How to improve business development department productivity

in 3 minutes
1. Business research - gathering, studying, analyzing
information

This is one of the main functions of business development

department. Team of analysts, statisticians and experts work at
regular studying and monitoring of external environment - clients,
industry, market, company's image, macro economy etc. in order to
find potential opportunities and determine their feasibility,
expediency and prospect, to analyze different scenarios and support
elaboration of business development strategies.
The internal factors such as organizational structure and production are also the objects of
analysis for business development department, because it should guide and monitor the
company's efficiency enhancement. VIP Task Manager is task and time planning software
that can help specialists of business development department to plan, track and report their
work and also manage documents by attaching files to tasks.

2. Short-term and long-term business planning. Business development project

management

When certain business opportunity is defined and well-grounded it should be discussed with
specialists of concerning departments and company management. Information obtained by
business development department is a background for elaborating of short-term and long-
term business plans. When opportunity and objectives are considered and agreed with all
participants of the process the plan of opportunity realization can be developed and
development project initiated. As a result of cooperation of a cross-department team the plan is
elaborated into specific tasks that can be assigned to executers and controlled by specialists of
business development department, so they can be aware about progress of development plan
realization.
VIP Task Manager is a groupware that allows managing tasks from multiple projects within
one database and control time, costs, productivity and efficiency.VIP Task Manager can be
used by specialists of business development department to manage numerous tasks allocated
among multiple executers in real-time regime.
3. Collaboration with other departments

One of the functions of business development department is to

give recommendations and consultations regarding questions of
development of other departments and general company
organization. For effective performance of this function good
internal communications should be established. Analysts from
business development department should be able to share and
discuss documents, tasks and projects with specialists from other
departments.

VIP Task Manager allows sharing tasks, documents,

communicating and sending tasks to external consultants.VIP Task
Manager is a groupware that allows users to plan and control work
of different departments and cross-department teams within one
multi-workflow database
 Business Development Department Staff
 >> Business Development Department functions/workflow
 Business research - gathering, studying, analyzing of information
 Short-term and long-term business planning.

Business Development Department staff structure

Staff structure of business development department depends on conception of this department in
certain specific company and may include various specialists and experts that perform activities
connected with gathering, studying and analyzing of business information. Department
specialists can perform specific activities such as:

 identification and analyzing of business opportunities

 researching economic and market trends
 monitoring business environment
 studying clients' requirements
 forecasting
 feasibility study of projects
 modeling scenarios
 planning business objectives and so on

That's why staff of business development department may include business analysts of
different qualifications and specializations, project and technical analysts, experts in marketing,
economy, management etc, statisticians, demand managers and others. Often department
managers call for help of temporarily engaged specialists and external consultants.

The specialists of Business Development Department can be categorized according to their

responsibilities:

 Supervisors:

Those who assign work and perform control. Head of business development department and
managers, who supervise specific sectors of work, need a solution that allows them to:

 Manage work of their subordinates and assistants

 Track performance, time, costs
  Manage projects and business processes

 Specialists:

Employees - those specialists who receive tasks and should report about their performance. For
example industry analyst studies situation, problems and tendencies within industry, demand
manager studies requirements and expectations of clients, distribution development manager
searches for new distributing facilities and channels etc. Each specialist has own scope of tasks
and duties, so each one needs to manage and schedule individual tasks in the context of common
work.  Solution that can fit needs of business development department specialists should:

 Allow management of their individual schedules and task lists

 Make aware if manager assigns task to them
 Allow reporting about task performance
 Provide quick access to documents
 Ensure collaboration with colleagues

Business Development Department Resource List

VIP Task Manager is task management groupware that can fit needs of both Supervisors and
Specialists of Business Development Department.
The first thing that should be done when you start to work with VIP Task Manager is registering
the staff members. For this purpose VIP Task Manager can work in Resource List mode. Using
Resource List you can create accounts for users of the groupware (set login and password), enter
personal data (Phone, Address, E-mail), working data (Department, Job Title) and delegate role
if required. After all the specialists and supervisors are registered in Resource List they can
assign tasks or be assigned to a task. You can use field "Department" to assign employees to
different teams within one business development department.

his function is actually the main purpose of Business development department.The sense of
business research is to find opportunities that can be used for business expansion and
development. On basis of collected and studied information specialists of Business development
department create the economic justification of business opportunity and present it to company
management. If opportunity is considered as advantageous and feasible it can be converted into
plan of realization.
Business research planning
The bigger company the more complicated research is required for business development. To
drive and support all fields of business research monitoring the team of different specialists is
required. For example industry analyst studies situation, problems and tendencies within
industry, demand manager studies requirements and expectations of clients, distribution
development manager searches for new distributing facilities and channels etc. Each specialist
has own scope of tasks and duties, so each one needs to manage and schedule individual tasks in
the context of common work. In order to organize and control team of business analysts and
experts which work in Business development department special task management groupware
can be used.
VIP Task Manager is a groupware that allows managing both individual tasks and common
projects of Business development department within one database. Owing to system of instant
notifications all specialists will be aware about new tasks assigned to them.

Business research tracking

When objects and questions of research are defined and tasks are assigned to executers the stage
of project performance begins. During performance of business research director of Business
development department should keep track on performance of subordinates in order to define
how well they fulfill the research plan.VIP Task Manager is a groupware that allows reporting
and tracking of work progress in real-time regime. Each task has reporting attributes such as
status and percent of completeness that can be easily tracked by supervisor. Business experts
usually work with a big number of documents which are used to collect, store and transfer data,
so document management capabilities of VIP Task Manager may appear useful - users can
attach files directly to tasks, so documents can be accessed quickly by one click on hyperlink. 

Business research reporting

Reporting and documenting business research and monitoring is an important part of corporate
performance reporting. Team of analysts, statisticians and experts collects, studies, interprets
data and reports results to company management. VIP Task Manager is a reporting tool which
allows immediate delivering of business research results from experts to supervisors by attaching
files to tasks and discussing questions in Comments section of tasks.VIP Task Manager
provides users with possibility to build printable reports and charts in order to analyze the
progress on business research and reporting. VIP Task Manager allows keeping track on
productivity and efficiency of each specialist of Business development department.

Business development project management

Information obtained by Business development department in process of business research is a
background for initiation of practical actions that should bring company to realization of
designated opportunities. That's why business development department strongly influences
short-term and long-term corporate planning. Activities of the department are directed on
definition of the most advantageous and expedient objectives for the company, so main
competence of the department is to suggest improvements/opportunities for other departments,
discuss practical ways to realize them, guide and consult if required, and track implementation.
Business development project planning
When certain business opportunity is defined and well-grounded (for ex: necessity to intensify
sales through Internet) it should be discussed with involved persons (ex: company head, head of
sales department and corporate webmaster). When opportunity is properly discussed and agreed
it can be elaborated into specific objectives, for example: to launch and promote new advanced
web-site and to attract customers by new, favorable on-line propositions. Then these objectives
can be broken down into tasks and each executer can be assigned to specific portion of work -
sales department should prepare policy of on-line sales and webmaster should design new web-
site. This kind of work is a cross-department project which is planned and controlled by business
development department.
VIP Task Manager is real-time project management groupware that allows planning,
prioritizing and categorizing tasks from different projects within one database.

Business development project tracking

Business development department should keep track of multiple tasks that are assigned to
multiple executers in different departments in the context of various development projects.
Development project tracking is a very important activity because it shows if planned
improvements are implemented according to schedule and if any obstacles slow down the
progress. The time is very important, because some business opportunities can be missed
because of delays. The tracking of multiple tasks can be facilitated by special software that
allows project managers from business development department to monitor tasks assigned to
specialists from other departments: webmaster, sales manager and others.

VIP Task Manager is real-time project management groupware that allows tracking workflow
of tasks, grade of completeness, time, costs, productivity and efficiency.

Business development project reporting

For proper management of development projects good internal communications between project
executers and supervisors should be established. To ensure such communications executers of
tasks need to have a tool which allows them to deliver information about their performance to
supervisors instantly and supervisors need to have a tool that allows them to receive execution
reports and analyze project progress with a help of charts and printable tabs.

VIP Task Manager can be used by specialists of business development department to receive
reports about task performance and feedbacks from executers, share task and documents, monitor
and analyze project progress with a help of charts and printable/exportable reports.
 Business Development Department Staff
 Business Development Department functions/workflow
 Business research - gathering, studying, analyzing of information
 >> Short-term and long-term business planning.