Xait Blog

The 12 Days of Christmas: The Fifth Day: 5 Approvers Approving

Written by Xait | Dec 11, 2017 11:00:00 PM

 “On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 5 approvers approving, 4 zoomable images, 3 key texts, 2 dashboard reports and one project in XaitPorter”

You might wish instead for the traditional gift of 5 gold rings - after all, who wouldn’t want gold?  But you may discover that 5 approvers approving is more valuable than rings when producing business-critical documents.

Consider the potential complexity of managing the approval process when working on a large proposal or tender. Decisions on the final product or technology design, service guarantees or warranties, delivery schedules and pricing need to be managed in parallel, especially when different departments - like R&D, finance, sales and service - own responsibility and sign-off for their respective contributions to the tender. Final approval is often the responsibility of a busy department head or senior executive who may be hard to reach at short notice during a timeline crunch. In surveys with bid and project managers, over 70% say that managing the approval process is the most stressful part of a project or bid.

How can five approvers prevent that stress-induced gray hair when managing a critical project? By increasing efficiency, control and oversight of the approval process. This helps you and your team to overcome hurdles in receiving timely approvals and meeting critical deadlines.

How does this work within a project? When creating a project or document in XaitPorter, you can set up multiple sections and sub-sections and assign writers, reviewers and approvers for each section. Throughout the document production process, all contributors are able to work in parallel within their respective domains. Notifications are sent from XaitPorter for each step of the process, keeping contributors informed of tasks and due dates.

 

 

Once the writer and reviewer have both completed their assignments, the approver has final authorization to determine if that section is completed. The approver can add comments, request clarification on content or send it back for more writing or editing. The approver can also reject the section and post the reason why. Once the approver is satisfied, he or she marks the section as complete. All authorized contributors can view the status of each section directly in XaitPorter - increasing transparency with the process and making the project easier to manage. And best of all - no more gray hairs and sleepless nights.