Digital transformation and M&A have a common aim: to grow a company’s competitive position in the market. Today we share the story of a Flux7 customer who sought to grow its competitiveness through both facets, resulting in application modernization and technology transformation that brought in new customers, and grew existing customer satisfaction, resulting in a net positive ROI.
With the acquisition of several companies over the past few years, Vision Graphics had grown the breadth of its services, offering customers sophisticated print technology, cross-channel communications, and online fulfillment services. Yet, in the process, the company acquired diverse systems that needed to be integrated and modernized. Having inherited technical debt that could not be ignored, Vision Graphics’s new Director of IT, Wayne Roesner, sought to grow the company’s agility and innovation in the process of a technology transformation.
Vision Graphics reached out to the Flux7 DevOps Consulting team for assistance modernizing its systems and building a digital transformation plan. Working together the teams identified a project where value could quickly be delivered, validating for management the collective team’s ability to modernize systems, freeing them from technical debt while simultaneously delivering significant customer and business value.
The teams called this project the Bright Spot (as taken from Chip Heath’s novel, “Switch: How to change things when change is hard”). It started with an AWS cloud migration in which the team moved Vision Graphics’ business data from an on-premises database to the AWS cloud and Amazon QuickSight.
A fully managed business intelligence service with Machine Learning (ML) insights, QuickSight was the ideal service to take Vision Graphics’ Business Intelligence service to the next level, offering customers unique ML analysis that they could get nowhere else.
The Flux7 quickly got to work, blueprinting and building the Amazon QuickSight architecture for Vision Graphics, and then migrating Vision Graphics’ data sets to the AWS cloud. Connected to QuickSight, Vision Graphics now has live data with customers able to easily access their monthly data reports — and more — from their own user-friendly dashboard. Moreover, with ML, customers now have advanced data insights that were not previously available.
“As IT Director, I work closely with Vision Graphics leadership to understand what’s important to the business and use IT as a strategic lever to accomplishing these goals,” said Mr. Roesner. “The team at Flux7 was invaluable in helping identify a Bright Spot project, turn it around in record time, and achieve a specific business goal by securing a large new customer account. Flux7 is smart, efficient and unique in its ability to translate strategic business initiatives into tangible technology deliverables.”
While the Vision Graphics team had a largely manual process prior to its Bright Spot initiative, the team now has a highly automated process that removes the opportunity for human error. And, the new system also empowers customers to self-serve, accessing reports from their own portal with the push of a button. Together, these benefits have given developers time back to focus on more strategic, business-impacting work.
“Flux7 has opened a path to a new revenue stream for Vision Graphics,” said RJ Hines, Head of Sales and Marketing. “As our customers demand smarter insights into their marketing initiatives, Flux7 helped us directly address these evolving customer expectations while providing an innovative new solution that sets Vision Graphics well ahead of the competition. And, the best part is that the ROI of the Flux7 project has translated directly into new customer acquisition that will further fuel future innovation projects, a win-win for Vision Graphics and our customers.”
Empowered with the new solution, Vision Graphics has secured significant new business. Not only has the initiative paid for itself but the Bright Spot has proven to management the value of technology transformation and has spurred additional projects to grow agility, innovation, and competitive advantage.
Interested in learning how our IT consulting services team can help you identify a Bright Spot?
Flux7 is the only Sherpa on the DevOps journey that assesses, designs, and teaches while implementing a holistic solution for its enterprise customers, thus giving its clients the skills needed to manage and expand on the technology moving forward. Not a reseller or an MSP, Flux7 recommendations are 100% focused on customer requirements and creating the most efficient infrastructure possible that automates operations, streamlines and enhances development, and supports specific business goals.
