automatione-mailing apiintegrationconnector
If a company has thousands of customers, marketers can't communicate with each of them as often as they would like to. They need a tool that makes their job easier. And that's Quanda, our SaaS application for smart e-mailing, questionnaires, management and contact collection. We have linked Quanda with ERP HELIOS and created an automation tool that helps their users increase turnover and improve customer relationships.
Quanda approached us with an idea to improve their SaaS marketing tool. Its consultants wanted to accommodate companies for which smartly automated e-mail delivery based on information system data would allow upselling or cross-selling.
Imagine that your customer orders a new printer, but forgets to purchase toner. However, before the goods are dispatched, he will receive an automatic e-mail, which will recommend the purchase of toner and explain the reason.
This is exactly what they wanted in Quanda. In addition to higher sales, the goal would be great customer relations. The idea should help companies that:
A Czech company that has been developing and providing marketing software to support sales and automated customer care since 2012. The Quanda app includes e-mailing, questionnaires, forms, and automation tools and connects them in a unique way. Today, Quanda is used by several hundred companies in 19 countries, mainly focused in B2B. Read more about Quanda in a separate case study.
The principle of the new Quanda extension are the "logical sentences" (automation) and a data connector with ERP HELIOS. Simply put, this means that the marketing tool is linked to data that are entered into HELIOS either manually by employees or copied from the e-shop.
In Quanda, various automation triggers are defined, such as the first purchase or completed installation of equipment at the customer´s - it always depends on the business or commercial process of the Quanda’s end user. The algorithms constantly check the data in HELIOS, and if they find that the condition has been met, they send a prepared e-mail to the customer. In it, the company offers, for example:
Data without duplication, in the correct format and structure is a prerequisite for any integration. For example, if you have three people on the system with the same e-mail, e-mail automation will not work as well as it could.
An order is created in the e-shop and the information is copied to HELIOS (or the trader enters the order manually after a personal meeting or after a sale in a brick-and-mortar shop / retail outlet).
HELIOS is searched automatically according to the settings once an hour, day or week. The system analyses the parameters of the order, purchased goods or services, place of delivery and contact person.
According to the automation settings, Quanda, for example, finds out whether another product (e.g. accessories) is missing in a specific order, whether the customer has ever bought anything, where they come from (country, region, postal code) or whether they have unsubscribed from e-mails in the past.
When the conditions are met, Quanda sends a ready-made e-mail (for example, offering a toner for a new printer) and at the same time includes the contact in a short e-mail series on how to properly care for the type of printer and thus extend its life.
When creating the user environment, it was essential for us that the user (trader or marketer) did not have to learn how to operate it. The extension is thus controlled in the same way as when the user works with other Quanda functions.
First, the user chooses one of the prepared types of automation from the menu. They then define specific parameters for sending an e-mail:
Conditions can consist of several variables and can be systemically sophisticated - but the user does not see these processes in the background at all. They save automation settings, prepare the text of the e-mail and the rest is taken care of by algorithms.
We have been working on the connector with HELIOS for more than five years and we are moving it according to the new needs of Quanda.
The first meeting on the integration of HELIOS and Quanda
Technical analysis and subsequent MVP development
MVP connector completion (connector and one automation)
Start of development of the final version of the connector and automation module in Quanda
Test phase and production launch of Quanda and HELIOS integration
Maintenance and updates bringing various improvements (salutation, GDPR, entries in CRM activities, ...)
You can find out more about the tools and technologies we use at COex on the web technologies page.
The Quanda automation module can prevent sending of irrelevant e-mails or spamming customers too often. The user has a control system in place to check whether the e-mail should actually be sent before doing so.
For example, the control system will allow the user to prevent:
We also managed with the integration of HELIOS, which does not run on the cloud, but directly in the corporate network (on-premises). We solved this effectively so that the connection with Quanda does not slow down the work of other information system users - queries are not directed to the Helios production database, but to a replicated database that updates in near real time.