All-in-One Zoho System for a Defense Technology Consultancy

The client is a defense technology consultancy founded by two PhD-level engineers with deep expertise in model-based systems engineering and data center optimization. Using a proprietary methodology built around the Cameo platform, they help government and commercial clients reduce data center costs by an average of 20% — often structuring engagements so their fee is less than the savings they deliver.

With a primary focus on US Air Force contracts and an active $1.8M subcontract already in hand, the company was at an inflection point: enough revenue to demand real operational infrastructure, but still small enough that every process was being handled manually by the founders. Having already set up fragments of Zoho across Projects, Sprints, People, Books, and Expense, they had the right instincts but lacked the integrated architecture to make the system actually work. They engaged Brockbank Consulting to build that foundation before taking on additional contracts and growing the team.

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A growing defense technology consultancy specializing in data center optimization for US Air Force contracts was operating without a unified business system despite already being inside the Zoho ecosystem. With active government subcontracts, a nine-person team, and contract deliverables due within weeks, their operational gaps were becoming urgent:

- Time sheets logged in Zoho Sprints had no connection to payroll or client invoicing — compensation was being tracked manually in Google Notes and invoices were being sent as formatted Excel spreadsheets
- Zoho Projects and Zoho Sprints were both in use but not properly integrated, causing logged hours to fall through the cracks and creating confusion over which platform was the source of truth
- Client training was a contractual deliverable with a three-week deadline, but no LMS had been configured for external client access
- No standardized discovery or assessment process existed for new leads, making the sales pipeline difficult to manage as the business grew
- The company's books were connected to Zoho but uncategorized and unreconciled, with tax season approaching and a bookkeeper needing access
- Help desk and client support infrastructure was nonexistent despite support hours being included in active contracts
- As a subcontractor on government deals, the team needed CUI (Controlled Unclassified Information) certification tracking built into their training environment

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Brockbank Consulting conducted a full discovery across sales, service delivery, people operations, and finance — then designed and built an end-to-end Zoho system prioritized around the company's most urgent needs.

Key solutions delivered:

- Payroll and time sheet integration: Connected Zoho Projects and Zoho Sprints through to Zoho People and Zoho Payroll, establishing a clean flow from logged hours to employee compensation — replacing the manual Google Notes payroll process entirely
- Project-based invoicing: Integrated Zoho Projects with Zoho Books so time sheets can be pulled directly into client invoices, supporting both time-and-materials and fixed-deliverable billing models across multiple active contracts
- Client project portal: Configured Zoho Projects client portal so customers can log in and view real-time project progress, task status, and time logs — mirroring the same transparency Brockbank provides its own clients
- Help desk and self-service support: Set up Zoho Desk with email-to-ticket automation, a client-facing help center, and integration into the Zoho Sprints backlog so support tickets flow directly into the delivery team's workflow
- LMS and training delivery: Configured Zoho Learn for internal training and CUI certification tracking, with Zoho Trainer Central evaluated as the client-facing LMS for delivering the company's proprietary data optimization methodology to contracted clients
- CRM and lead pipeline: Built out Zoho CRM with a mobile-ready lead capture flow for conference-based prospecting, an automated assessment form sent to new leads, and deal stages structured around the company's flexible engagement models (time and materials, fixed deliverable, and performance-based)
- Contract and proposal automation: Set up Zoho CRM with Zoho Sign for mail-merged agreement generation, allowing proposals to be sent directly from deal records with auto-populated client fields and signature placeholders
- Bookkeeping and tax prep: Added bookkeeper access to Zoho Books at no additional license cost, established cash-based accounting practices, and organized expense categories for end-of-year tax preparation
- Internal knowledge base: Installed Brockbank's standardized SOP creation framework inside Zoho Learn, including a training video and template so the team can systematically document and delegate processes as the company scales

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