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Industry
Financial Services and Tax Preparation

THE CHALLENGE 
When the world shut down in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most businesses were forced to work from home. This was the case for one of our clients — a California Financial Services Firm.  

To fully serve their clientele, file taxes and meet deadlines, this accounting firm relied on an internal software secured by their private server. But when all of their employees were forced to work from home, their technology could not adapt as quickly due to security reasons.  

THE OBSTACLE 
The mandatory work-from-home order that was put in place forced the leadership team of this accounting firm to quickly figure out how to remain fully operational at home. This meant that their employees needed secure access to their technology from home.  

The company could purchase individual licenses of the software for each employee to use at home, but that cost would be significant — $1,400 ($120 per month) per person each year.  

THE SOLUTION 
After talking to experts at RooksDM, the practice learned about another option that they didn’t even realize existed – creating a VPN (virtual private network). A VPN would allow employees to securely log into the server in their office without physically being in the office. 

VPNs have been effectively used for years at many large companies to safely allow employees to work remotely, however, small to mid-size businesses didn’t really have a need to set this up – until now.  

THE RESULTS 
Using some existing hardware that the client already had and only a few hours of to implement, RooksDM was able to setup a VPN and get employees access to the software they needed to continue to help their clients. Employees were able to log into the secure VPN and access the server, just as if they were back in the office. 

If you or someone you know is still struggling with technology while working from home, click here to schedule a free 30-minute consultation. We want to help make your life easier.  

Industry
Banking and Financial Services

THE CHALLENGE 
Since 1912, this Indiana bank has grown to be one of the oldest and most trusted institutions in their area. With a strong belief in community banking and family, they provide banking and financial services for both individuals and businesses.  

The community bank now employs over 80 staff members throughout the state. Due to their growth in recent years, employees have been struggling to communicate effectively across all locations. Their technology infrastructure had not grown alongside their business and processes needed to be improved.  

THE OBSTACLE 
Employees frequently struggled to find documents leading people to save them in multiple locations. With so many employees across so many locations, it became confusing as to which version was the most current. The customer experience was also suffering from increased wait times for staff to find the information and sometimes even receiving outdated documents.  

The bank needed clear organization and structure to find their materials.  

THE SOLUTION 
RooksDM was familiar with this situation and knew exactly how to help. To get started they conducted a series of discovery sessions to dive into their pain points and understand their current processes. RooksDM then identified the need to set up a Microsoft SharePoint site for document management and easier collaboration.  

Now employees can share links to files and simultaneously update documents from different locations in real-time. SharePoint also satisfies strict regulatory requirements in the financial industry.  

In addition to implementing SharePoint, RooksDM provided recommendations for organizing files, so employees could find exactly what they needed and when they needed it. 

THE RESULTS 
The time and headaches that have been saved since switching to SharePoint have been exponential. Productivity and collaboration has increased internally, while externally customers receive fast, accurate information.  

Sharepoint permission levels also allowed leadership to collaborate on documents in a private manner.  

Industry
Construction Services

THE CHALLENGE 
Managing all aspects of a construction site can be a whirl-wind. Employers need to have updated worker medical information, list of employees on site, inventory of equipment, inspection dates of equipment, job site specific documentation, and so much more.  

That is where this construction web application stepped up to help by providing a one-stop-shop platform that easily tracks and organizes information for multiple job sites. 

THE OBSTACLE 
Leadership knew that while the functions of the system were loved by customers, the interface desperately needed a facelift. They were constantly finding themselves conducting long, complicated training sessions for their customers because the platform was not intuitive. In order to continue growing the business, they needed to update their technology. 

While the solution may have appeared ‘easy’, the execution of updating the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) takes the right people.  Though these Band-Aid solutions may be effective for the short term, they can lead to incredible headaches in the future making new development work complex and expensive. 

THE SOLUTION 
RooksDM dug deep into the challenges they were facing in order to understand the challenges of the user. Easy navigation and mobile responsive design was their top priority.  RookDM created a custom solution by completely redesigning and rewriting their existing web application.  

By using new technology, RooksDM was also able to update and organize the code on the backend to ensure future developers could easily make updates as technology continues to evolve.  

Technology is ever evolving, but having a plan in place provides the roadmap….

Before

After

THE CHALLENGE 
A California financial services company found that their days were increasingly consumed with managing technology.  

Each morning they found themselves logging on to Gsuite, Zoom, Slack and ShareConnect to get their day started, and throughout the day they used many more.  

THE OBSTACLE 
As soon as they began to tackle more complex technology challenges, they realized something had to change. Their current method of finding ad hoc technology to solve one problem at a time was just not effective. The constant logging on, training  and troubleshooting was taking time away from their clients. But the questions still remained: 

• What is the best remote desktop software to replace a VPN? 
• What is the best tool to use to handle confidential financial information?  
• Is there a video platform that can be integrated with the other work they are doing? 
• Is there value in migrating from Slack to Teams ? 
• Is there a replacement for ShareConnect? 
• When do we need a VPN vs. remote desktop software? 

THE SOLUTION 
While listening to the Beer Beats and Business podcast, the financial services company was introduced to Daleele Alison at RooksDM. They knew they were using technology as a Band-Aid to try to fix processes one at a time but didn’t know a way around it. Rather than jumping right in and implementing another quick fix, they saw the value in working withRooksDM. They wanted to work with experts to take a step back to holistically view the challenges of the company.  

Through a series of advising sessions, RooksDM was able to take a deep dive into the challenges and pain points. RooksDM was able to be a technical sounding board because the financial services company was in the midst of changing some of their processes. It was critical for the financial services company to get expert feedback in real time and learn about how other companies of their size navigate and solve similar challenges. 

By taking time to understand the business as a whole, RooksDM was able to accurately map out the right technology platforms. They were also able to provide additional insight about the capabilities and automations that could be built on top of them.  

THE RESULTS 
Beyond the advising session, the financial services company was able to walk away with a customized playbook that mapped out a list of technologies, timelines, and costs associated with them. Leadership was eager to bring this playbook back to their team and have an internal conversation on the best ways to move forward. In addition to the playbook, leadership was also returning to their team with more confidence and a defined direction that they can implement.  

Industry
Health Care

THE CHALLENGE
Breaking down the barriers and stigma related to mental health has always been the number one focus for this Illinois counseling center. Since day one, their experienced team of clinicians has been dedicated to helping clients uncover their own potential.  

They noticed that as their client list grew, their list of internal processes and intake procedures also grew. Easy workarounds that were once effective, like manually copying and pasting data from an intake form into their database, had now become incredibly time consuming, overwhelming, and error-ridden. 

It was taking time away from what they did best… helping people find their potential.  

THE OBSTACLE 
The counseling center knew that there was technology out there that could automate and integrate their processes within their database, but they just didn’t know where or how to get started.  

As they approached their fourth birthday, they acknowledged it was time to reach out to experts to make a change for the growing business. They needed to find effective, scalable solutions for the following: 

• Patients falling through the cracks with missed reminders 
• Making sure patients weren’t being seeing without having all of their paperwork being completed 
• Updating out-of-date paperwork and staying compliant 

THE SOLUTION 
After a series of discovery calls, RooksDM identified the exact pain points of their current processes and pinpointed solutions using new and existing tools.  By using integrations and automation, the counseling center would be able to harness technology to improve their business processes.  

As fellow small business owners, RooksDM made sure to listen and provide affordable solutions that fit within their budget. The technology solutions included: 

• Microsoft Suite (SharePoint, OneDrive, Power Automate (Flows), PowerApps, Teams, Planner)  
• Mailchimp  
• SimplePractice EHR  
• WordPress  
• JotForms  

THE RESULTS 
Since they joined forces in April 2020, they have been able to complete the following: 

• Transferred from G Suite to Microsoft Office365 for even greater confidentiality 
• Set up SharePoint for easier employee collaboration 
• Created workflows for automating dynamic email reminders 
• Created automations for complex repeatable tasks 
• Automated significant portions of the client onboarding process 
• Created workflows for automating dynamic email reminders 
• Created automations for complex repeatable tasks 
• Automated significant portions of the client onboarding process 

When the counseling center first approached RooksDM, the feelings of overwhelm were apparent. There was just too much to do and the team did not know where to get started.  

With technology ever evolving the work is never complete, but they have now been set up with the technology that will lead them to success.  

Their sense of relief came knowing that they had people with the right experience by their side, helping them every step of the way.