What should a solid Statement of Work include? How do you create SOWs that ensure both the buyer and the seller are satisfied? How do you create SOWs in Salesforce?
Summit Technologies LLC spells it all out.
Your Statement of Work should include:
Introduction
Objectives
Scope of Work
Deliverables and Timeline
Payment Terms and Schedule
Project Resources
Project Risks
Terms and Conditions
Special Requirements
Authorization
With this templatized idea in mind, Summit Technologies will work with your company to build custom SOW document generation tools in Salesforce. So what do each of these sections require?
Your introduction should consist of information about your company and your client. An overview of the work to be done might be included in the introduction section as well. Summit recommends building this section into tables and paragraphs for easy navigation. Many of the fields can merge fields from your project object in Salesforce.
The objectives for your SOW should be set up just like SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound). The objective section is going to be a high level look at what the project will accomplish for the client. This isn’t necessarily a “how the sausage is made” view, but a statement that the sausage will be delivered.
The scope of work section defines what work will be done and what work is not included. We will deliver sausage, we will not cut it into bite sized pieces and feed it to the baby. Some companies will provide the scope of work as a separate document or file as well as including it in the SOW. This view of the project will highlight the steps and milestones in your project in a task list that gets into the details of each stage of the project. Tasks can be pulled in from your project object in Salesforce.
The deliverables and timeline show the final outcome of the project and the milestones along the way. The deliverables are the products or services you will deliver to your client. The deliverables should be measurable products or services with clear due dates that keep the entire project on target. With the timeline you may also want to call out any deliverables required from the client to complete each task reminding them of their role in the project.
The payment terms and schedule make it clear how you expect to get paid, what the payment terms are, and if required any variable costs that have a time and/or materials component. Laying out a clear payment schedule up front will prevent frustration at the end of the day for all stakeholders. Payment plans can be structured by deliverable, by phase or stage of the project, or by fixed dates. Either way your fully signed and executed SOW protects your time investment in the project.
The resources section of your SOW lets the client know who will be available to them during the course of the project and what their responsibilities are. Stakeholders on the client side should be listed as client resources as well. This gives you a great reference document as you schedule meetings moving forward. Descriptions and responsibilities can be standard document components pulled into your SOW at creation rather than written over and over again. Just add them to the main template of your SOW. Then if you need to make global updates you only have to make the change in one place thanks to Salesforce.
The risk section of your SOW is a good place to list out any known project risks so that everyone involved on both sides of the project has a clear understanding of factors that could jeopardize a project. Listing ways to mitigate the risks is good to give your client peace of mind as well as to have a starting point for all project resources to head off issues at the pass before they become major blockers.
Your SOW terms and conditions are a necessity in any good SOW. Any special requirements should be listed here as well. Summit Technologies recommends creating a template for your standard terms and conditions and pulling it into your SOW just by inserting a tag. Once again, Salesforce document generation to the rescue.
After covering any special terms and conditions your SOW needs to be fully executed so an authorization form is required. The authorization section is where the buyer and seller sign off on their acceptance of the SOW and everything included in it.
An e-signing solution designed to work with Salesforce makes for easy, online signing immediately upon acceptance. Summit Technologies will advise you on the best e-signing solution for your Salesforce instance.
With document generation in Salesforce you free up time and effort and reduce the potential for error by moving away from copying and pasting a Word document for every client and every statement of work.
Salesforce document generation tools allow you to build and store a SOW template directly with Salesforce. Your template allows you to click a button on a Salesforce record, select the correct template, and watch as the system creates a statement of work for you. Document generation and e-signature solutions give you fast SOW creation with reduced errors and faster delivery to your customers. Better prospect experiences set you apart from your competitors. And Salesforce generated documents are easily saved with the records they are generated from and or uploaded to an external document storage tool if required.