Overview

pThe Streaming Network is Canada's leading provider of webcast, webinar, and virtual event technologyand training products.The Streaming Network works to transform physical events into engaging virtual events, and provideall the resources businesses need to succeed in the digital event space./p

Supernova Award Category

Tech Optimization and Modernization

The Problem

pSince I founded The Streaming Network almost six years ago, our business has acquired six companies and therefore had to migrate and integrate data from each separate system (ranging from Salesforce to homegrown solutions). With so many fast acquisitions, we had to work on consolidating support teams, cross-training sales reps on for each brand of the business, and ensuring all employees knew how to work each piece of software. /p pAs a company, we did not feel like we had a good handle on our business and we did not have any historical analytics or consistent sales tracking because we had been patching so many systems together, leaving us with messy and mismanaged datain a variety of places. We needed to meet service agreements with customers but that meant we had no time to improve our internal processes and systems. One of our biggest issues was needing to modernize everything for efficiency and to be able to compete with bigger industry players while also continuing to close deals and gain customers. It was impossible for us to move forward with patchwork systems in place, so we knew we needed one solution to manage many brands and enable cross-department collaboration in order to continue growing./p

The Solution

pThe biggest change was moving from platforms such as Basecamp and Salesforce to Zoho One, which could do everything we neededacross departments and ease communication between teams. The integrated platform allows us to collaborate across teams to complete projects and communicate with customers faster and withless manual effort, which means helping more customers more quickly, increasing revenue. We're now able to modernize and handle additional workload, and it's all the more powerful because it goes across the business, even into sales and support processes, giving us valuable time to care for more customers. Zoho One also gave us the ability to manage multiple brands with one software solution. If we didn't have Zoho One at this point in the game, we would have imploded a little bit, we would not have had the growth that we've had, and we would not have been able to handle the acquisitions that we did. Bar none./p

The results

pAfter using ten applications in Zoho One for just 2 months, we saw a significant change in overall efficiency, time to revenue, sales targeting, and marketing ROI. /p pZoho Books gave usthe ability to send out triple the amount of invoices, collect money, and automate tasks all on one platform. Days sales outstanding decreased by 37 days, adding positive cashflow position improvement of 245K weekly./p pZoho Forms enabled us to accelerate our lead gather process, as well as get more accurate data on the back-end for all of our websites. Initially the use was marketing-based, where we were able to create accurate MQL scores for users who interacted with more than 3 pieces of content in a 12 day period./p pThrough Zoho CRM integrated with Zoho Projects, we were able to build a place to store and organize up to 75 event projects per week. This was impossible with Basecamp./p pWe are now able to track pivotal metrics such as customer satisfaction, ticket closure and resolution, pipeline stages, sales sources, and more across our business, giving visibility to any mistakes or slowdowns and allowing me to combine data sources and understand complete organizational productivity and potential for improvement. Zoho Desk allows us to manage responses under five different brands. With four aquistions in 1.5 years, this was a must to ensure customer consistency and efficency./p

Metrics

pAfter The Streaming Network implemented Zoho One, we were able to saveover 800 hoursof productivityin just two months due to the help of all the Zoho One applications working together and automation across multiple departments and roles. Zoho Booksfor automated workflows for write-offs, depositing checks, and increasing buyer sign-off because the whole process is easier. We're now able to understand ourmarketing ROI completely, which wehad never been able to before./p pIn particular, salesautomation has made a significant difference for ourbusiness development team. Everyone isimpressed by the fact that even when one of ourbusiness development reps had broken his hand, he was able to regularly send out 90+ emails per day with no problem through automation in CRM. /p pWhen weimplemented Books, it 20-30 minutes/customer because wewere able to automate the invoicing process and allow customers to pay multiple methods. Things have improved so drastically here that ourfinance teamcan nowprocess 33% more invoices per month./p pWith COVID increasing the number of events going online, it would be impossible without a solid platform to reduce manual effort. The way Zoho One works together across our entire business brings out the best in The Streaming Network, allowing us to care for more clients at a time and focus on the personal details that matter for each client./p

The Technology

pZoho One made a huge difference. We are using Projects, Desk, CRM, Campaigns, Creator, Books, Forms, People, Expense, and SalesIQ. It's made such a significant difference for usbecause it takes care of our tech needs across departments, but also gives me complete visibility and automates processes crossing everything. Zoho One was the answer for us to create a more modern organization and I don't know what we would've done without it./p

Disruptive Factor

pWhile there are always challenges in adopting new software, we had unique issuesin that wewere heavily concerned in not just making sure ourZoho One implementation went smoothly, but that wewere significantly improving ourprocesses. Our companytook a great deal of effort in discussing prior business issues and how to improve on them, and that issomething wecontinue to use as a business philosophy and credit with much of oursuccess: the 10x method. /p pTypically, when someone encounters something in their job that they think could be done more efficiently, they come up with a solution that isabout twice as good. But instead of stopping there, we meet with all department heads to work out what could happen between departments to make that process 10x better, instead of one. When welook across the companyto solve problems it lets usto work outside of typical siloedbusiness culture and sets usapart because bringing every perspective into the discussion allows for sweeping changes to improve business over time drastically. And Zoho One as a platform perfectly enables this cross-department collaboration and automation. While this process to always push for the best was an internal struggle at first, it is now widely respected for revolutionizing ourbusiness and allowingusto disrupt the virtual event market completely, winning contracts over major vendors with thousands more employees./p

Shining Moment

pThe Streaming Network was founded just before a global downturn and was an early start to a niche market. But it was important to me that we remained firm inourpassion to help businesses. While Iam invested in systematically making The Streaming Network vastly more efficient as time goes on, Ialso caredeeply about the mission of the company, which is to educate people on producing virtual events that accomplish their needs and are fun and engaging./p