TaskCentre

Elastic Email is a powerful email platform that can help improve email marketing campaigns by easily creating newsletters and sending email more efficiently. However, it still needs people to create or update marketing lists, process unsubscribes in a CRM system and create and send campaign reports for analysis. This takes time, is error prone and is an unnecessary employee cost. By integrating Elastic Email with CRM systems it is possible to remove the costly administration from email marketing.

Synchronising marketing lists and unsubscribes

Contact lists are a vital component of marketing campaigns and therefore need to be managed and updated on a regular basis. If your business uses a CRM system to collate and manage these contact lists then updating these manually in Elastic Email will be a costly, employee intensive process.

TaskCentre can automatically synchronise your marketing lists between Elastic Email and your CRM system by a scheduled or database event. It will also write back all your campaign unsubscribes and hard bounces to your CRM system that have been encountered by Elastic Email.

Full email marketing automation to business rules

From time to time you might need to run ‘unplanned’ email campaigns. Factors such as slow moving stock or pressures to cross sell/up sell all mean more email campaigns need to be processed by the marketing team. Yet, finding the time to run these unplanned campaigns can be difficult.

TaskCentre can automatically create and send Elastic Email campaigns based on data events you define e.g. slow moving stock. It will also update your CRM application with the results.

Automating campaign report distribution

Once an email campaign has been sent you will probably need to generate a report detailing the open and click through results. This report will then be required by the sales team to update the CRM system and set up follow-up activities. More administration for you and your company to absorb.

TaskCentre can automatically create and distribute open and click through reports and dynamically update CRM systems. Removing this administration allows your sales team to focus on the primary objective of sales.

The business benefits of integrating Elastic Email with your CRM solution include:

Removal of time consuming bi-directional data entry

Eradication of the risk of sending inappropriate communications to contacts whose statuses have changed in one application (CRM) but not your other systems (Elastic Email).

Improvement in employee productivity

ParcelBroker provides an online shipping system for any business user that has a shipping requirement as well as the added functionality to integrate a live shipping cost calculator into any eCommerce platform.

Many businesses will want to push and pull order and shipping data between ParcelBroker and an accounting, CRM or ERP system in order to streamline the sales and delivery process and eliminate the repetitive, manual process of data inputting.

Real Time Delivery Quotes

TaskCentre can automatically pull a wide range of data from ParcelBroker such as a list of shipping rates for parcels and pallets depending on the weight/size of parcel, collection point and the destination postcode/country. The results can be ordered from the cheapest delivery option to other specialist delivery services that are available. VAT information can also be retrieved.

Some carriers have a surcharge for remote areas as well as customs clearance. This data can be extracted from the ParcelBroker system and used to update accounting, CRM and ERP systems. It will also indicate whether the carrier/country requires any customs paperwork.

Parcel and Pallet Booking

TaskCentre can use ParcelBroker’s API to make bookings and collection requests on the ParcelBroker system. TaskCentre can automate the entire delivery process by pushing the sales order data from a CRM or ERP system, such as collection point, delivery address and size of parcel, whether single shipments, multi-parcel bookings or pallet collections, into the ParcelBroker system.

Monitoring and Managing Data

Customer relationship management is essential for eCommerce. Therefore, having the most-up-to-date information available in order to inform customers of delivery statuses is paramount. TaskCentre can automatically retrieve information such as which courier service is collecting the package, as well as the schedule for the actual delivery. Data monitoring can also be applied to flag up any incorrect or missing parcel data, or missing address data information.

The data generated by the live shipping cost calculator, which can be integrated into an eCommerce platform and presented to the buyer at point of sale, can also be utilised to study trends and regular patterns.

What are the commercial benefits that can be achieved by integrating ParcelBroker with business systems?

Reduce operational costs

Remove data entry errors

Reduce dispatch to fulfilment times

Eradicate employee data processing

Improve customer relationship management

West Lancashire Borough Council’s (West Lancs) Housing and Inclusion Service Team is responsible for housing and policy strategy, housing options, estate management/regeneration, rents and money advice, sheltered housing, property management, asset management, caretaking and gardening.

As with many councils and social housing teams, providing up-to-date, modern services to customers whilst trying to reduce costs and resources has become a major challenge. Much of this revolves around the handling and management of data. A task that, if done manually, can be time-consuming, costly and restrictive. West Lancs wanted to streamline many of these processes and explore new services that would benefit the entire Services team.

“As an industry, we have to use service automation if we want to save money and save resources,” explained Craig Round, Project Manager, Services Development Team, West Lancs. “We might not be saving cashable money for some of the things we do but we are releasing the resources to be directed to the right areas. For me that’s going to help organisations and it’s going to help them deliver the key milestones that they need to deliver.”

The Pain of Manual Monitoring and Communication

Prior to the deployment of TaskCentre with Aareon QL (a dedicated housing management system), many processes were being performed manually, such as checking debit statuses at the weekend, dealing with asbestos enquiries, generating and distributing surveys and reports as well as trying to adapt to the changes introduced to the benefits system – notably the introduction of Universal Credit – and the subsequent issue of having to chase payments.

With many separate services and systems, such as its HomeFinder service, the introduction of a new CRM system and a host of new applications in the pipeline, the team also required a solution that would be able to integrate everything easily.

Automating Processes with TaskCentre

Using TaskCentre, in conjunction with Aareon QL, the Council has been able to automate many of its processes, enabling it to resolve certain pain points and explore new projects. Some of the issues and services that it has managed to address with TaskCentre include:

Universal Credit – TaskCentre has automated the communication process including SMS, emails and letter generation used for updating records and chasing payment.

Asbestos Register – TaskCentre automates access and queries to its Asbestos Register contained within Aareon QL, as well as the distribution of documents and ability to provide an audit trail.

Debit Run – TaskCentre monitors Aareon QL and notifies about debit irregularities.

Cash Flow – TaskCentre monitors state of cash flow in Aareon QL and emails relevant people about the value of the posting each night.

On-Demand Services – TaskCentre automates the processing of SMS and email queries.

Surveys – TaskCentre deployed to integrate CRM system with Survey Monkey as well as automate SMS survey campaigns.

TaskCentre is also being utilised in current development projects including a tenant self-serve app, HomeFinder service as well as the automation of social media management.

“Rather than spend a lot of money with third parties we want to do everything ourselves as much as we possibly can. TaskCentre allows us to do that. There’s so much we are going to exploit,” said Craig Round. “For me it is very easy to use. The drag and drop environment provides all the elements required and it’s a product which flows. Although there is some real complex stuff going into some tasks – Universal Credit for example – it didn’t actually take that long to create. Because of the structure of TaskCentre there is a lot of things that you can replicate – making similar tasks do different jobs.”

“We are moving forward now at a great pace. We’ve got lots of things going on. For our organisation it’s going to free a lot of officer time, but it’s also going to save a lot of expensive integration – reducing the costs that we usually pay to third parties. We are also going to get tailored resources to do what we actually want rather than this product is the only thing available.”

Evo-ERP is a powerful ERP system for managing accounts, inventory that is optimised for manufacturing organisations. It includes a wide-range of preconfigured programs for importing data. However, due to the system’s architecture, data residing outside of the system needs to be imported using ASCII files, either comma delimited or fixed length.

TaskCentre can easily integrate Evo-ERP with other applications including eCommerce (such as WooCommerce) or payment systems. Utilising TaskCentre’s integration and workflow capabilities it is possible to automate the pulling down of orders and payments, format them as CSV files and then import them into Evo-ERP. This eradicates a large amount of manual processing.

Automating the management of data

TaskCentre can automate the importation and management of a wide-range of data existing in other systems (CRM, warehouse management etc.), such as customer data, vendor information, Bills of Material, routings, and GL chart of accounts.

Additionally, TaskCentre can import a wide-range of manufacturing data contained within external collection systems by utilising Evo-ERP’s Import Material Issues and Import Work Order Receipt programs. These can be used to import the issuance of components to work orders and the receipt of finished production to stock.

Updating stock levels in eCommerce systems

TaskCentre can easily update stock level data in eCommerce sites (such as WooCommerce) from Evo-ERP and vice versa. TaskCentre will perform a database query (ODBC) within Evo-ERP, convert the record set into an XML file and then automatically upload the data to the eCommerce site via the TaskCentre web connector. This can be set up to run automatically on a pre-determined schedule or performed manually.

What are the common commercial benefits achieved through synchronising Evo-ERP with business software?

Eradicate repetitive bi-directional data entry

Remove the risk of costly errors

Improve the visibility of critical data

Effective inventory management control can often be the difference between being able to fulfil an order or not. For the majority of businesses, inventory is a major asset, but if inventory is mismanaged it can create endless problems such as inconsistent high or low stock levels, miscommunication between warehouses and delays in fulfilment.

It’s important to protect your business from poor inventory management. Unfortunately, many wholesalers rely on employees to manually monitor and react to changes in inventory. This approach exposes your business to errors and increases risk that can impact your reputation. Isn’t it about time you received the information you need when you need it?

Optimising the management of warehouse operations through process automation and application integration can provide businesses with a competitive advantage. It reduces running costs, improves employee productivity and increases the accuracy of critical information. 

To be a successful wholesale distributor, regardless of the market or product line, it is imperative that critical information is provided to the main decision makers at the right time. Successful businesses will utilise all the critical data at their disposal to make informed business decisions, which can lead to better planning, tighter cost control and increased product margins.

This data needs to be presented in an easily accessible and understandable format so that the decisions can be made quickly. Report generation is therefore an essential activity to ensure decision makers have the best information available to be able to monitor, analyse and improve company performance.

In the wholesale industry there are a few key areas that businesses should focus on to achieve this. In order to be successful, businesses should regularly generate and distribute reports that provide invaluable insight into:

Stock Levels

Sales

Forecasting and Planning

Customer Activity

Credit Risk

Purchase Order Processing

In addition to business reporting, a wide-range of documents are also required to assist with many other functions and the smooth running of the organisation. This documentation can take many forms such as welcome packs, contract renewals, order confirmations or delivery notes.

Automating Report and Document Production

In order to generate these reports and documents businesses have had to invest heavily in database systems and reporting tools, as well as commit resources to their production. The issue that arises from this, regardless of the nature of the documentation or report created, is the amount of time it takes employees to manually create and distribute them. It can be a repetitive process, susceptible to errors and ultimately a costly activity.

A solution to this problem is to introduce automation. With an automated solution in place, it is a lot easier and quicker to produce the documents and reports required, and they can be produced on a scheduled or event-driven basis. 

Nottingham Forest Football Club has successfully integrated its eCommerce and financial systems using TaskCentre, as well as automated its order fulfilment processes to improve customer service and reduce costs.

Agile CRM is an affordable, simple-to-use, yet feature-packed customer relationship management (CRM) SaaS product that enables small businesses to manage the full sales and marketing mix in one platform. In addition to next-gen ‘traditional’ CRM tools such as 360-degree contact management and lead scoring, Agile offers robust marketing automation, web engagement, payments and reports. 

 Agile CRM offers a wide-range of plug-ins that provide the ability to integrate seamlessly with leading third-party service providers, websites and apps. However, it doesn’t cater for every business application or system available.

If the application or back office system you are using isn’t currently available within Agile CRM’s plug-in library then TaskCentre can be deployed to integrate it to enable the sharing of essential customer and sales data.  

The costs of order processing and back-end administration tasks can often go unnoticed. Processing orders from Bigcommerce is a repetitive administration process that is prone to errors such as entering inaccurate shipping details and customer information. Duplicate data entry ties up resources that can be utilised in other areas of the business, is costly and can create bottlenecks further down the line.

Most ERP systems are capable of managing workflows and stock levels for distribution and the warehouse. However, in such a fast-paced environment, relying on processes that often need to be performed manually can slow down the distribution cycle.