Automated Drive Systems

Achieving Full Back Office Visibility One PO at a Time

Automation is not just a process valued among the CRM community. It is also applied every day by industrial machines. From factory production to HVAC systems, machinery is used to automate comfort, output, and efficiency. In order to enhance the performance of any industrial device, product selection and routine maintenance should be taken into consideration.

Automated Drive Systems is no stranger to industrial automation and process control solutions. From system design to installation and on-site repair, they provide a complete offering of products and services to solve any control problem. Along with ensuring their customers’ systems run seamlessly, it is no coincidence that their sales and back office systems are fully integrated as well.

Automated Drive Systems initially started out as a division of Northwest Electric, a family owned company specializing in mechanical and motor repair services. The company’s daily accounting and projects tasks were handled using an industry specific accounting software for electric motor shops called ACS Master.

In 2012, Automated Drive Systems established themselves as a separate business to better service the needs of their customers. As the company grew, their team relied on Salesforce to track and manage customer activity. However, ACS Master was not a viable long-term accounting solution because it required a VPN connection to Salesforce. Also, their financial information needed to be manually re-entered or copied back into Salesforce on client orders.

Automated Drive Systems sought a new accounting, projects, and order management solution. The new application had to eliminate double entry and the use of a third-party connection to their CRM system. Because of its affordability, elimination of double entry, and Native Salesforce functionality, Accounting Seed became their new back office solution.

With Accounting Seed, Automated Drive Systems now has direct access to their collection activity. They can also easily create intelligent reporting on their customers and finances through a single database. “Accounting Seed gives us the ability to have complete visibility of the customer from the start of the process to collections. It’s easy to use and set-up workflow rules right on the platform,” said Brenden Fritz, President at Automated Drive Systems.

In addition to complete visibility of the customer lifecycle process, the team at Automated Drive Systems have achieved the following time efficiencies in their order fulfillment process:

• 65% time-savings on entering orders
• Elimination of 95% of workflow follow-up on POs or late inbound part arrivals
• A significant decrease in time needed to confirm that suppliers are on track with the delivery of their products

Request a demo to learn more about Accounting Seed and how you can effectively run your CRM and back office on one cloud-based platform.