Customer Case Studies
Utilizing our Craftsmanship approach, CloudRise has been able to
help our clients increase profitability and reach other strategic
and tactical business goals by delivering solutions that focused on their
specific needs and enabled them to:
- Reduce work errors through process automation and streamlined
workflow.
- Improve customer service through centralized, consistent,
high-quality information.
- Handle rapidly increasing business volumes.
Follow the links to get an in-depth look at the value we have provided
to our clients.
Charitable Foundation Equipped for Growth Through Streamlined Processes and Automated Shipment System
The Wheelchair Foundation is a nonprofit organization leading an international effort to create awareness of the needs and abilities of people with physical disabilities. To promote the joy of giving and create global friendship, the foundation's mission is to deliver a wheelchair to every child, teen and adult in the world that needs, but cannot afford one.
Problem
The Wheelchair Foundation manages over one hundred shipments to various countries at any given time with volume expected to double within one to two years. Each shipment has a long list of complex, country-specific, sequence-ordered requirements which must be followed precisely to get the shipment to its destination country and have the shipment clear customs in a timely fashion.
The Wheelchair Foundation lacked an automated, integrated shipment system. After a thorough review of existing processes, CloudRise determined that the Foundation's problems stemmed from:
- No central source for data
- No integration between Microsoft tools: limited functionality Access database, Excel and Word applications
- An extremely error-prone manual shipment process that often resulted in unplanned and costly accrued storage and import fees
Existing systems and processes were limiting the ability of the Foundation to operate efficiently within target cost guidelines, as well as its ability to execute on growth projections.
Solution
CloudRise Technology designed and custom-crafted a new automated shipment management system with redesigned and streamlined work processes to maximize efficiency.
Results
The staff at the Wheelchair Foundation now handles increasing workloads in a cost-effective way and has greatly decreased the chance for costly errors.
Pool Company Now Focuses on Customers Instead of Logistics With New Job Management and Scheduling Application
Adams Pool Solutions is the largest independent pool renovation company in the Western USA, with six offices in three states. Adams' crews remodel approximately 10,000 swimming pools annually. Since 1953, Adams has set the industry standard for quality craftsmanship and superior customer service.
Problem
The complexity of Adams Pool business lies not in the difficulty of scheduling each project, but in managing the vast numbers of projects underway at any one time. Adams' operations teams were handling several thousand job orders each year using a combination of paper files, spreadsheets and a very simple custom database application. Each job consists of a series of tasks that must be completed in a specific sequence, to the correct specifications. Lacking an automated system, change orders were sometimes not communicated to work crews, resulting in costly mistakes. The company needed to eliminate errors and streamline scheduling so they could continue to grow.
Solution
CloudRise Technology custom-crafted a workflow management application for Adams Pool Solutions. Based on Microsoft Access, the system centrally maintains all job information, facilitates scheduling and gives employees access to real time data. Worksheets color-coded by task are generated by the system and handed out to crews on a daily basis, ensuring that work crews always have the most up-to-date job specifications.
Results
Within 18 months, Adams Pool Solutions realized $100,000 in savings and broke even on their investment in the CloudRise software solution. Their savings are based on the increased quality and accessibility of customer data. The centralized database has increased job scheduling efficiency and productivity, improved change order processing and enhanced customer service levels.
Read what our customer had to say
about CloudRise
Ryness Closes the Books on Accounting Problems Created by Rapid Growth and Reorganization
The Ryness Company has become the nation’s leading full-service sales and marketing organization specializing in the needs of new homebuilders and developers. Offering a range of services to homebuilders and developers, Ryness provides comprehensive market research, development and marketing plans, and manages the entire sales operation. Their flagship product, the Ryness Report is relied upon by virtually all of the major real estate development players as the major source of industry information.
The Ryness Company has closed more than 40,000 new homes sales since 1975 and represents more new home communities on the West Coast than any other marketing organization.
Problem
As Ryness experienced rapid growth, the organization split into four separate legal entities. The existing financial solution consisted of Quicken for payables and QuickBooks for invoices. Journal entries, account reconciliations, and other accounting tasks were outsourced to a CPA firm. All management reporting was done manually using spreadsheets. The time to close the books grew longer and longer and Ryness found they were trying to run the business on month-old figures. This was cumbersome and ineffective, causing delays and (financial errors.
In addition, with the new multiple company structure, inter-company processing, including consolidations and cost allocations, simply could not be accomplished with the existing financial infrastructure.
Solution
CloudRise Technology was brought in to assess the current situation and implement a new accounting infrastructure. Several financial packages were evaluated and Ryness chose Great Plains due to its strong conversion capabilities (imports from Excel), robust chart of accounts structure and open, easy-to-use integration and interface capabilities with Microsoft Office tools. CloudRise redesigned the company's chart of accounts, designed financial statements, and built custom FRx reports. In addition, CloudRise streamlined payroll and accounts payable processing for each Ryness Company by building an interface to Micro Check’s printing solution.
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A sample "Ryness Report |
Results
The Great Plains solution was live in 45 days and the entire project was completed within four months. The close cycle for Ryness was shorten by over two weeks. Management is now armed with actionable data that allows them to identify and act upon critical operational trends and variances that have had a direct positive impact on the bottom line.
The multi-company organizational structure is now fully accommodated and financial reporting through FRx provides cross-company information such as sales and costs by account manager and unit-based revenue.
Finally, with the Great Plains solution implemented and processes streamlined, Ryness has successfully experienced explosive growth in sales transactions. They can easily handle complex sales commission structures and are utilizing timely, high-quality data to improve decision-making.
Ryness Builds Competitive Advantage With Sophisticated Report Generation System
Problem
An important part of Ryness’ business is providing a cutting-edge market research report called The Ryness Report to subscribers throughout California. Customized, project-specific research is also provided to clients and prospects. Market research data had historically been managed manually, using spreadsheets, database tables, and text documents. The report generation process was labor intensive and tedious. Increasing volumes of market research data required additional staff to process, and the report delivery was frequently late. Subscriber satisfaction began to decline.
Solution
CloudRise Technology custom-crafted an automated data management and reporting application that tracks detailed information on the majority of new home developments in California. The system provides user-friendly data entry forms that manage large volumes of time-sensitive data. Now, a wide variety of advanced market research reporting is automatically generated.
Results
The accuracy and visual quality of all reports have improved dramatically, while the time to produce them has greatly decreased.
Most significantly, the CloudRise solution enables the Ryness Company to position their marketing services as a competitive differentiator. Ryness wins most of its business by demonstrating knowledge of the market and helping builders position their projects based on this knowledge. The information Ryness presents to their prospects is based on a combination of their development and brokerage experience and data derived from the research systems delivered by CloudRise.
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Las Lomas High School
High School Gains Control of Donations and Parent Raised Funds With Web-Enabled Tracking and Management System
Las Lomas High School is located in the East Bay suburb of Walnut Creek, CA. Founded in 1951 as a public high school serving grades 9-12, Las Lomas has a student population of over 1500, with a typical senior class numbering 350.
Problem
With continuing cuts in state and local funding for schools, the amount of student body funds raised by parents and donors has grown exponentially over the last five years. These funds are used specifically for student activities and programs rather than general school expenses. The school’s existing student funds tracking system, based on Filemaker PRO, did not have the functionality and audit capability to adequately secure, control, protect and track the student body funds. Additionally, the existing system was inefficient and inflexible and could not be adapted to enforce new workflow processes that had become necessary.
Solution
A hosted application that provides critical protection of student body funds was custom-crafted by CloudRise Technology. This state-of-the-art, Web-enabled solution automates collecting, allocating and tracking student funds and donations. Using sophisticated technology, the CloudRise solution offers multi-level security, transaction audit control, user workflow control and detailed, transaction-based, customizable reporting.
Results
Las Lomas is now able to complete school registration prior to the start of school through the combination of streamlined processes and the automated solution. Most importantly, all student fund transactions are now completely tracked and auditable through the system and protected through role and user-based security.
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