Growth Heroes wins MIRA Award for Digital Transformation with System Scale case study
From DOS to the Cloud
Excerpt from: https://techpoint.org/best-of-tech-mira-award-winners-2023/
System Scale and Growth Heroes for Digital Transformation Award (Indianapolis): Technology is everywhere these days. It plays an oversized role in organizational success whether it’s in the life sciences, advanced manufacturing and logistics, energy or agbiosciences sectors, in academia, the nonprofit world, retail or food service organizations. But it wasn’t always that way, and more than a few companies have stumbled by either not adopting tech as it evolved or by not adopting the right tech fast enough. In a crowded field, System Scale, a major player in the weights and measures industry and its Salesforce consultant, Growth Heroes, Growth Heroes stood out for a soup-to-nuts transformation and the effect on System Scale’s employee-owners.
The Mira Awards judges were astonished by the results of System Scale’s decade-long partnership with Growth Heroes and called it a testament to making bold moves in business by allowing technology to drive change as a profit center versus a cost center. The partners achieved quintuple corporate growth without increasing headcount and while simultaneously reducing the need for overtime, increasing associate engagement and remaining cost neutral.
The judges said the thoughtful, deliberate approach to systematic cloud migration, automation and improvement should be studied and replicated everywhere possible.
Scroll down to read how Growth Heroes helped System Scale transform their business with digital technology.
You can also read the full press release at: https://techpoint.org/system-scale-growth-heroes-win-digital-transformation-mira-award/
From Dos to the Cloud: Case Study with System Scale
System Scale and Growth Heroes for Digital Transformation Award (Indianapolis): Technology is everywhere these days. It plays an oversized role in organizational success whether it’s in the life sciences, advanced manufacturing and logistics, energy or agbiosciences sectors, in academia, the nonprofit world, retail or food service organizations. But it wasn’t always that way, and more than a few companies have stumbled by either not adopting tech as it evolved or by not adopting the right tech fast enough. In a crowded field, System Scale, a major player in the weights and measures industry and its Salesforce consultant, Growth Heroes, Growth Heroes stood out for a soup-to-nuts transformation and the effect on System Scale’s employee-owners.
100% Digital Transformation of a Business
From 2013 to 2021, the employee count at System Scale stayed at 99, but the company saw a 23% annualized increase in the ESOP share price from $96.75 to $500.01, for a greater than 5x growth.
The Tech Stack in 2012
The Tech Stack in 2023
Marketing
2012
Marketing was 100% offline besides a website. Most new customers were created from sales pounding the pavement. Marketing attended local tradeshows, and had a Barbecue team the System Scale Smokers that traveled to each office and had a lunch event in the parking lot. Yeti coolers and tumblers were raffled off. A promotional video and brochure were produced as well. There was ZERO visibility into ROI.
Today
- Set up an online first digital marketing strategy
- Integrated from Digital Ads through the website to Salesforce Opportunities for Return on Advertising Spend automated tracking (ROAS)
- Implemented multi-touch attribution tracking on all Opportunities and Campaigns
Impact
- Started marketing in 2017, and by 2018 grew marketing-based leads from almost nothing to over 2 million per year. Prior to 2015 there is zero tracking of lead sources or marketing ROI
- The two-year Return on Advertising Spend for net new customers is $29 per $1 spent
- The immediate Return on Advertising Spend is over $5 per $1 spent
- Marketing sourced New Clients in 2021 have spent over 5 million to date. 2022 New Clients spent over 1 million in the first year.
Sales
2012
One sales rep is located at each office, and it was up to them to service existing and new customers. Sales received commission on parts orders from existing clients equally as on net new clients. A rep could easily meet their quota without gaining new clients. Reps had email, their phone, and printed marketing materials to work with. Each Quote was written down over the phone, or written up from scratch in Word by the rep, and emailed to the customer.
Today
- Opportunities and Quotes are generated in Salesforce with Conga, saving time and avoiding losing track of deals
- Sales pipelines are visible and transparent across the company
- Automated commission with rules and splits based on sale type and lead source
- Created inside sales to handle the higher volume of marketing and web-based leads
- Closed Won Opps automatically generate Orders and Work Orders and notify Service and Office managers
Impact
- Year 1 closed over 250k in forgotten deals
- 70% increase in Product/Parts Sales from 2019-2023
- Ability to focus on New Logo and Whale Opp vs. low margin opps
Service
2012
Service consisted of cell phones, a scheduling white board, and carbon copy paper. All certificates had a leave behind copy, a filed copy, and potentially a copy mailed to the state. You could not see trends on equipment, see what equipment was on a contract, or see when the next work order was due without shuffling through the paperwork.
Today
- Setup Maintenance Contracts and Work Orders in Salesforce
- Setup parts and equipment ordering, receiving, consumption and accounting
- Built custom offline-first iPad application for work in remote areas
- With all data in Salesforce, we built a customer portal to generate certificates on demand, see trends, and pay invoices
- All work, time, travel, parts, equipment, skills, and trainings are tracked in Salesforce to maintain ISO quality standards
Impact
- In 2016 found over $40k worth of parts that were shipped but not invoiced for
- Reduced overtime from 2700 to 1700 hours and increased total billing efficiency from 67% to over 82%.
- Invoiced Service Revenue increased over 6x from 2019-2022
- Total active number of PMs increased by 20% from 2016-2022
- Invoiced Work Order Service Revenue YoY has almost doubled
Finance
2012
Office managers had to remote into a Windows XP server that ran DOS inside an emulator. Only one person could be in the system at a time. Comparing financial performance across the company had to be done manually by comparing P&L reports from each office. Credit card payment was taken over the phone and manually typed in or written down and processed later. All invoices were printed and mailed.
Today
- Migrated to Quickbooks Online with all locations in one system
- Automated Invoice generation based on Order and Work Orders to avoid missing anything
- Automated Sales tax calculation, reporting, and payment to states
- Created online payment portal, CalVault, to pay invoices, store payment information and retrieve Work Orders and Test certificates
- Employee payroll and timesheets are compared to billed time on site
Impact
- Cut Accounts Receivable days outstanding average from 64 to 36 days
- Reduced invoice write offs by over $250,000 / year
- By 2017 we had doubled profit margin annually
- Cut credit card fees in half by implementing advanced automated reporting via authorize.net
The best Digital Transformation story
No other digital transformation story is so complete and so measurable with an investor worthy 23% annual return. This return is directly attributable to this project, vs. an increase in footprint or headcount. System Scale became 5x more efficient per person.
In 2012, nothing could be readily tracked past P&L. Now every metric System Scale relies on is update in real time or monthly in Salesforce and on a Dashboard for all employees to see. This allows the company to focus on specific metrics each quarter and move the needle, to systematically increase revenue and profit.
Growth Heroes can help Digitally Transform your business
Whether you are a Scale up looking to double in size, or an established company looking to grow profits, Growth Heroes can help lead your through the Digital Transformation journey. Contact us today to learn more.
