Webinar – Using the Network to Grow Your Business

Our webinar – Using The Network To Grow Your Business was held on the 23rd June 2021.
We were joined by Alexander Low of Lately.ai and Richard Harris of okappy.com.
Alex has over 15 years experience in sales & marketing at Michael Page, PwC and JLL across business services, accountancy, legal and commercial real estate. Alex applies his experiences to the 21st Century and advises Professional service firms on their Social strategy, Personal brand, value of networks and content creation.
Richard is the CEO and Co-founder of Okappy which was founded to transform industry through better collaboration and more connected processes.  Richard previously worked for an award winning start up in fleet management sector and prior to that was a Management Consultant and Investment Banker.  He has an Executive MBA from Cranfield School of Management.

Okappy is a business 2 business connected workforce management platform which applies social and market networking technology to a real business need. Think Linkedin, Uber and Workforce Management merged into one communications and collaboration platform. Our aim is to help transform your industry through better communications and collaborate with your employees who are often at different locations (and now more than ever). With your subcontractors and with your customers.
By connecting on Okappy, the most forward looking and dynamic companies are increasing transparency and trust, reduce duplication, costs and errors and dramatically increasing efficiency. Ultimately we’re seeing companies being able to increase profits through extra capacity, reduced costs and being able to spend more time growing your business.
So we’ll talk about the network side of Okappy in a bit and how you can build your network on it. But you can also build your business using social media. Linkedin is currently one of the best networks to use in order to gain company insight and start conversations.

So without further ad do, I’d like to introduce you to Alex Low.  He’s head of Enterprise Strategy and Operations at Lately.ai.  Previously Alex worked in sales and marketing across various industries and now applies his experience to social strategy, personal branding and the value of networks.
So im delighted to have Alex join us today.

First, why is software moving away from systems that work just work in house, forcing you to rely on clunky portals, emails or whatsapp to work with other companies.  In the industries that we operate in, 50% or more of work is done by subcontractors.  You all have customers, and more and more they’re demanding real-time information.  That is why we’re seeing a shift to a more connected approach and is the reason we developed the Okappy network.
The benefits of using a more connected approach including.

• Increase transparency

With a connected approach, everyone can see what is happening in real –time.  This means you don’t need to chase your subcontractor. They don’t need to chase their employee (or subcontractor).
Everyone knows what is happening as it happens.

• 2) Streamline processes / Reduce duplication

No more copying information between your customers system and your system. No more resorting to email or whatsappto get a subcontractor to do work.
With a connected network, information flows seamlessly from order maker right down to the end engineer. Whether he works for your company, for your subcontractor or for your subcontractors subcontractor.
In the old way, jobs would get missed, invoices would be displayed and customer service would be negatively impacted.

• Increase trust

All too often in the trades, in construction, in facilities management trust is no where to be seen. Beggar they neighbour approach leads to late payments, costs being passed down the chain and ultimately increased solvency.
Many businesses that we work with find that disputes over the amount invoiced can frequently cause delays. One common reason for this is when a worker and their client disagree over the amount of time a worker spent on site, or when the worker incurred a lateness penalty.
By having a computerised system that helps to record job details, view job status and automatically raise an invoice when the job is complete, this problem can be easily eliminated without you noticing it.
Okappy Job Management System gets rid of your excessive admin, ensures your jobs are updated as they happen and allows you to raise your invoice at the click of a button. Helping you get your invoice paid faster, ensuring no invoices are forgotten and reducing the risk of dispute.

• Eliminate the potential for disputes

Many businesses that we work with find that disputes over the amount invoiced can frequently cause delays. One common reason for this is when a worker and their client disagree over the amount of time a worker spent on site, or when the worker incurred a lateness penalty.
By having a computerised system that helps to record job details, view job status and automatically raise an invoice when the job is complete, this problem can be easily eliminated without you noticing it.
Okappy Job Management System gets rid of your excessive admin, ensures your jobs are updated as they happen and allows you to raise your invoice at the click of a button. Helping you get your invoice paid faster, ensuring no invoices are forgotten and reducing the risk of dispute.

So how do you build your network.
To send a connection request, simply click the connection icon towards the top right of the screen.
Enter your customer’s details and send the invite.
They’ll be notified that you want to connect. If they accept your invitation, they can log in and view their own account which is completely independent from yours.
They can add jobs and assign them to you, or you can add jobs on their behalf which they can see. However, they can’t see any of your other jobs. They also can’t see which employees or subcontractors is doing the work. This ensure privacy and leaves you in control of the work.

So how do you build your network.
To send a connection request, simply click the connection icon towards the top right of the screen.
Enter your customer’s details and send the invite.
They’ll be notified that you want to connect. If they accept your invitation, they can log in and view their own account which is completely independent from yours.
They can add jobs and assign them to you, or you can add jobs on their behalf which they can see. However, they can’t see any of your other jobs. They also can’t see which employees or subcontractors is doing the work. This ensure privacy and leaves you in control of the work.

To summarise, these are just some of the benefits of connecting to your customers.

• Reduced duplication
• No more missed jobs
• Reduce chasing of emails and calls
• See the latest contact details
• Provide the best customer service

You can also save documents for your customers which will talk more about later.
You can add notes for your customer, get your invoices seen and paid quicker including taking payment.
Management gurus often talk about looking at your customers base to see which companies add to your profit and which add to your costs. Consultants will often tell you that 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers. With Okappy you can run various reports on how to see which work you did for which companies.
You can also search for other companies on the Okappy network so you can actually find new customers or subcontractors when you’re ready to grow.

You can connect to subcontractors in the same way that you connect to customers.
To send a connect request, simply click the connection icon towards the top right of the screen.
Enter your subcontractors’ details and send the invite.
They’ll be notified that you want to connect.
Like customers they can only see the jobs that have been assigned to you. The information they see is also restricted, they cannot see who your customer is so you don’t need to worry that they’ll try and cut you out of the loop.
One important difference between customers and subcontractors is that subcontractors have to accept your invite before you can assign jobs to them. This is an important distinction as you want to know that your subcontractor has receive your work and is going to act on it.

To summaries, these are just some of the benefits of connecting to your customers.

• Reduced duplication
• No more missed jobs
• Reduce chasing of emails and calls
• See the latest contact details
• Bring your subcontractors into the loop

You can also save documents for your subcontractors which will talk more about later.
You can add notes for your subcontractor, get your invoices seen and paid quicker including taking payment.
You can also analyze how your subcontractors are working and compare them to your employees.
You can also search for other companies on the Okappy network so you can find new customers or subcontractors when you’re ready to grow.

There’s lots of information on our help and support pages including the following help articles. There’s also lots of previously asked questions and answers in our forums and short explanatory videos.
https://www.okappy.com/support
https://www.okappy.com/support-article/information-visibility/
https://www.okappy.com/support-article/employees-or-subcontractors-what-is-the-difference

Thanks once again for attending our webinar. I hope you found it useful.
Please connect with Okappy on twitter at @ok_appy or follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/okappy-ltd-
You can also follow Alex Low on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderlow/