Integrated System Design
We believe your business is, or should be, a system of systems, all operating together to move your business forward to achieve your goals.
To do that, each individual system needs to be designed with all your other systems in mind, and focused not merely on a particular job, but on how it will help the business as a whole.
Let's start with your website.
If you have a website (and you should!), its primary function is as a marketing tool, to present your business to the world, and entice visitors to contact you in some way.
Your website, designed correctly, presents an incredible opportunity to build a list of potential customers and gather their contact information so you can begin a dialogue with them. (See our Web Design and Marketing page for more information about creating an effective marketing tool).
The list of contacts you generate from your website (and other marketing efforts), should go into a central system for use by your sales staff. Contact your list regularly to develop a rapport with them, and let them know that when they need your services, you're there to help. Your contact system should help with sending out newsletters, bulletins, and reminders.
It should track when you've sent correspondence to each individual contact, and let you know who hasn't heard from you in a while. It can track both online correspondence and offline, to maximize your marketing efforts.
Eventually, as contacts need your services and become customers, they should now be transferred automatically to your sales and office systems. There is no need to re-enter the customer from scratch, because he's already in one of your systems. Simply add any new information as required.
Your accounting system can connect to this same data. Again, the data is already there and shouldn't have to be entered again. No manual interaction is necessary if your systems are designed to transfer data to the people who need it. Make it simple, and you don't need to waste time and money on unproductive tasks.
Apart from customer data, which is the lifeblood of your business, there is your specific business data. Whether you manage equipment, sell products to a specific industry, or provide essential services or consulting work, you have business data that needs to be organized and tracked.
But no matter what the specific data is that your business tracks, it is there to serve your customers in some way.
If you sell products or manage equipment, you may have an inventory database. Chances are, you built it simply to track inventory. That's fine and it gets the job done, but what if you looked at it from a different perspective?
What if you linked this system to your business goals? Your ultimate goal is, of course, to make a profit. To do that, you have to serve your customers well. Can you link this system directly to your customers to provide improved service?
Your inventory system could generate lists of popular products that you could then promote to your contact list. Or show you which customers prefer certain categories of items, so you can craft a marketing campaign to increase sales to that group.
Maybe a profitable item doesn't sell well, and you can contact potential customers to find out why, make changes, and re-promote it.
Link your inventory system back to your website, and let it generate specific suggestions for your customers, who can log in to see the status of their accounts.
Now take a look at all your other systems and databases. Can they be linked together somehow to provide better service and make more sales?
You need to set aside some time to think creatively about these things, but when you do you'll be amazed at what you can come up with.
And that's what we call Integrated System Design. Your business systems, all moving together, to help you reach your goals.
Next, learn more about how we work to accomplish our lofty goals. Look over our list of services or read some of our case studies to see how we've already helped other businesses.