We sat down with Stacy Sandee, Director of Project Management at Ascedia, to get the lowdown on creating an ROI Calculator for Sentry Equipment’s SmartSkim business.
Stacy played a key role in this project and is a digital expert with over 25 years of experience. At Ascedia she often serves two roles -- business analyst and head of our project management department.
Often, our clients look to Ascedia to help enhance their site. In the case of Sentry Equipment, they were looking for our help creating an ROI calculator for their SmartSkim business.
We connected with Sandee to learn more about the project, what the team went through to launch the product and early results.
Stacy, thanks for your time. Can you give us an overview of the project and what the client was trying to accomplish?
Sure, Sentry equipment recently acquired SmartSkim. This is a company that focuses on filtering and recycling industrial fluids.
Companies use coolant as part of their manufacturing process. And when it's gone, they have to reorder the product. As you can imagine, over time, this gets to be costly.
Using the SmartSkim product allows organizations to recycle old coolant and fluids – saving them money over time.
As the acquisition occurred between Sentry and SmartSkim, the old calculator was lost in the shuffle. The team realized the existing customer base missed the ROI calculator previously available. So, Sentry turned to Ascedia to help build a new calculator for the SmartSkim team.
The Coolant Recycling Savings calculator helps users calculate their low/medium/high potential savings and integrates with HubSpot to request additional information and an ROI report. It is a great tool for the sales team – helping them engage with a prospect and ultimately close the deal once the customer sees the savings.
Talk a little bit about the process we went through creating the calculator.
We have done similar projects for other clients, so we were confident in our ability to handle this for Sentry.
We started the way we typically do, by sitting down with the Sentry/SmartSkim team to document the requirements needed for the calculator.
Once we understood the basics, we then created a VR of the new calculator page. VR stands for Visual Representation – it is a way to help clients see what the product will look like in its final form.
In this case, we used a VR to show the input fields for the calculator. And to display the results and work through the required calculations.
How long did the project take?
From the time the scope was signed, to deploying the calculator to the live environment, it was about 8 weeks. This included the VR, development, Sentry UAT (User Acceptance Testing), revisions, and deployment.
Let's talk about the challenges or roadblocks we had to overcome during the work.
During our review with the Sentry team, there were discussions around having all the information to provide a full ROI report.
Initially, our scope was to generate a dynamic .pdf to with the full results. The Sentry team determined they may not be able to accurately provide the full report without some additional information, and it would be better to get users in their pipeline, have a conversation, and then provide the full ROI report and recommendations.
What about the outcome? Was the client happy?
Yes, the Sentry team is very happy. The project came in on budget! In terms of usage, the calculator just deployed, and we are already seeing some good initial direct traffic.We also enhanced the search on the Sentry site to use Azure Search Services. This, along with some marketing Sentry is doing internally, will provide some great engagement and new Sentry customers!
Anything else you want to add?
Here is the link – for those interested, go check it out: https://www.sentry-equip.com/coolant-recycling-roi-calculator.“The SmartSkim Collant Recycling Savings Calculator is an integral tool in the discovery and information process for our sales team. Adding it to the Sentry Equipment website will allow for deeper conversations about the need as well as the savings potential for the installation of a Coolant Recycler.
Continuing our partnership with the team at Ascedia was truly a “no-brainer.” Not only did they possess the expertise in the development of the calculator. They have been our partner for over three years, and they understand the importance of having tools like this for our customers.
When we get to discovery meetings, they understand what to ask, are invested in our success, and ensure that together we put our best foot forward.”
Dave Coughlin, Director of Marketing Sentry Equipment
