Elite Software Automation

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of an online healthcare platform company and registered clinic, Balance My Hormones. We operate in the UK and mainland Europe. We specialize in white glove hormone imbalance treatment. We provide expert support, coordination and management for the diagnosis and treatment of hormone issues. We take care of arranging our client's tests, have our own doctors to consult with them and write prescriptions, and we also take care of delivering their medicine to their doorstep.

I started the company in 2016 and we've been growing at a fast pace ever since. I have a team of 21 employees plus 8 hand-picked doctors who work for our clinic as subcontractors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Elite Software Automation?

Ever since I started my company the demand for our services has been growing quickly. Our content marketing channels are very popular with a continuously growing follower base, we have a very patient-focused, personalised approach, and rigorous medical practices, so we stand out from the competition. As a result, we were growing fast. With time, it became difficult to keep up with the demand as we kept expanding. We had very manual processing and a lot of administration, so with the growing demand we had more and more work to do. I had to keep hiring more people to do the job, and it was hard to stay effective and service our clients and convert our prospects well.

I wanted to reduce the administration and manual activities my team was doing, to help us keep expanding in a sustainable way. I thought automation would be a good way to achieve this.

I tried working with several IT providers over the course of a few years to help me with that, but I didn't get the results I was looking for. I had a custom Zoho solution put in place by one of these providers, but it was quite limited and not really what I needed. The systems I got didn't help me deliver the results I wanted. They did function and work well in some areas, but they were basically glorified record books. They didn't do much to automate the tasks we had, actually in some departments we ended up having to do more work, because we had to start updating the systems too.  It was like I got something to make one process a little bit better, but it made something else worse in another place.

By the time I engaged with Elite Software Automation,  I actually had 12 employees mostly just doing administrative tasks. 

We've had to update the systems manually to maintain records and click through the interfaces manually to progress a prospect or a client through the steps in the road. Then we also have a lot of documents that we need to send to our clients and vendors, and most of them were created manually or using clunky features in the system that are almost as much work as it would be to just not to use them.

My team was struggling with the volumes and they also started making mistakes frequently. It  became unsustainable.
Another issue was related to how we managed the instructions to our prospects and clients as we guided them through the steps to get a diagnosis or treatment. When the client or prospect has an action to take, we can only move on to the next steps if they complete these actions (e.g. blood draw for diagnostics) and do it correctly. We used to share the relevant information and instructions for all such steps in numerous emails and documents with them.
The problem was, that we had limited ways to know when an email was sent to whom, so it was very hard to follow up. As a result, we ended up relying on our clients to get back to us to arrange the subsequent steps. 

It wasn't as organized as it could have been. Our clients often ended up losing the emails, or not doing what they were supposed to do. I think some of our prospects and clients just completely fell out of the process like that and never got back in touch with us again. We should have followed up with each of them proactively, but with all the work we already had, it was practically impossible.We were looking to streamline all of this, make the business more efficient, less prone to mistakes, and easier to manage.

As a part of these overall challenges, when we started working with Elite Software Automation I had a few particularly pressing issues. One of them was managing our customer queries and the allocation of tasks between departments, because we weren't as speedy as I would have liked us to be.

Another area was getting more efficient at organizing blood tests and managing their results.
The third one was a recurring problem we had with getting the right delivery address for medication to the pharmacies we work with. 

The problem with managing our customer queries was that practically all of them came in via email and we couldn't keep track of them effectively. One of the biggest complaints from our customers was that we were slow to respond to their questions.

Clients would contact us on one of the employees' email addresses and nobody else could see it or pick it up. My team struggled to track these queries and to resolve them, so clients or prospects could easily be forgotten or lost if someone didn't answer an email on time. 

Similarly with our internal task assignments, we communicated in emails and notes under our client records. These just got missed or forgotten a lot, because my team didn't have an overview of everything they needed to do.
I also had no chance to really see or intervene in anything that was going on, unless I wanted to check every customer record one by one. So by the time something came to me, generally some damage was already done and I'm sure a lot of clients just fell out of our processing and I never even saw them. 

With the management of blood tests, the issue was that we had to do everything manually and didn't really have a process for how to do it best.

We organize blood tests for our clients as part of their diagnosis and treatment. Basically, we know their symptoms, we decide what their bloods should be tested for and we send them needles and tubes and other things in a blood collection kit. Then we help them arrange someone to draw their blood and get the samples to one of the laboratories we work with. At that time, there was one person taking care of all of this manually, and she organized the details with the clients on the phone and emails for every single test. 

To get the tests completed, we also have to send certain documents to the blood drawers and the labs that tell them what to do. We also have specific instructions that the clients need to follow based on what type of blood test they are doing and why. Back then, my employee dealing with this process had to create all of these documents either manually or using a clunky automation where she still had to click around the software and configure it every time to have the document created. Then she also had to write up the instructions to the client in an email every single time. It was a lot of work and a lot of wasted effort.

What's more, most of the details about these blood tests never even got entered into our systems so it was a nightmare to keep track of what actually happened, making it impossible to follow up on them. We just couldn't keep on top of it as well as I wanted. Some clients would call us saying their blood collection kits were wrong or asking when they can have their blood drawn, and some clients would simply drop out of the process and ask for their money back, it was a mess. 

And then, when we got the results back from the labs, we had to match them to the patient and the blood test records manually. We work with several labs from around the UK and Europe and they all send us blood test results in different formats. I had a full time person administering these results. First, he had to enter them manually into our CRM system, so that the doctors could see them and we could have the patient's medical history stored. Then he had to go to another system and upload the results there for the client to see. It took too much effort to make this happen. It was also easy to make a mistake in this set up, for example entering the wrong results for the wrong client. If that happened, the whole diagnosis and treatment plan could have been incorrectly set up as a result.  

Our doctors reviewing and comparing blood test results also had a clumsy interface that could only show parts of the results at a time. It was difficult to read and compare tests to each other over time, so our doctors often had to copy-paste the information to their own notes or write them down on a piece of paper to get the overview they needed. This was a serious waste of time for them, and it was also very risky - if they made a copying mistake, they could have decided on the wrong treatment plan and our clients wouldn't have gotten the results out of their treatment.

The third urgent issue was that quite frequently, in about 5% of our medication deliveries (of which they have more than 500 a month), the client's medication was sent to the wrong address. When we investigated with the pharmacies who are sending out these deliveries, it seemed that most of these were caused by us sending them a wrong address to deliver to. At the time we didn't understand why this was happening. Later it was found that we had our client addresses stored in several systems and fields in parallel, and some of these fields were even hidden.  When we changed the customer address in one place, it didn't get automatically changed in the others. So unless the employee remembered or even found all the fields where they needed to change it, we would keep sending the old address to the pharmacies. Obviously this wasn't very good for business, because our clients then didn't get their medication on time and we also had to pay to replace the lost deliveries.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Elite Software Automation started with analysing our business and the issues we were facing on a high level. They advised that the problems we had around managing customer queries and internal task allocation were something that could be addressed relatively quickly while bringing significant benefits. A "low hanging fruit" of sorts. That was a particularly pressing problem for me, so we went ahead with improving that area as Phase 1 of the project.
In Phase 1, as a first step, Elite Software Automation examined the specific details of our customer queries and task allocation and came up with a solution that fit with the rest of our operations.

They created department-specific email addresses for customers to use and they delivered a task management system that generates "tickets" for every customer query. The tickets are assigned automatically to the right department and we can manage the whole customer communication and resolution of the query form that ticket. We can add comments and record actions, so my team and I both have an overview of the status of the queries and their history.

So now, we don't lose or forget a customer query and me and my management team can also intervene when we see something is pending too long.

For internal communication, they helped us move away from using notes and emails and we now have tickets created for internal tasks as well when we hand something over from one department to another. They are created automatically based on roles and responsibilities that have been defined in the process, but the team can also move them manually to another department if there's another action that they need to do.
Now it's a lot easier to keep on top of what everybody needs to do when and I can see what's going on exactly with our clients. 

After this was completed, we started Phase 2 of the project. The scope was defined to prioritize the opportunities that could help my business where I needed it the most at the time. We focused on addressing some of the most manual and problematic processes in my most rapidly growing areas of the business. I wanted to reduce effort and avoid having to hire additional employees.

In this phase, Elite Software Automation helped us organize how we set up blood tests and they automated handling the test results. They also resolved our issue with sending wrong delivery addresses to pharmacies.

For setting up the blood tests, Elite Software Automation defined a detailed process for us and created a new interface for us in our Zoho CRM where we could track and execute the tasks. The system now guides my team through the steps of setting up and organizing blood tests, and it makes sure that they have put in all the information correctly. Based on minimal input it also automatically decides what to include in the blood collection kits for the clients.
We also have all the documents automatically generated that we need to share with the blood drawers and the laboratories. It also automatically generates tailored instructions for the patients on how and when they need to have the blood drawing performed depending on the tests being taken.

It saved about half of the time it used to take to set these blood tests up, we don't really have issues anymore with sending the wrong blood collection kits and we can follow up and see what's going on at any time.  Also, since now we have the process guided by the system, I can have anyone in the team do it. Before, I only had one person who knew how to do this inside-out, so when she was away, we kept running into difficulties and could only progress the tests more slowly - and this is now no longer the case.

In parallel with the organization of blood tests, Elite Software automation also helped us improve the way we handle the test results.

They developed a solution that allows labs to transmit the results using a worldwide industry standard, the HL7 format, via their servers (which also means we can bring onboard any new lab as I'm expanding my business as pretty much all labs are familiar with that format and use it frequently). Once we receive the results, they are now automatically uploaded into our system and can be viewed with an interface inside our Zoho CRM client profile. They also put in place a process to handle situations when there is a mismatch in the result with the client or blood test information.

The system highlights these cases to the team and it allows them to make corrections or take the necessary actions.
On top of it, they built a custom client portal and the results get uploaded there automatically as well, and it is very easy for clients to use. When clients get automatically notified about the new test results and then go to checks the results, they also have the option to book their consultation appointment for themselves right there, which is the next step in our process. It is a really good interface and process too, it encourages the clients to use this self-service option which further reduces the amount of work my teams need to do.

They also developed a specialized interface for our doctors so they can conveniently review and compare all the elements of blood tests and their history for the patient, so they don't need to bother with copying the results out anywhere any more.

With this solution we completely saved the time of the full time employee who used to manage the blood test results and I could reassign him to do other things for my business instead. With the rate this area of the business was growing in terms of volumes, we have avoided having to hire at least 2-3 more people as well.

The last big ticket item in Phase 2 was resolving the issue with us sending wrong addresses for delivery to the pharmacies. Elite Software Automation discovered the issue about multiple addresses not being synchronized across our systems and they rebuilt the set-up and improved it. Now as a result, patient address is automatically coordinated across all our systems if we update or change it in any one of them. 

Additionally, they created a new option for our clients to update their address online using their self-service portal, so when they use that my team doesn't even have to get involved at all. 

Even with all these great improvements, some of my original, larger challenges haven't been addressed yet, and that is what we are doing in Phase 3 of this project.
Phase 3 will effectively restructure and reorganize our business operations from start to finish, including the implementation of a better overall system solution.

Elite Software Automation did an all encompassing, thorough assessment of my complete business operations, which was the first step of phase 3. It gave us a detailed documentation about everything that goes on in the business, for example the objectives and the organization, as well as the detailed processes we use to accomplish deliverables. I liked this a lot, because I can use it to create SOPs and training materials for the staff and management. 
In this evaluation, they also provided a list of opportunities and recommended improvements. 

They identified and detailed out all the issues, such as not having our teams properly guided through every step of the process, or that we still have some unstructured communication with clients and vendors. They also detailed out all the manual processes and document creation we still have around managing prescriptions and treatments, plus the data entry we're doing in the old parts of the systems that weren't touched in Phases 1 and 2. They recommended improvements for all of them in a way that will practically transform my whole operations.

They also identified larger business opportunities, for example how we can better manage the ongoing treatment plans, mandatory regular check-ups, and how we can restructure our complete payment process to move away from manual invoicing and make it more client- and service-focused.

We discussed those issues and recommendations, and have now agreed on the scope of Phase 3. It is currently in progress, but when it's completed it will give an end to end online experience to our customers with a lot more self-service options. It will also restructure our systems solution and introduce further automations to remove all the manual data entry and document creation we still have in place. We will also go ahead with restructuring our payment process and ongoing treatment management. 

This will allow us to focus on proactive custom engagement and management a lot more, all the while I should be able to continue to grow my business with the existing number of people.

In addition, resolving some of the issues we're addressing in Phase 3 is more pressing than others. I asked Elite Software Automation for some immediate help with those in April. They were very flexible and came up with temporary solutions that fix them quickly.  Some of the solutions they already delivered within a few weeks of starting, and the others are coming in May.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is Mykola, the owner of Elite Software Automation. I manage the project agreement and timelines with him, and I contact him when I want to discuss something about the project overall.

Throughout the phases, there have been numerous meetings where Elite Software Automation gathers information, reviews their findings with us, or we discuss the implementation. These are normally led by a Lead Business Analyst and other Business Analyst associates who are assigned to our project.

I also know that they have a team of technical experts building all the systems in the background. I did not normally interact with them but I have encountered them once when diagnosing a technical issue that later turned out to be my browser's strict ad blocker blocking one of their features.

How did you come to work with Elite Software Automation?

I came across Elite Software Automation through a Google search. I reached out to them and got set up for an initial consulting session with Mykola, the business owner. I told him about our manual processes, clumsy system, and the previous bad experiences that we had with systems delivered to us, and that even though they functioned, they didn't deliver the results I expected.

It seemed like he understood what I was talking about quite quickly, and he said their own processes are designed exactly to avoid situations like that. He told me they would analyse my business operations thoroughly and understand my objectives first before going into developing a technical solution. He said that he even has guarantees in his contracts that ensure we get the business results we are looking for. 

It seemed a bit too good to be true at the time, but I decided to go with it and it has definitely turned out great.  They really took responsibility and gave me solutions that improved the way my business operates, helped me decrease my costs and continue to expand in a much more sustainable way.

How much have you invested with them?

So far I have invested about $95,000.

• Initial Assessment and Phase 1 together was about about $10,000. 
• Phase 2 was about $45,000
• Phase 3 is $85,000 total, of which $40,000 have been deposited and the remaining amount will be paid between now and the completion of this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Elite Software Automation in November 2020. They first addressed my query and task management processes, which was Phase 1 of this project and was completed in January 2021. 

Phase 2 was started shortly after and included three major improvements - setting up blood tests, handling blood test results, and correcting the address management issue my previous system had. It was completed in October 2021. We started Phase 3 in March 2022. So far, Elite Software Automation completed a detailed analysis and provided an improvement plan, which we used to finalize the scope in April.

Now we are in the development phase. The several short term fixes have been delivered already or will be in mid May 2022. The entire Phase 3 project is expected to be completed in Autumn 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

After Phase 1, my customer complaints regarding how fast we are to handle their queries have decreased at least by half. It has helped us keep customers more engaged and to retain more of them.

After Phase 2, we could completely repurpose a full time employee and we reduced the work performed by another one to half of what it was. We also avoided having to hire any more people for these jobs as our business continues growing.  We also eliminated the issue of requesting deliveries to wrong customer addresses (provided that the customer gave us the right address), which means we saved the extra cost of replacing lost deliveries and medication on about 5% of my deliveries. It also impacted our customer's experience positively and there are a lot fewer complaints about deliveries.

With Phase 3, I'm expecting that with their solution I will be able to get ahead of the competition with a much better digital platform experience for my clients that will help me grow my business further.  I will also be able to reduce the admin team headcount. As the business expands, I should have to hire a lot fewer extra people, and I expect large majority of those to come into expert roles, not administration.

Bottom line is, I’ve worked with other IT providers that tried to help me, but couldn't to the extent I needed it. Those other systems helped a bit in one place and messed things up in another, so overall they didn't have a positive effect on my business. Working with Elite Software Automation was very different. They gave me well thought-out solutions that do exactly what they need to and impact my business positively overall.

How did Elite Software Automation perform from a project management standpoint?

Elite Software Automation has a very specific, very thorough process. They measure twice and cut once.  They analysed my business operations in great detail, understood what exactly the business needs were and how the issues can be improved across the whole of my business. They drew up the complete view of what my processes and tasks would look like after implementation and we talked through them in great detail to make sure we were on the same page. They then moved on to system design and development, and when the solution was implemented, it was complete and ready to use.

When they were gathering information for the analysis, they had a lot of conversations with me and my team members, and while it took time investment both from me and my teams to give them all the information they needed, I think it has proven to be worth it.  Also, their team moved the process along efficiently and they kept me involved and updated throughout.

Additionally, they’re very fair — other providers nickel and dime clients with every little change, but Elite Software Automation makes sure everything related to the business operations in scope is included up front and if they do miss something they take full responsibility for it. But in my experience, they map everything out very well and don't miss important details. 

The team has been also very reasonable with timelines. In phases 1 and 2 of the project, they produced the products pretty quickly after analysing everything, and even now in Phase 3 they gave me several temporary solutions in a few weeks to fix the urgent problems quickly. 

Once we launched the software, we didn't need any big modifications, just a couple of small fixes here and there. Elite Software Automation was also quick with those fixes and we got through the whole implementation process in a couple of weeks. They even followed up and checked how we were using the solution in real life. They found a few small details they thought could work better and took it upon themselves to improve those as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by how thorough Elite Software Automation is, in that they think of every little detail the solution needs to address. What they deliver really improves the way I can run my business. I reduced my costs and can serve my customers better. They provide quality solutions that do what they say on the tin and more than that at times.
The solutions they developed are very easy to use and they look great, much more user-friendly than other systems I've seen in my line of business and they serve my business objectives perfectly.

I'm also impressed by their quality of service. I continuously feel like they care about my business and my success, and they take responsibility for the goals we set. I also like how they were flexible towards my situation and were always willing to figure out something in the short term even if a proper long term solution to my problem would take time to make.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there isn’t anything they need to do differently; everything has happened as it’s supposed to.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My main advice is to ensure your employees are following the new processes and that your management checks to make sure they do it correctly. 

The solution you get will enable you to have the insight, and Elite Software Automation also comes in and checks if everything works as expected, but to get the most out of your new solution as fast as possible, you need to be proactive about getting things done that you control on your end.

For example, we had a manual process of receiving blood test results that was automated in this project. The blood test results can have some faulty or failed values for several reasons such as blood sample getting too aged before it gets to the lab. Sometimes, this prevents us from using the test results and the client has to repeat the blood test. To make a decision on this, you need to be an expert and analyse the situation, so it has to be done manually. Previously this was manually flagged up during manual re-entry and personally notified by the individual doing the manual inputting.

In the new solution, results are processed automatically and only the ones that need to be checked are highlighted to my team automatically via a system notification. However as it turned out, my team initially was not consistently acting on these tasks to analyse those results. This was eventually noticed by Elite Software Automation and action has been taken to rectify this, but I do wish I was more proactive with my team on setting and enforcing the expectation that these tasks need to be completed promptly as this would have resulted in my business achieving results from the project faster.

Another piece of advice I would give is to make sure your teams are available to talk to Elite Software Automation. When they are doing the analysis of your business and processes, they will need to talk to your team members quite a lot - if they are available and cooperative, it can speed up the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Buffer Insurance, an insurance agency specializing in employer benefits and health insurance for seniors. We also have a large team of independent agents across multiple states that we have trained to sell health & life insurance products to individuals, with a total of 11 full-time and 20 part-time individuals involved in the business. We believe that we make a meaningful impact on people's lives and deliver on that with a high standard of personal service that we enforce. I founded the company in 2018 and have grown and developed it extensively over the past 4 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Elite Software Automation?

When I first started the company, we did not have an organized method to track our prospects, where they were at in our prospect funnel, policy activation or policy renewal processes. We also did not have a proper way to maintain client records and policy information. 

As a result, when we grew it became difficult to keep on top of what had to be done at each point for every prospect, meaning we could completely miss to take some actions.

Additionally, we had no easy way to know when to follow up with existing clients to renew their insurance policies or offer them upgrades, and we probably lost renewal opportunities to competitors because of this.

We also had no structure for our sales team to collect a standardized set of data for each client in a compliant way 100% of the time. We had serious delays and lots of back-and-forth with clients and insurance providers because of missing data.

All of this impacted our chances to close a deal and retain our clients negatively, and resulted in a loss of potential revenue.

We also particularly suffered with the process of filling out and obtaining signature on a legally mandatory document called the Scope of Appointment - we had to manually populate it, have a hard copy signed and then scanned to be uploaded for storage, while the hard copy with the original signature also had to be stored. This was an extremely time consuming process and it was very hard to track and ensure it was completed for all clients.

Over the years as we continued to grow, having clients provide us with the necessary information, and sign and return paperwork to us also became particularly challenging. We use e-mails and phone calls to communicate with them.
As we gained more and more prospects and clients, and navigating between hundreds of these e-mails, attachments and call notes became unmanageable. We often have to go back to people repeatedly with the same questions as information gets missed or misplaced.

We also communicate with all of our general agency and insurance provider partners in e-mails and calls, and managing the collection and sharing of information between them and our clients is manual.
This used to work initially, but as we have been growing with the number of opportunities we manage going up it was becoming increasingly unsustainable. There is wasted effort in the back-and-forth and it is very prone to errors at this size. Errors lead to delays which we can't afford as the market is very competitive. 

Plus a lot of the data we work with is highly confidential, so sharing it with the wrong person could have legal consequences, not to mention the impression it makes on our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Elite Software Automation is helping us develop business processes and automated systems to help our team stay organized and allow our clients to consistently receive a 1st-class experience. They work with us to define business objectives and the best ways to set up our operations, and develop and implement our system and automations.  

At the start of the project, we had a high-level business analysis, where their team gathered details about our business, mapped our processes on a high level and helped identify improvements. We agreed on the scope of what ended up being Phase 1 of our project based our needs and budget at the time.  After a successful Phase 1, as my business evolved and grew, further opportunities have been identified and I continued working with them on a Phase 2, and we started a Phase 3 not so long ago.

Phase 1 of the project was completed in August 2020. In this phase, they organized our sales, information gathering, enrollment and renewal processes and developed a custom Zoho solution for us to manage moving prospects and clients through these steps. To implement the change, they also transferred our existing data from our old Salesforce instance to this new custom Zoho solution.

In the system, we can see very clearly at any time where a prospect or a client is in the process. Everyone also has a personal dashboard that shows what exactly they need to do and when, so we don't forget about a prospect any more and always know what to do next for whom.

As we go through sales, information gathering and policy activation with our clients, the system validates if we have entered the necessary information before moving to a next stage.  This way, we always know what questions to ask and we don't have to go back to them repeatedly about the same things. We also have this information available to us in a structured way so we can easily share it with the  right insurance provider or general agency for the right opportunity. We can avoid making mistakes there and can complete the quotes and policy activations much faster.
They also organized our data into separate segments of "Opportunities" for prospective clients and "Policies" of existing clients. This way we can treat new prospects and active clients separately which makes it a lot easier for us to handle and navigate. 

What is more, the system automatically creates a new Opportunity for us to pick up when it is time to offer a renewal to any of our clients - this way we can always contact our clients in time to lock in a renewal deal with them before they start looking around elsewhere and we have much better retention rates.
Both in the Opportunities and the Policies, we have all the relevant information we need about our prospective and existing clients. Their services and other details are recorded in a structured and conveniently organized way for us to use. 

In Phase 2 of the project, Elite Software Automation helped solve what has become a major issue with the cumbersome process of filling out and signing the Scope of Appointment document. This is a document that potential Medicare beneficiaries and Insurance Agents are legally required to sign. It declares what products the agent will talk about during the sales appointment and ensures that no other offers are made or discussed.

They assessed the situation and gave us a custom solution that automatically generates the electronic Scope of Appointment document. We can generate the document directly from our Zoho CRM, and the information we already have in the system is populated into the form automatically. The rest we can add on a very convenient interface they created for us and seamlessly embedded inside of our Zoho platform.

Once we finalized the document, the system sends it out automatically for digital signature. They also added an in-person signature option so that our agents can generate and have the document signed in minutes at the beginning of a live consultation with a prospect.

Then we have all the signed documents stored electronically in a legally compliant way.

This solution saved us a huge amount of time and headache, and since this has been made part of the process in the system, we can always be 100% certain we are compliant with the legal requirements.

In December 2021, we initiated Phase 3. My business has significantly grown and I'm planning to expand it even further.  With the growth new challenges came up in our operations and I also had greater ability to invest in further opportunities to make it more efficient and make our customer service better.

In Phase 3, Elite Software Automation is creating a platform that should automate almost every administrative, manual activity in our employer benefits line of business. I expect that this will free up a lot of time in my organization that we can spend focusing on generating new leads and advising our prospects and clients on the best possible solutions for them.

This phase started with an extensive analysis of our employer benefits business, down to the lowest level of detail of everything we do. Elite Software Automation prepared a very clean and thorough documentation of it that I really like, because I can use it as a reference point to check things and it's useful if I want to explain our work to someone new. 
They made their recommendations for what we could improve and how, and we reviewed and discussed these extensively to finalize the Phase 3 scope.

I expect that with the solution my business customers will have a much better, digital experience and we will be able to collect from them all the necessary information and documents in a much more organized way online, including presenting them with quotes and collecting all of their signatures digitally.

We also agreed that Phase 3 will address the difficulties of my communication and administration with general agencies and insurance providers. Automations will be introduced and there will be a better, structured way to manage all the documents and forms I share with them. 

By the end of this phase my team should have significantly less manual work to do and should move away from using e-mails and phone calls as our primary channels of communication.

While we have completed the business analysis phase of this major upgrade, we are now moving into the technology development phase and our outlook is positive.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with Mykola, the business owner, on the terms and direction of our relationship. In each phase, he's worked with us through the initial discussions about our business needs, and basically managed the overall project, so it's very straightforward.

When we discuss and define scope details he also involves the Lead Business Analyst assigned to our project. During the business analysis, development and implementation stages, we primarily work with the assigned Lead Business Analyst and an Associate Business Analyst. Additionally, I know they have a large team of technical design experts, software engineers, and quality assurance testers who are working on our project behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Elite Software Automation?

I was referred to Elite Software Automation by a business associate.

We went through the discovery process with a few other companies as well, but in the end I felt the most comfortable moving forward with Elite Software Automation. 

At first I was hesitant about their approach to start with a full business analysis in order to get a final proposal for the solutions and development. However, their focus on really understanding our business and our needs was apparent. They very thoroughly assessed my business operations, going to great lengths to understand every single detail. Because of how thorough they were, it became evident to me that they genuinely wanted to make sure that they will actually figure out fully what my problems are and aimed to provide me with workable solutions that will bring actual results for my business - and I did not get that sense from other providers who just appeared to want to sell me some solutions and get me signed up on some big contract without really understanding what my situation was in proper depth.

What was also very important to me, is that they offer guarantees to deliver our business goals, including correcting anything that doesn't function as expected if they didn't get it right, and even an outrageous money back offer if I am not satisfied and wanted to return my solution at the end of the project.  This was very reassuring and showed to me that they meant business.

I'm very happy I made the decision to work with them, because the results I've been getting have been definitely worth it.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent around $75,000. This was broken into various phases for each segment of the projects:

• Phase 1: $25,000
• Phase 2, which included the digital signature application and some minor changes to our existing solution to keep up with changes in my business was $15,000.
• Phase 3, which is the largest phase, cost an initial payment of $35,000 and after completion will be another $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I reached out to Elite Software Automation in March 2020. Based on my needs at the time we defined a scope for our engagement that ended up being Phase 1 of the overall project. We finished Phase 1 in August 2020. 
Then we had a second phase, where one major automation was completed. I continued working with Elite Software Automation on some minor changes that was required as my business was growing and some products changed. This Phase 2 was closed in December 2021. 

Now our current phase is ongoing, Phase 3. It will be a major change to my processes and systems across my entire business. For this phase, we completed the business process evaluation in March of 2022 and are now in the development phase, expecting completion in mid-to-late Summer 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

After Phase 1, turning our prospects into clients has become much simpler and faster. I can keep on top of what's going on in the business across all of the prospects and clients and we don't accidentally lose prospects any more. We get reminders for missed to-dos, and we can see and manage all of our outstanding tasks in a single place, so there are significantly less delays and our clients get served a lot quicker.

We can also proactively approach all my clients for renewals when it's time so our retention rates got much better.
The coordination of sales and account management has also become much smoother and I can work with my Account Manager a lot faster. 

Since we also have all information stored and recorded in one place, we don't lose information and don't struggle to find the answers to a question from a client or insurance provider.

After Phase 2, the digital signature feature saved us about 15 minutes per prospect, which during our busiest period of the last quarter of the year saved us just under 40 hours worth of work in total for each full time sales agent. As our business grows, I know this time savings will also grow. 

In this third phase, we’re focusing on the employer benefits side of my business. So far, the Business Model Evaluation has been completed and I received a thorough analysis of our current processes and the proposed improvements. The documentation itself is valuable for me as a reference point, and it was very detailed and accurate, high quality work. It preserved a lot of detailed knowledge of my business operations and processes, and it also pinpointed my issues perfectly.

I am happy with the automation solutions that we have upcoming at Phase 3 completion, I think it will resolve the issues and inefficiencies I am facing now. With the automations and the digital client journey I expect to significantly decrease the effort to move clients down the process and we should have much less errors and mistakes.
Once this phase is ready, it will position us as a 1st-class benefit's agency with leading technology.

How did Elite Software Automation perform from a project management standpoint?

I would say Elite Software Automation's approach focuses on accuracy and on delivering results the most efficient way possible. 

They start with a detailed analysis of our business, the objectives and the ways of working in the company. Then they work with me to agree the objectives of our project, set expectations and agree the scope of the improvements, which they also document and design very thoroughly and validate with us. 

This all requires me and my team to invest time into working through these steps. Only once everything has been designed and validated they develop the actual system and automations.

The first time we went through this process with them I was a little nervous about it - it felt like a lot of work upfront for results I couldn't be sure would be worth it. However, during this process they share the documentation they create so I saw the rigor and quality of those outputs which helped reassure me.

In the end, it has proven to be an extremely efficient approach that has made implementation fast and easy in our business. From what I've heard and was afraid of from other business owners, IT project implementations can take months with several revisions and corrections to be made to the initial solution. But we didn't have any of that here, we didn't need any big corrections or changes in what they created for us, and my team could start using the systems right away with very minimal training. Even with continued use we only had to ask for a couple of small changes and they completed those very quickly.  

Ultimately, when we receive what they deliver it really works, improves our day-to-day operations and brings me business results.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Elite Software Automation’s work is very intentional and focused. They took our company's process development and decision-making very seriously and put a lot of effort into giving us not only a system, but also an efficient way to serve our clients better and conduct our day-to-day business operation, improving which seems to be their ultimate objective. 

I am impressed by how much difference it makes that Elite Software Automation focuses on the overall results their work delivers across the whole of my business. The solutions they gave us worked right away as expected and we could hit the ground running with them. We didn't need to make big changes or any corrections, the implementation was quick and smooth and I could start seeing results almost immediately. The intuitiveness of the technology they've developed is also impressive, we understood it right away and didn't need lengthy trainings or user guides. 
The outcomes we've experienced are great and we are looking forward to completing our Phase 3 and future improvements and projects with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We are happy with the team we have worked with and especially with the results we've been receiving.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared to discuss your vision for your company and it's current business processes—don't sugar coat the situation and talk about the problems being faced. I believe being proactive with sharing as much information as possible on our industry, prospects, clients, products and plans really helped their team to jump into action.

Also be ready to spend time with their team talking about your current situation and processes a lot - they ask great questions and proactively manage everything that needs to be analyzed and done, so you don't need to prepare, but be sure that you and your team share the business information and documents they ask for to help them progress as expected. Initially, this may seem a little daunting, but I believe this is what helps them understand exactly what solutions to develop so they can make sure they will work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Bryant Heating & Air Conditioning Inc is a service and contracting company for heating and air conditioning. In my role, I’m in charge of install coordination and HR.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 100 CRM?

We previously used an old database program to store our customer information, using the data to fill out forms for our installers. However, the database became unstable and wasn’t compatible with new operating systems, so we needed resources to migrate us to a Zoho CRM.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

100 CRM reformatted all of our existing customer data into a Zoho CRM before creating new forms. The forms pull information from the customer database into fields before we print them.

What is the team composition?

They assigned a single point of contact.

How did you come to work with 100 CRM?

I found them as a recommended vendor while researching Zoho.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent just under $1,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from July–October 2018. It took so long because summers are busy for us, so I didn’t have time to give much input.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The new CRM is easy to navigate. I appreciate that it works similarly to our old one because we were used to that system.

How did 100 CRM perform from a project management standpoint?

They kept to schedule and were there when we needed them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They delivered as promised, and I’m pleased with their solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don't think so. I got exactly what I wanted.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear and definite about what you’re looking for. Once they understand what you want, they’ll take care of it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a real estate company in Harlem, New York that works with sellers in Upper Manhattan. I am the executive assistant to the owner of the brokerage and an agent with the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 100 CRM?

We use Zoho as our CRM system. We were working with another third-party that made some changes from standard Zoho to Zoho One but did it incorrectly and messed up several of our databases. We needed assistance with our modules and necessary fixes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We use RingCentral as our phone system. They did some research and quickly assembled a detailed scope of work within 24 hours. We ran into flaws with the system’s capacity and caller ID features but they came up with appropriate workarounds.

Even with system issues, they still found solutions to integrate with our Zoho CRM. Overall, the functionality of our CRM system is still more manual than I would like it to be. We’re discussing options to improve automation and decrease the amount of time I spend managing the system.

What is the team composition?

Their owner is my only contact.

How did you come to work with 100 CRM?

I met them at Zoholica, a Zohouser confernece in Texas. We discussed a few items and they understood my dilemma and what I hoped to accomplish. They looked at my database and CRM system and offered to work with us. They were knowledgeable and came up with a plan that made sense for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $1,300–$1,400 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May–June 2018. We’re currently working out another scope of work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The quality of their work so far is great. They pinpoint each issue and send a fantastic project summary email that describes the solutions we discuss over the phone and the paths they’ll take to reach them. Examples include ranking our contacts in RingCentral and coming up with solutions to the contact cap. The system still needs a lot of work, but they’re well-versed in it and we’re hopeful to modify it to fit our needs in the future.

How did 100 CRM perform from a project management standpoint?

They summarize all of our conversations via email and open up tickets as needed. They’re open and available to talk and are willing to schedule phone meetings. We have a screensharing service that we use during short conference calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re good at following up. I don’t have to chase them; they come to me. They call and check in regularly to give us updates and set future plans. They streamline the whole process. It’s also great to work directly with their owner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have several email addresses for them. It would be more helpful to have one central address to contact. I know they’re in the process of solidifying the company, so I assume that will fall into place soon.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a one-on-one, in-person conversation with them. They will come up with solutions to issues and are committed to research. Meeting with them will help give you a better idea of their capabilities and their knowledge.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a broker at Acquisto Real Estate, a family-owned residential real estate sales company. We've been in business since 2001 and we sell close to 200 homes each year in Frisco, Texas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 100 CRM?

I was overseeing some of our IT, but, as the company grew, I needed to free up some of my time to focus more on the business. I was looking for a vendor that could provide full-time technical support and build a web-based Zoho app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

100 CRM built a web-based app within the Zoho One Suite and provides ongoing support and maintenance. As developers with access to the Zoho One platform roadmap, their team provides insight and suggestions on updating the app as needed. They've fully integrated the Zoho CRM into the platform, including mail, books, and meetings, along with custom applications using Zoho Creator.

They also provide insider information regarding Zoho One technology, so we know what we can expect in future versions of the software. 100 CRM basically acts as our CTO and full-time programmer, handling technical issues as they arise.

What is the team composition?

We have one main point of contact.

How did you come to work with 100 CRM?

I met them at the Zoho Convention in Austin and was impressed with their level of expertise.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $5,000 per month on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since June 2018 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

100 CRM continues to hit our goals and deadlines. We've been very impressed by the quality of their work, helping us create custom applications and streamlining processes much better than we previously were able to. They've successfully worked through complicated systems to create a user-friendly, clean web application that's highly functional with minimal bugs or issues.

How did 100 CRM perform from a project management standpoint?

They're good about prioritizing tasks as they're submitted through a ticketing system, touching base with us a couple times a week through a screen sharing meeting.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand the industry and are able to translate our technical needs into actionable items, providing thoughtful solutions and recommendations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They continue to evolve their ticketing system, letting us know how long each task is expected to take, so that's helping us manage expectations better. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They came to meet us in person for one of our big company social events, which was a great experience. I highly recommend that other customers invite one of their team members to spend some time on location, so they can get a better understanding of your needs, culture, and challenges.