against the original requirements.

6. Develop a BOM improvement approach

Alongside the CRM trial, the intern will investigate how BOM information is currently produced, updated and communicated between design and production.

This is particularly relevant to Proline because of the bespoke nature of its products, its design activities and the opportunity already identified to increase standardisation within design and production processes. The intern will recommend practical improvements and identify whether a future digital BOM solution or integration should be investigated.

Deliverable: Documented BOM improvement recommendations and suggested next actions.

7. Final review and knowledge handover

At the end of the project, the intern will evaluate the CRM trial against the original business requirements and recommend whether Proline should: continue with the trial platform; modify or extend the solution; investigate an alternative platform; undertake further integration or digitalisation work.

The intern will produce guidance covering the configuration and operation of the pilot so that responsibility can transfer to nominated employees. 

A short final presentation will be delivered to the leadership team covering the work completed, lessons from the pilot, BOM recommendations and prioritised next steps.

Deliverables: final recommendations and implementation roadmap; CRM configuration/user documentation; BOM recommendations; knowledge handover to nominated employees; final presentation to the leadership team.

Measures of success 

• An agreed CRM workflow is successfully configured and demonstrated.
• Nominated employees are trained and able to use and maintain the pilot without ongoing support from the intern.
• Agreed customer/project information is captured consistently within the pilot CRM.
• User feedback is collected and used to make improvements during the trial.
• Any improvement in the time required to find, update or communicate selected customer/project information is measured against the starting position.
• BOM requirements and current process issues are documented.
• A clear recommendation and prioritised roadmap for CRM implementation and BOM improvement is agreed with the business. 

Project boundaries 

The internship is intended to create and test a practical proof of concept, not to undertake a full ERP or business-wide digital transformation. 

The project will not include:

• implementation of a full ERP system;
• replacement of production planning systems across the whole business;
• full migration of all historic company data;
• implementation of a complex product lifecycle management system;
• development of bespoke enterprise software; or
• full implementation of a new BOM/MRP system. 

The internship will provide a controlled first step, giving the business the opportunity to understand, configure, test and evaluate an improved digital approach before committing to wider implementation. 

Expected outcome 

By completion, Proline should have a much clearer understanding of how a CRM could support its customer and project processes, backed up by experience from a working pilot rather than a purely theoretical software review. 

The company will also have a documented route forward for improving BOM management and a prioritised set of next steps that can inform subsequent digital investment. 

This approach provides a manageable internship project while directly addressing the manual processes, duplicated information and departmental communication challenges identified during the Made Smarter discovery work.