Dublin-based Allergy Standards uses Zoho Creator to manage its end-to-end product certification programme
"Creator is a one-stop shop where clients can download certificates or logos, submit tickets, and view their certified products."
— Dave Morrisey, Chief Innovation Officer, Allergy Standards Limited
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Created for : Allergy Standards
Use case : Custom ERP
Industry : Healthcare
Country : UK/Ireland
Implementation Partner : 1 Cloud Consultants
View FAQsThe company
Allergy Standards Limited (ASL) is a global leader in the testing, inspection, and certification (TIC) sector, having certified the "allergy-friendly" claims of more than 50 million products from brands including Samsung, LG, Disney, Dyson and 3M.
ASL was founded in 2000 by Dr John McKeon, an A&E doctor and Principal of the Indoor Air Innovation and Research (iAIR) Institute. Having seen first-hand the medical impact of allergic asthma on his patients, John sought a way to help people identify triggers in the built environment. "We developed a consumer product certification testing programme to validate products that could be a better choice," he explains. "We help people breathe healthier indoor air."
The challenge
In 2009, John was seeking a software solution that would propel ASL from a start-up to a life-changing global enterprise. Having operated the business through a maze of spreadsheets in its infancy, he recognised that digitalisation would be the key to ongoing success and growth.
John's software search introduced him to Zoho and he travelled to the Zoholics user conference in London to discover more. "John came back from Zoholics and said: "I've seen the light; it's Zoho Creator!"" recalls Dave Morrissey, ASL's Chief Innovation Officer. Dave was then tasked with building a bespoke Creator application to manage the end-to-end testing and certification process, enlisting the technical expertise of 1 Cloud Consultants, a Zoho-approved partner.
Looking to solve a raft of pain points with the current certification process, ASL turned to Zoho Creator to:
- Enable consistent data flow between ASL's HQ and its laboratory.
- Combine multiple data sets in one client interface behind a single sign-on.
- Provide a personalised user interface based on Zoho CRM fields.
- Automate and speed up the certificate-generation process.
- Digitise asset approvals to reduce employee overload.
- Provide a ticketing system for test and technical requests.
- Securely store downloadable documentation in a central repository.
- Support deal progression with sequentially-unlocked client modules.
- Enable clients to self-service their needs in keeping with brand guidelines.
The solution
Digitising testing requests, certificate generation, asset approval process, document storage, and technical FAQ delivery, ASL has used Zoho Creator to build a comprehensive self-service portal tailored to each of its clients. Module by module, the Creator application has improved the operation's accuracy, increased the speed of service, eased demand on its internal teams, and boosted customer satisfaction. Let's dive into the details!
Certified product database
At the beginning of the Creator Journey, Dave built the "Certified Product Database", an online catalogue of every product ASL had certified, along with the standards they had achieved and other important technical details from the laboratory. The database was then linked to ASL's instance of Zoho CRM to tie each product with the related client record, enabling his colleagues to perform simple and accurate look-up searches. "We were able to put all the information about a product into one place. We had complete oversight of the data in a way that was much more manageable" explains Dave.
Certificate generation
An issue that had long beleaguered ASL's process was generating and issuing clients with timely product certificates. Each certificate needed to be signed by ASL's CEO as well as Dr John, who was still busy practising medicine. This requirement caused a lot of delays and became a huge bottleneck in the process.
Dave identified a point during the process when a product is marked as "certified" inside Creator by the laboratory team. He formulated that this was an ideal point to implement an automated workflow. He drafted a templated certificate in Creator that bore the two digital signatures and did some minor cloud engine work to connect the template to the certification record. ASL's team was then able to generate a signed certificate instantly upon certification and share it electronically with the client.
"We took something that could take two weeks and made it possible within a couple of seconds... It's saved hundreds of hours."
— Dave Morrisey,Chief Innovation Officer, Allergy Standards Limited
Asset approval and test and technical portal
In order to use the "allergy-friendly" mark on their products, packaging, and advertising, ASL's clients need authorisation to ensure the usage is correct and in line with branding guidelines.
Historically, these asset approvals were managed via email by ASL's Brand Manager in the USA. Small talk would often begin to clutter each conversation, leading to confusion and delay. "Trying to look back through the email thread to find the artwork was proving challenging for her," reveals Dave.
To cut through the noise, ASL built its first outward-facing application inside Zoho Creator to house asset approval tickets. This took the form of a dedicated portal in which clients were able to raise tickets. Conveniently, it also linked to the client's CRM record in order to pre-populate many of the ticket fields. "The approvals got done much quicker, and everything was in one place... the overwhelm she was feeling just went away," adds Dave.
ASL then followed up the asset approval portal with a very similar test and technical portal that allowed clients to submit testing requests for new products or renewals of existing certified products.
A single sign-on solution
Despite taking huge leaps forward to digitise each stage of the certification process, Dave soon realised that the steps were not joined up. Each portal at the time was in separate Creator applications and required different log-on credentials. Clients were unable to view their certified products in the same space as they raised technical tickets or asset approvals. "We needed to create one single portal where we could have multiple users."
To weave each application together into a one-stop-shop application, Bill Quinn of 1 Cloud Consultants arranged for Dave to visit the developers at Zoho HQ in Chennai, India. "We sat down with the Creator team and we were inventing," says Dave. "Between us, we came up with a way that we could have single sign-on."
Document repository
Returning to Ireland, Dave set his sights on adding a dedicated space for paperwork in the portal. He bolted on a "document repository" module, enabling ASL's clients to view and download all of their product certificates, invoices, NDAs, contracts, logos and more at the click of a button.
A personalised portal
Adding the finishing touches for ASL's clients, Dave added a bank of useful resources including technical FAQs, articles, blogs, whitepapers and more to the portal's home page. Informed by the visitor's job title inside Zoho CRM, the portal tailors the content that's shown to match their interests and requirements, resulting in a truly personalised experience. 'If you're in marketing, it will present marketing documents. If you're technical, it will present test and technical FAQs," explains Dave.
What's more, Dave built a step-by-step customer journey within the portal that mirrored ASL's sales funnel. This means, for instance, that newly-onboarded clients would be able to access the testing requests, but unable to access the asset approvals until they have certified products. "We can sequentially unlock sections of the portal," confirms Dave.
Displaying locked sections of the portal to users has proved useful for ASL's sales team, who find it piques the interests of new clients and generates new sales opportunities. "It encourages the forward momentum of a sale, and the salespeople love it for that," smiles Dave.
Looking forward
No longer a small start-up, but an internationally-respected TIC organisation, John credits Zoho Creator with helping his business scale. Planning for continued success long into the future, he explains:"We're happy to grow with Zoho; it will expand as our business expands. Bill at 1 Cloud Consultants always keeps us informed of new products and services coming down the line."
Thinking of the wider global community of business owners who may still be battling with spreadsheets and disjointed processes, John says: "My gift to other early entrepreneurs is to tell them about Zoho, because I feel they're going to achieve their goals a lot quicker if they adopt the system."
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