SMARTDRAW IN SALES MARKETING:

Improve Current Forecasting Process, Redefine Marketing Services

John Kebisek is Director of Sales & Marketing, Business Processes for Cooper Power Systems in Waukesha, WI—a billion-dollar manufacturer of power equipment. Cooper's products range from 200-watt amps to 46,000-volt power transformers, and everything in-between, including distribution switchgear, capacitors, protective relays, voltage regulators, automated switches, cable accessories, surge arrestors and fuses. In addition, it provides engineering services for the electrical and industrial markets. Cooper Power bills itself as the link from residences and strip malls, to the power system grid.

John was introduced to SmartDraw in 1996, when he ran across an advertisement in an in-flight magazine. He has been a loyal customer ever since.

Recently John and his team faced two challenges SmartDraw helped them overcome. First, they needed to improve Cooper Power's current forecasting update process, so they employed SmartDraw's "swim lane diagram" template to facilitate the process. A swim lane is a way of visually organizing different activities into categories of the same functionality. In John's case, his team developed a diagram of the "as is" updating vs. the "to be," while simultaneously flowcharting a high level view of the process.

Challenge #2 was redefining the marketing services division of his department (see illustration), using the Mind Map function. As has been the case for over 10 years, SmartDraw helped John and his team answer both challenges in a timely fashion.

"SmartDraw's real benefit is the SmartTemplate™ technology, because it really speeds up the process," says John. "It's nice to begin a project with a format you want, versus creating one from scratch. For instance, when I want to transition from a flowchart to a swim lane diagram, I just click on a SmartTemplate and it's done. I find that I can map a process very quickly compared to Excel or Visio and that is the key… being able to improve processes more quickly than the competition. Last night alone, I created three different documents using SmartDraw - an Org Chart, Pricing Process View and Sales Forecasting Process Map. I'm tickled it's such a cool program."

Finally, John loves the new interface. "It's just so much easier because I have everything in front of me. I'm working in multiple sessions of SmartDraw right now, including an Org Chart, Flowchart and Mind Map, which will easily convert to an affinity diagram. I know that I haven't tapped into every capability, but the more I use it, the more I realize what else I can use it for.