All making notes

Business systems

The website is only the beginning.

Connecting an enquiry to the next useful action.

By Jay Fan · · Implementation notes + illustrative walkthrough

RED CRM demonstration with fictional opportunities and a visible next action
Reconstructed workflow demonstration using fictional records. It illustrates our CRM work; it is not a client database or a screenshot of a live customer installation.

A business website can explain a service beautifully and still leave the work behind the enquiry in a spreadsheet, a mailbox and someone's memory. The useful design question is what the team needs to know when that enquiry arrives.

The workflow

  1. Capture: Keep the request and its source.
  2. Qualify: Record the missing information.
  3. Assign: Give the next action an owner.
  4. Follow through: Keep decisions and files together.

Start with the handoff

The proposed flow starts with a short website enquiry: what is needed, where the work is and how to reply. A useful CRM record then adds an owner, the next action and a due date. A form submission alone is not a qualified opportunity. This is a workflow pattern across separate projects, not a claim that every website in the portfolio is connected to one deployed CRM.

What the CRM work actually contains

The SolarOS project implements a shared SQLite workspace, opportunity records, activities, attachments, roles and version-checked saves. Its industry-specific fields include site control, decision maker, bill status and existing solar. These are examples of adapting software to a working process: a different business would need different questions.

A stage is not evidence

Moving a card into a later stage should not silently make missing documents complete. The implementation separates stage from delivery readiness and surfaces reminders after a move. The demonstration below lets you move one fictional opportunity and see why the next action still matters.

The deployment work remains real work

A locally working CRM foundation still needs hosting decisions, backup and restore checks, access review and a plan for existing records. Email and calendar connections should be scoped explicitly. A useful first engagement is one complete enquiry-to-follow-up journey with a small team before expanding the system.

Keep the board easy to move through; calculate readiness from the underlying evidence.

Scope & status

CRM implementation exists locally. This page does not claim a managed SaaS launch, measured revenue growth or a completed cross-product integration.

The interactive examples are available with JavaScript enabled.

Discuss a project with Jay

Keep exploring

Specialist software

A roof becomes a working design.

Inside a solar-design prototype: real module dimensions, editable arrays and a proposal that keeps its assumptions attached.

Reusable worksheets

The one-workflow brief

A reusable worksheet for defining the problem, the first useful slice and a testable outcome.

Download worksheet

Prepare a project brief