Automation – Evolution Technology & Systems

THE EVOLUTION | OF APPLIED AUTOMATION

Efficiency is important. Always has been… always will be. The recent pandemic illustrated how fragile the US labor market is and many small to midsize businesses were quickly overwhelmed with day to day operational tasks. “Why not hire more people?” one might ask. The reality is that many small to mid size businesses tried, though with little to no success. Combine the sustained labor shortage with the rapid normalization of “anti work / anti productivity” contemporary culture and what you end up with is a recipe for disaster. Now for the good news:

You can leverage the advances in accessible automation to insulate your business the same way enterprise level companies do… and for a lot less than you probably imagine.

HOW LONG DO AUTOMATIONS TAKE TO BUILD?

Not as long as most people seem think. Thanks to a truly wide selection of readily accessible platforms such as those listed at the top of this page, specific automations can often be developed in days rather than weeks or months. Depending upon the amount of “universally developed-for” systems [such as Gmail, Microsoft365, QuickBooks, SalesForce, etc] vs proprietary software [fleet / livery dispatch software, industry specific CRM, medical / healthcare systems] we are typically able to complete automation instances in 7 to 14 days. Please note this time frame includes adjustments and refinements which are often the result of the development process itself. Additional time may be required to integrate any previously developed custom / one off software solutions.

WHICH SYSTEM IS BEST FOR ME AND MY BUSINESS?

The short answer: Depends on which existing infrastructure your business already has in place. Thankfully the Evolution Technology | Systems development team has extensive experience with nearly all of the most popular options. This means we can determine which system / platform / option is best for your business and select the correct platform based on those parameters resulting in shorter build times / more effective applications. While we try to keep each build to one platform, there are occasionally instances where more than one system in “hybrid form” is the most efficient option. We cover all this and more during the analysis and conceptualization phase of any automation build. Most importantly, in each and every case we make significant effort to work with / around existing infrastructure to minimize any interruptions to productivity / business continuity.

WHAT TASKS CAN I AUTOMATE?

At this point system, business, and work flow automation is typically limited only by two things: Budget and imagination. Fortunately as more platforms become accessible to reduce lead time, the former isn’t much of an issue for nearly all businesses. That leaves “imagination”. We would quickly run out of space on this entire page if we tried to describe every possible situation where the application of automation is possible. From the simple mailing of a thank you after a purchase is made on a website to complex multi level integrations featuring social media, logistics, sales, and accounting…we very rarely encounter where a desired workflow is simply not possible. You know your business’ workflow far better than we do so ultimately you get to be the one to tell us how we can help!

WHAT ARE THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH AUTOMATION?

Like the time to move from concept to a working system, the answer is: probably not as much as most people think. Simple automations can be in the several hundreds of dollars range with costs increasing in proportion with complexity of system. As with all tech projects, due to the sheer number of variables, we encourage you to make use of the contact form on this page to get an estimate at no cost. We will also point out that in our experience, the number one reason more entrepreneurs and business owners do not consider any form of automation is “perception of cost”. This is a stigma left over from the days when the ONLY option for business process automations were complex, custom build / hard coded applications that required months or even years to develop.

EXAMPLE 1: NEW CUSTOMER CONTACT WORKFLOW

ESTIMATED TIME SAVED: 30-45 MINS PER RUN

ESTIMATED TIME TO IMPLEMENT: 2-5 DAYS

ESTIMATED COST TO IMPLEMENT: $400-$600

USE CASE: HOW DOES IT WORK? WHAT DOES IT DO?

In this “new customer contact” example, we illustrate how by using Zapier, a popular business software automation platform, we can complete several business critical tasks simultaneously. These are tasks that would take either you or office staff anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes to do presuming that was the only task at hand.

STEP 1: A POTENTIAL NEW CUSTOMER CONTACTS YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH YOUR WEBSITE’S CONTACT FORM

In this instance we presume that your website is running one of the many contact form plugins available such as Contact Form 7, WP-Forms, Gravity Forms, etc. Depending on your product, service, or industry, that form may contain very few “fields” (entry boxes), or it may contain a long, detailed series of fields. The latter is more common when contact forms are used as a method of potential customer qualification.

In our workflow example above, the new potential customer hitting the “submit” button will trigger the “web hook” (more on that in a minute) to begin a series of predetermined actions. This is determined by either existing processes currently performed manually or can be adapted to new work flows. Ah, webhooks. Think of them as “always on listeners” constantly checking to see if a given condition is met. In this instance our trigger condition is our theoretical customer submitting a new contact form.

STEP 2: A SERIES OF PRE-SET AUTOMATED PROCESSES TAKE PLACE THROUGH ZAPIER

Who determines these processes? That’s easy… You! In our example case here, we are using Zapier which bills itself as an “easy to implement, no code, automation platform”. This is mostly true. Though “no code automation” is akin to “no drill universal fit installation” in that each development process requires its own unique tweaks and minor adjustments that depend purely upon existing infrastructure and workflow. That’s what we’re here for.

In our example, we are going to be triggering four separate and simultaneous actions involving the platforms / systems illustrated in step 3. Once again, this would all have been configured by Evolution Technology | Systems according to your precise specifications. We estimate the time for an office staff member to complete these tasks, even one familiar with all four platforms, to be between 30 and 45 minutes per contact form submission (or instance).

STEP 3.1: A SERIES OF PRE-SET AUTOMATED PROCESSES TAKE PLACE THROUGH ZAPIER

In our example here, we have included four separate, widely used, and very common platforms found in many businesses with any meaningful tech infrastructure. Yours may vary but that’s ok, there are quite literally thousands of compatible platforms that can be implemented in identical fashion.

GMAIL: SEND EMAIL(S)

Our theoretical automation can send the customer who just submitted a contact form to the site a personalized response email either immediately or on a timed delay. Using basic JSON queries, we can even personalize components of that email such as name, title, or other information based upon the customer submitted data. Additionally we can even determine which of several email templates are used based upon parameters set by you. Examples of these parameters are location, household income, age, gender, etc.

Zoho is a very popular and very widely developed for cloud based CRM (Contact Relation Management) platform. A robust and effective CRM is essentially the life blood of any business marketing a product or service. In addition to keeping contacts centralized for additional marketing efforts, valuable metrics can be extracted to further generate revenue streams / aide in decision making. In our example here, we automatically add our new contact, along with some or all submitted information to Zoho, our CRM. In doing so we have the option to once again apply a filter and add tags, notes, lead source, or other delineators that are specific to your business. A practical example is a general contractor who may want to keep their roofing customers separate from their plumbing contracts. In the event of multiple sales people, any number of methods can be used to assign leads such as random, round robin, linear, or conditional based on submitted information.

ZOHO: CRM [CONTACT RELATIONSHIP MANAGMENT]

STEP 3.2: A SERIES OF PRE-SET AUTOMATED PROCESSES TAKE PLACE THROUGH ZAPIER

In this example, we presume that there is a consultative sales process that requires an appointment. In our contact form, we can ask that our potential new customer choose when that is (time/date), as well as preferred contact method. We can have that, from the information submitted, populate our google calendar and notify us that we have a new sales consultation appointment. Before you think potential customers can run amok with your schedule, yet once more, we can apply filters to block off available days/times for appointments. We can even schedule reminders and notifications for both parties both with native Google Calendar features as well as Zapier.

Twilio is a very popular VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system that allows businesses and individuals to have multiple phone numbers, phone lines, extensions and other telecom functionality. Presuming in our example business here, we do have a correctly configured Twilio, we have to the option to leverage its own native API (connection point) functionality to do as such: Send our customers a reminder text / SMS message a day before their appointment. We can also send a thank you SMS presuming they checked a requisite “opt in” box during the form completion process. We can, once again presuming they have opted into marketing efforts, even begin marketing products or services with SMS/Text. Reminder calls, “straight to voicemail” messages and other options can also be automated. Finally, in the event of direct sales or telemarketing efforts, contacts can be added during the information submission process, to a predictive dialer accessible by a follow up team.

GOOGLE CLENDAR: appointment scheduling

TWILIO: PHONE, SMS, TXT MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION

THE EVOLUTION | OF APPLIED AUTOMATION

HOW LONG DO AUTOMATIONS TAKE TO BUILD?

WHICH SYSTEM IS BEST FOR ME AND MY BUSINESS?

WHAT TASKS CAN I AUTOMATE?

WHAT ARE THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH AUTOMATION?

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