To give you an idea of specific problems we have come across, and how we solved them, we present our “Case Study” series. These posts will give you an idea of how custom software and integration can help your business succeed.
AccuQuest Hearing Centers are on the leading edge of audiology, providing the most technically accurate hearing evaluations, care recommendations, and hearing aid fittings to those who have experienced hearing loss. The company was founded in the Chicago area, but in just a few short years expanded its operations to reach from coast-to-coast. AccuQuest now services nearly a thousand people a day in their 180 offices across the country.
As AccuQuest has grown, numerous systems have been implemented to solve a number of operational and analytical needs. While AccuQuest’s implementation of these systems provided a significant competitive advantage they are not fully integrated creating some challenges for future growth. In addition, some marketing and sales data is being managed and processed manually outside of the systems limiting performance. What could be done to integrate AccuQuest’s systems to create a central place for shared marketing information?
Our Solution: Black Line Consulting (BLC) was able to integrate AccuQuest’s existing systems creating a connection between the company’s marketing activities and sales through a key integration point. This integration enabled the analysis of numerous data points going forward as it linked the two primary business processes (and systems) in use at AccuQuest; Marketing and Sales. While the systems were now integrated correctly, they were relying on outside data creating a bottleneck for desired results. The “source” data is available electronically and requires significant manual handling best suited for automation.
Automated Data Management: In order to automate the data management for the sales and marketing systems, we created a software interface and database system. BLC provided a series of diagrams and documents fully describing the components of the system design. These documents became the “blueprint” from which functionality was communicated, budgets established and timelines estimated.
The software interface and database system eliminated the manual process of collecting, manipulating, organizing, and adjusting raw data. This new Marketing Event Management System managed the numerous marketing efforts, associated costs and connected them to actual results. In addition to human efficiency gains, the accuracy of results increased as human error was removed. Most importantly, the results of the process are now generated in a fraction of the time providing significant decision support benefit. With the new fully integrated system, AccuQuest is now able to collect and centralize data necessary for critical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
“SINCE INTEGRATION, WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BETTER ANALYZE OUR MARKETING CAMPAIGNS AND MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON THE RESULTS.”
“Black Line was able to connect our systems so we have the most up-to-date marketing and sales information at our fingertips. Now we can see how actual calls received, sales opportunities booked, and revenues generated tie to specific media events which has helped increase our sales. Since integration, we have been able to better analyze our marketing campaigns and make decisions based on the results.”
Greg Wells, VP of Marketing, AccuQuest Hearing Centers