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Vsimple

Vsimple provides a centralized workspace to streamline sales, rental, service and parts distribution workflows. Users get better communication and collaboration, document management, automation and rich insights — all in one place. The result: healthier processes, happier people and heftier profits.

When Alex, Chief Commercialization Officer at Vsimple, started talking to manufacturers and distributors of big-ticket items like forklifts and tractors, he noticed something interesting: very few of them were using the project management platforms--like Asana or Monday.com--that had flooded the market.

That’s because these industries had specific and complex processes and needs that none of the one-size-fits-all platforms could offer, and instead, their workflows still largely relied on phone calls, spreadsheets and emails.

A lot of emails.

Because the manufacturing, sale, and delivery pipelines of large items like construction equipment required extensive documentation, employees faced a major challenge: the search to find the emails they needed in the pile was painful and time-consuming. 

That was mostly because employees were often cc:d in communications that weren’t relevant to them (the sales guy doesn’t need to know what’s in the queue for the finance department, for example).

That’s when Henry, Co-Founder & VP of Product, and his team envisioned Vsimple, a workflow platform that was industry- and account-specific, and could provide customers with centralized, tailored, and transparent project management. Paired with ongoing training and support from Vsimple, the founding team had picked a winning idea.

At the core of that vision was cutting down on ineffective communication--which meant filtered views and customizable notifications were top of mind. But building this out in-house would be extremely complex and resource-heavy, and they wanted to implement a more refined notification system as soon as they could in the hopes of driving more adoption during their most crucial growth phase.

Mission: Tailor Workflows to Each User

Notifications play a central role in workflow software, but without a sophisticated build, they added to the very problem the platform was trying to solve: email inbox overload. 

Additionally, whenever users logged into the platform, they saw a red dot that indicated they had notifications and updates--but the dot didn’t outline what those action items were, making it impossible for users to get a detailed overview and prioritize on the fly. 

The Vsimple team knew they had to quickly incorporate a more efficient notification system that would align with the platform’s emphasis on customization.

To do that, they had to consider several factors, such as an employee’s specific role and how that person preferred to receive alerts. For example, someone assigned to an account in sales didn’t need to see notifications across the entire account pipeline, just the items that were immediately relevant, like price quote updates.

Once the system decides an alert is relevant to a user, it would need to push the notification according to the user’s individual preferences.

Next, the team had to think about how it would maintain the platform’s intuitive interface; Vsimple didn’t want to require users to navigate and input notification parameters if they didn’t want to. 

To optimize the platform for each user’s workflow and reduce bottlenecks, Vsimple needed a system that was intelligent, automated, and easily customizable so that the platform could learn--and adjust to--each user’s work processes.

Integrating a Low-Effort Logic Path In a Few Clicks

After researching and compiling a shortlist of vendors that provided notification functionalities, Vsimple chose MagicBell.

“We chose MagicBell because we knew, as a young company ourselves, that working with startups was advantageous,” Alex, said. “MagicBell could offer us the flexibility and agility we needed as a company that is growing fast.”

Alex Reed, Chief Commercialization Officer at Vsimple

Integrating the system, which was as simple as copying and pasting a few lines of code, took minutes and required little intervention from the development team to get up and running.

Paired with Vsimple’s smart technology, the team used MagicBell’s embeddable notification system to deliver on its promise of tailored workflows and reduced inbox traffic.

The product team created a logic path through MagicBell that prevented notification duplication and eliminated unnecessary distractions. For example, they set the notification system to wait ten minutes for a user to see an alert, and if they didn’t see it or interact, the notification would be routed to the next avenue based on the user’s individual preferences.

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Organization-wide email traffic map / Vsimple + MagicBell

The automated system only sends notifications that are immediately relevant to each user (for example, action items connected to a user’s status within a project). With MagicBell’s simple user interface, anyone can easily customize their notification preferences and mediums (web push, in the app, or email) without going through a maze of menus.

Once set up, Vsimple was able to introduce the new notification system without interruption or user disorientation. And, the platform could keep the red dot with which users were familiar; if they wanted a more detailed overview of what type of notifications they had, users could click on the little bell in the top right corner and scroll through their list.

“The fact that we can customize things like when and how someone wants to be notified, that solves a lot of our users’ workflow challenges,” Henry said. “The communications mess of everyone being copied on everything and not knowing who needs to take the next step? We solved that.”

Henry Lynch, Co-Founder & VP of Product

It wasn’t long before the startup saw one of its major value propositions come to fruition: A more refined notification system helped Vsimple cut email by 50 to 60%.

MagicBell was a very big part of that,” said Alex. “Its smart notification system helped us provide customers with a truly customized platform--one that offers filtered views so they’re seeing only what’s relevant, and keeping communications in one place, on the record.”

Partners in Continuous Innovation

In the early stages of Vsimple’s emergence on the market, MagicBell made it possible for the startup to instantly aggregate all notifications in one place and offer a unique alert system to each user. As Vsimple continues to improve its platform, MagicBell will work with them on new features to help drive customers’ brand loyalty.

Vsimple can also count on MagicBell’s low-maintenance system. MagicBell automatically pushes out updates without any action required on the customer’s backend or from the end user.

And, if Vsimple wants to let their users know about a notification feature update, they can leverage MagicBell’s Announcements service, which makes it easy to send out informative broadcasts.

In addition, MagicBell is working on segmentation ability so that Vsimple can send broadcasts only to users who will find the information useful, aligning with their mission of tailored communications.