Alive Publishing Group Inc

Alive Publishing Group is an international publisher and distributor of books, magazines and home study courses, with an established client-base spanning over three continents. Alive Publishing is publisher of alive magazine, Canada’s leading health and wellness information source for over 30 years.

With the help of CitySoft Solutions, Alive Publishing Group was able to completely automate the entire sales operation employing online cataloguing, shopping carts, credit checks and customer education programs, resulting in saved labor costs totaling over $160,000 in the first year.

The Project

Alive Publishing Group wanted to restructure their online business strategy, modernize their hardware and software, and minimize human labor hours while maximizing efficiency. In particular, Alive Publishing Group wanted to re-design their website, implement several applications in order to automate workflow, re-evaluate their online business/marketing strategy and campaign, and increase client radius and sales to a world-wide status.

A CitySoft Solution

Problem: Five people worked taking orders from clientele, with two full-time employees entering orders. Due to communication issues, order mistakes were being made and shipment orders were being missed.
Solution: CitySoft Solutions implemented a custom shopping cart system, which was database-connected and allowed sales representatives to enter their own orders as well as clientele to order online with their own specifications and orders in mind.
Result: The order desk was now managed by one full-time employee. The shopping cart allows comfortable and automated order/delivery execution, with a variety of payment options comfortable to the client. Sales representatives were able to enter their own orders comfortably with an increased accuracy and efficiency. Overall increased customer satisfaction increased client-to-potential client referral percentages, and a higher life-time customer value.

Problem: Six full-time employees worked in the warehouse, with an annual 3% damage to inventory. Inventory records often inaccurately stated.
Solution: CitySoft Solutions assisted in research and contracting of a professional fulfillment center service, connecting the order database to the fulfillment center to allow for further automation and comfort in the order-to-shipping process.
Result: The decision resulted in savings of $14,000 a month in labor/inventory damage costs. One full-time employee now managed the process from the comfort of a desk, and inventory damage cost was minimized.

Problem: Sales representatives were required to contact the Accounting department to access credit checks prior to orders going through.
Solution: A password-encrypted custom credit history system was implemented in the company’s intranet, easily accessed by all sales representatives.
Result: Work efficiency was increased, and the entire process was streamlined by 40%.

Problem: Home study programs were printed and shipped to clients. Upon completion, clients were to send back completed programs, and await results of the tests marked manually.
Solution: An online learning center was installed, and all course curriculums were installed and sold online. The client could sign up, download the curriculum and take all tests online. Test results were automatically checked, and results were sent to the client via email right away.
Result: The printing, shipping, and labor costs (approx. $125 per curriculum) were eliminated. These improvements allowed the client to concentrate on the product as opposed to the labor-intensive processes. This resulted in a 100% client-base growth over the next two years.

Problem: Sales performance could not be measured due to any implemented systems to track sales activity. This resulted in a lower successful-sale ratio, with poor measurable and tracking delivery systems in place.
Solution: Implementation of custom Sales Contact software allowed each sales representative to track all personal sales activity. A server was installed in the office, allowing sales representatives to work from home. All sales data was comfortably reachable in one database.
Result: Daily call reports management with full tracking capabilities to determine daily calls, callbacks, hot and cold leads, and sales. This ultimately increased sales of each sales representative. Allowing the capability to work from home, office costs were reduced by 100%.

Problem: The company website was outdated, ultimately affecting the brand image of the company, leading to a constant decrease in sales.
Solution: A high-end, modernized website was created with appealing graphics, copy writing, multimedia tools, and possibility to buy products online at the click of a button.
Result: The new website created an instantaneous lift for sales personnel and overall sales. Clients perceived Alive Publishing Group as having a new, innovative and modernized perspective.

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