A 10-year operations leader shares how margin controls and financial visibility helped a fast-growing enterprise quote smarter and deliver profitably.
Services companies scaling past $100M hit a wall where Excel-based quoting that worked for 10 people breaks down at 300.
Trace3 grew from product reselling into a global services business, adding professional services, consulting, and managed services to support deep client partnerships. Growth was organic and fast, but the quoting process underneath it was manual and risky.
“We didn’t have visibility into the scoping process until we got to the SOW stage,” said Lyndsey Alexander, Senior Director of Business Operations at Trace3. “By that point, it felt a little bit late in the game to make changes.”
Lyndsey joined Provus SVP of Product Management Anish Udayakumar for a live webinar to unpack how Trace3 replaced manual work with a unified quoting platform—and built an operations playbook that’s now protecting profitability across every deal.
Read a summary of the webinar below, and watch the recording at any time.
Organic growth without operational scaffolding
Trace3’s progression into services made sense—trusted partnerships naturally expand scope. But operationally, it created friction. “Things that were OK to get away with in Excel don’t make sense when you’re twice as big,” Lyndsey explained.
At scale, Lyndsey’s challenges compounded. No version control meant quotes lived in inboxes and drives; limited visibility kept operations and finance from seeing deals until they reached the SOW stage; and a general lack of consistency resulted in different approaches from over 300+ people involved in quoting.
“We had a lack of visibility across the scoping process,” Lyndsey said. “We weren’t able to put controls in place to mitigate potential risk.”
Live financial visibility and unified data
Trace3 developed a playbook that gave them what manual quoting couldn’t: a single source of truth with real-time margin data, automated quote approvals, and version control.
Operationally, the move centered on three main outcomes:
- Live financial visibility: Operations and finance teams could see margin data as quotes progressed, not just at the SOW stage.
- Consistent scoping: Pre-built templates and structured workflows ensured quotes reflected reality, not aspiration.
- End-to-end integration: Quotes originated from CRM and fed directly into PSA systems, making sure what was sold was delivered.
“The ability to price and scope accurately and consistently was key,” Lyndsey said. “And connecting our upstream and downstream—making sure we are quoting consistently so delivery has the right scoping parameters.”
Margin control, automated approvals, and closed gaps
Once its operational playbook was live, Trace3 started quoting in ways they couldn’t before.
Margin trends became actionable
Just last May, Trace3’s team noticed margin trends that weren’t ideal. They formed a plan, Lyndsey updated the system that day, and results started shifting within days.
“We wouldn’t have caught that if it wasn’t for the data and visibility,” she said. “These were really simple changes, but we wouldn’t have caught them.”
Now, operations can track margin across every stage—quotes in progress, quotes approved, quotes awaiting signature— while month-over-month trends surface immediately.
Approvals gained new clarity
With Trace3’s new playbook, automated workflows routed quotes to the right people at the right time—finance reviewed margins, delivery reviewed resource allocation, and everyone had visibility into status.
“Sales, delivery, and operations can collaborate in one space, in real time,” Lyndsey explained. “And automated approvals make sure it goes through the process correctly.”
Scoping issues were erased
Trace3’s new playbook revealed scoping errors almost instantly. In Excel, those mistakes would be hidden. But in a structured system, they became visible—and fixable.
“We realized people were scoping as more of a how-to guide versus an actual scoping document,” Lyndsey said. “We were able to retrain resources and level-set expectations.”
Change management creates champions
Implementing enterprise services quoting—an entirely new playbook—across 300 people wasn’t a technical challenge. It was a cultural one.
Lyndsey’s approach was based on three assumptions:
1. Understand your end user
“Change management is near and dear to my heart,” she said. “It’s really important to understand your end user and what they are expecting.”
Some team members loved Excel because it was flexible, while others were hesitant because they’d been doing things the same way for years. Lyndsey met with users one-on-one to understand friction points—was it the system, the process, or resistance to something new?
2. Over-communicate and bring people along
“Over-communicating and bringing people along for the journey are some of the major things that need to happen,” Lyndsey said.
Not only did she announce the change, but she explained why it mattered, what would improve, and how teams would benefit. She enlisted champions—early adopters who could advocate for the platform within their own groups.
3. Set realistic expectations
“We’re not going to make everybody happy all the time,” Lyndsey said. “That wasn’t the goal. We set out a standard, and that standard is what we adhere to.”
Not everyone would get the exact workflow they wanted. That’s fine. The system was built for enterprise growth, not preference.
What’s next: AI, automation, and continuous improvement
Trace3 is already planning what comes next. “There’s still even more we can tap into that we haven’t yet,” Lyndsey said. “There’s nothing but upside of what we can build from here.”
Future priorities include deeper resource planning, using AI for more automation, and integrating more closely with PSA, ERP, and HCM systems to create a seamless quote-to-delivery flow.
“In the world of AI right now, there’s a wealth of opportunities for leveraging that once you have the data,” Lyndsey said. “Putting it into AI allows it to do so many things to help scale and evolve a services business.”
What other services leaders should prioritize
If you’re running a services business using Excel and email for quoting, Lyndsey has some choice advice:
- Start with leadership buy-in. “Conversations with leadership—making sure they’re aware of the challenges and have early buy-in—is critical,” she said. “If my CEO says you’re doing this, they’re going to do it.”
- Bring the right people to the table. “We’re not going to make everybody happy, but at least they are brought to the conversation. They have a voice, and they feel they’re being heard.”
- Look for a partner, not just a vendor. “Make sure they are looking to partner with you and want to be your solution partner,” Lyndsey said. “I always look for someone that’s not just going to take what I give them and checkbox it, but think about it and say, ‘What are you trying to solve for? Here’s how we think about it. What are your thoughts?'”
Services quoting at scale—build your playbook now
Trace3 replaced manual quoting with a system that gives operations, finance, and delivery real-time visibility into every deal. The team can now spot trends, fix gaps, and optimize profitability before quotes ever reach customers.
“This enables us to have visibility and be able to adjust processes and scale our services,” Lyndsey concluded. “Having the data and access to that single source of truth gives us data-driven information to make decisions.”
Want to see how Trace3 built their operations playbook? Book a demo to see how Provus can help your team quote faster, price, smarter, and deliver with confidence.
