Past Projects
Below are additional applications we have built in whole, or part, to help businesses grow.
Financial/Accounting Systems
Bright Network integrates QuickBooks into existing systems, and we are seeing an uptick in the
need to integrate MS Office Accounting, and Great Plains. We've also added custom features to other
accounting systems. Many of the systems we create are a subset of a larger accounting system.
Automated Reporting Systems
With one-click, most customers want some form of automated report from their system. Sometimes it is a
sales or forecast report that goes to a director or manager. Sometimes it is a customer reminder that
they need to get their medical instrument calibrated.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
We've built systems that helps keep your company in touch with your customers. Manage marketing
campaigns and any other customer contacts. Send emails to all customers using an email merge template.
For example, Techne sells, supports, and services its own scientific instrumentation to hundreds of
laboratories, hospitals, and universities in North and South America. Their products are sold through
remote sales persons, distributors, as well as online, through their company website. As their business
grew, so did their need to centralize all sales activity—but they wanted this new system to integrate
with their existing technology. Bright Network Solutions, having worked for Techne for several years,
understood their business model and helped them develop an integrated sales lead system in one week's
time, saving them thousands of dollars per year, and effectively giving them their own CRM system.
Read more in our Techne Case Study.
Sales Force Automation (SFA) Systems
Using MS ASP.NET and Access, Bright Network built a web interface shows remote sales people
their "to do" list from management, including which people they need to contact. When sales reps
write notes about their customer visits, it is saved centrally and Management can follow the progress
back in headquarters.
Insurance Policy Reporting System
Meyer-Chatfield used to outsource the reporting of BOLI (Bank Owned Life Insurance) accounts. They
work with more than 20 insurance carriers and nearly every carrier provides their information in Microsoft
Excel spreadsheets, using different formats and different levels of detail. We worked with each carrier's
spreadsheet to map it into a new reporting system using Microsoft Access as the front end to a Microsoft
SQL Server database.
After mapping all the carrier information to the database and making sure all newly received Excel
spreadsheets automatically feed the database with new information, we worked with Meyer-Chatfield's
project team to design the report filters and presentation templates that customers would see. The
resultant reports are professional-looking PDF files which are easy for customers to read because the
aggregated information now has a consistent design and layout—plus the Meyer-Chatfield branding.
Meyer-Chatfield's entire reporting system was created in about four months, but in just one month's
time, the new reporting system replaced the need to hire the outside manual reporting firm, saving
them $20K a month. Plus, what used to take more than a month, is now accomplished in a day or two.
Read more in our Meyer-Chatfield Case Study.
Later, we also added marketing features, split dollar insurance management, sales automation, and a
sales commission management module.
Internet Commerce RMA (Returns Materials Authorization) System
Bright Network built a customer an online RMA system. When a person goes to their website to create
an RMA for something they need to return, the web form connects directly to their internal system to
create the RMA number and instantly displays it online for the person with directions for the return.
The system keeps a log of information for historical record so when the item physically comes in, our
customer knows exactly what it is. Most RMAs in this case are for calibrations of equipment.
Automated Marketing Information Requests from Web
People often request company information from websites. Bright Network worked with a customer to
ensure that once a person enters their information online, a label and letter automatically prints back
in the their office. The employee then sends the customer their package of information.
Internet Commerce Online Shopping Cart
Bright Network has taken an off-the-shelf "shopping cart" product and customized it to more
closely match specific business needs and workflows.
Web-Based Warranty Registration
When customers purchase a device from our customer, they can go to their website and fill out a
warranty registration form. This helps them track customer information. Since they have some resellers
for their products, they don't actually know all of the customers that have bought their devices. This
helps them track more customers.
Search Tools (Internal and External)
Bright Network has created web-based search tools for both public web and/or for internal files.
For example, for one of our customers that does placement, they have thousands of resumes to search
through. Using their parameters, a search tool was devised to help them zero in on employment criteria.
Automated Marketing Customer Reminders
People were forgetting to get their medical devices calibrated each year. To remedy this problem,
Bright Network worked with our customer to track this information. Now the system automatically sends
email reminders to customers when their devices are due for calibration. This also increased their
revenue stream and increased up-sale opportunities.
Scientific Instrument Demo Unit Tracking System
Prospective customers want to demo products first-hand, but our client needed an efficient way to track the demo
product units. Bright Network developed a system so that scientific instrument demo unit requesters are emailed a link to
a web form. The form collects all their necessary contact information, including a demo unit return date, in a database.
The demo units are then mailed out using this information. If someone is late sending back a demo unit, automated emails
go out of the system to remind them to send it in.
Customer Survey System
With the press of a button, send customer surveys via email. The email invites the customer to fill out a web
form and summary results are reviewed back in the office. All email addresses and information are stored locally.
Sales Quote System
Bright Network worked with a company with a complex sales quote process. How to prepare sales quotes was limited to the
expertise of one person who would look through books and cost schedules, punch numbers in a calculator and send quotes. They
needed a way to standardize how they provided quotes, so everyone used the same standard, and so their sales quotes didn't
have to rely on any one person. Bright Network automated the process by putting the contents of those cost schedules in a
database. It is now easy to train new sales people and have them create their own quotes with little training.
International Locksmith Job Management
U.S.A. Locksmith's aging system was so slow—so slow they were hiring extra people to try and handle the increase
of incoming customers. U.S.A Locksmith provides fast, professional 24-hour emergency lock, key and door service to hundreds
of people everyday, nation-wide. Customers, who are often locked-out of their cars, send in a Web or phone request to a USA
Locksmith dispatcher who then enters their job into an order entry system for lock servicing. Time is critical, not only
for customer satisfaction, but for handling the volume of requests coming in every hour. USA Locksmith's order entry
system was painfully slow until Bright Network Solutions helped improve performance, saving them $1,000 a week in
time they would have previously spent “waiting” for their order entry screens to refresh. We then worked together
for the system to accommodate their overseas operations, added referral reporting features, and automated SMS text
messaging to customers and locksmith techs in the field about the status of their jobs. Read more in our
Case Study.
Loan Management System
American Microloan provides short-term working capital financing to hundreds of Visa/MasterCard merchants. What differentiates
American Microloan is that their customers agree to pay daily interest on their loan as a percentage of their daily credit card sales.
This saves them money over the life of the loan. It's a very unique business model that stands out in a sea of competing
factor-type financers. Yet, American Microloan's unique business model needed a unique technical solution to match—-no known
software existed to fit their need. As the business grew, employees were mired in Excel spreadsheets, working well into the
night manually tracking all the daily loan transactions. Early attempts with database developers proved fruitless. It wasn't
until Bright Network Solutions took the time to truly understand their complex business model did they save $70K they would
have spent on hiring new Excel-savvy employees. Now the system manages all of their loans, automatically imports customer sales
figures from all of their customers and automatically emails monthly statements. Read more in our
Case Study.
QuickBooks Integration into MS Access
Not surprisingly, most of the accounting systems Bright Network helps create fulfill business needs not being met
by any one accounting package on the market today. We can take the best of QuickBooks and link it to an Access database
to give you exactly what you need, whether it be custom invoices, bills, or product inventory.
Deferred Compensation Systems (401k)
Bright Network helped develop a multiple tier .NET/Access system for one of the largest providers of risk and
insurance services that updated information on the value of the funds that are in peoples 401ks. Our client managed
401ks for other companies like Coca-Cola. We added a number or reports to the system and worked on a web portal
that allowed customers to come in and check on their 401k accounts.
Forensic Lawsuit Accounting Analysis
Bright Network helped a customer develop a system for a multi-million dollar construction job. It
imported labor data into a database and analyzed it in a granular way, using different factors to analyze
the data and provide reports.
Professional Services Time and Expenses Billing System (with links to Payroll and Customer Invoicing)
If your employees are remote without consistent internet connections, a web-based time and billing system is not
feasible. A possible solution may be a MS Excel email solution, like the one Bright Network developed for one of our
clients. In this system, remote consultant employees from around the world email their standardized MS Excel time and
expense sheets to headquarters. The information is automatically extracted from the spreadsheetsso administration
personnel can review the time and expenses and approve them, or correct problems. All of this links into payroll to
pay the consultants, and invoices are generated to send to customers.
Pharmaceutical Marketing Event Management System (with Web Portal)
One of our pharmaceutical customers need a web portal for their reps to set up events to sell their products.
Bright Network created a web portal for reps to setup events and invite people to come. Attendees
can then go out to the website to accept the invite and put in their details.
Patient Management System
A patient rehabilitation customer needed a way to manage their patients and assigned therapists. Bright
Network built a system to tracks patient visits, print out insurance reports, and manage therapists and equipment.
The whole system ties into their custom accounting system.
Google Maps Integration
Working with our locksmith customer, Bright Network integrated Google Maps into their system to help
them find customers, as people locked out of their cars may not even know where they are exactly. Google Maps
helps them best determine where the next job is, and how close one of their locksmiths may be to the job site.
They open a Google Map within the software interface to locate the job and they can then create a job with the
address automatically filled in for them using the data from the Google Maps. This information and map is then
shared with the field locksmith so they can meet the prospective customer.
Recycling Business Management System (with QuickBooks Integration)
A recycling center was doing everything manually to track incoming recycling trucks until Bright Network
was called in for help. Bright Network helped automate many tasks to save employees time, reduce errors, and
increase work capacity. A computer was hooked into a truck scale (to weigh trucks). Then someone could look up
information on the truck hauler, scan in documents and attach everything to a truck ticket, including mandated
truck photographs. The resultant print out is a professional looking truck ticket, and with all information
integrated into QuickBooks, they don't have to create bills and invoices for the materials they ship and receive.
What used to take 40 minutes to process each incoming truck, now takes 10 minutes.
Marketing Systems
Bright Network has worked on custom marketing systems, similar to CRMs.
Customers create marketing campaigns and track results.
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) Modules
EDI makes it easy to import data into all sorts of systems. We've helped customers stop manual data
entry by automating the transfer of data into their databases with EDI. This reduces errors and speeds business.
For example, our rehabilitation client now sends out invoices and receives payment/denial information
automatically. Prior, it was all manual. Everyone gets their payment faster and insurance problems are
resolved quicker.
One-click Document Management Scanning (integrated with internal systems)
A lot of customers ask for document scanning capabilities. Businesses need to be able to scan in invoices
and tie them to jobs and other things. Essentially, we've built systems so they can go to a job record, put a
doc in the scanner, press a button, and the document is scanned, converted to PDF, and attached to the job so
it can be viewed again later.
International systems
Bright Network has designed systems to be used around the world in different languages and time zones.
One system we created can display forms in any language, including Hungarian, UK English, US English, and French.
Microsoft Great Plains Accounting Software Integration
Bright Network worked to import data from another system into Microsoft Great Plains; we also
integrated with it, creating invoices and adding customers.
Touch Screen Voting Machine Software (with Encryption, Validation, Auto-updating Mechanism, and Centralized Vote Counting)
Developed a database driven touch screen voting system designed to accommodate the general public,
including blind and disabled users. Uses speech recognition so people can vote verbally. Also has "text to speech" reading of the
candidates so people can use headphones. Created centralized vote counter and ballot creator. Data security
is built-in using digital signatures, hash codes, and encryption.
SMS Text Messaging Systems (for texting field technicians with information on their next job)
Some of our customer's technicians use limited English, so it was helpful to send them text messages about
their next assigned field jobs. This saved the employees a lot of time and frustration talking on the phone.
Also made it possible for employees to send messages to customers letting them know a technician is on the way to
help them.
Intranet Web Portals
We've created many web portals to fill a variety of business needs. For example, a publication
business client has a lot of authors, lessons, and customers to manage. Bright Network create a web
portal to manage them all and link authors to their lessons.
SharePoint and InfoPath Customization
Bright Network integrated an MS Access time and billing system into MS SharePoint.
SharePoint is used to track tasks and time.
Microsoft CRM Integration
Bright Network setup a service on a server that automatically detects incoming emails from potential
customers from their website and automatically imports them into Microsoft CRM for sales follow-up.
Online Test/Quiz Taking System
A customer used to receive manually filled out quizzes in the mail that they would grade manually. They
would then print a certificate and mail it back to the person if they passed the quiz. Bright Network worked
with the client to put in a web based quiz system. Customers now take the quiz online, it's graded immediately,
and produces a certificate. Grades are imported into their current systems from the web based system.
Microsoft MapPoint Integration (for Sales Development)
We've created maps in MapPoint from data in SQL databases to show sales team geographic coverage
in certain parts of the United States and to identify the location of jobs.
Microsoft Visio Integration
Bright Network has used data stored in SQL databases to automatically create useful
Visio flow charts and diagrams.
Message Board Video Streaming (for Remote Video Meetings)
An employer who travels a lot and wants to check in on his dispatchers back in the home office.
With the system Bright Network helped develop, we can see and hear the dispatch room. There is a
large LCD TV in the room displaying information on jobs and the times in various time zones. He can
show his face and talk to people back in the dispatch room remotely with his laptop.
Automatic Software Update Utility
At all customers, we install our custom software update utility. This allows us to deploy
applications to all client PCs without having to visit each computer to install new versions of software. As
we frequently make changes to software, this is a big, big time saver.
Player Statistical Standing System
Built a system where you can enter an organization's players, their tournaments
and the players results and it calculates the standings for the entire organization.
Convert Old Database
Bright Network has converted or replaced many database systems running on very old machines.
Credit Card Charge Integration
Bright Network has integrated into several credit card systems so that credit cards can be
charged directly from custom software and websites.
Copier Sales Order Entry System
Built a system to centrally managed copier machine purchase orders and calculated
commissions for sales people.
Manufacturing Inventory Parts Management
Upgraded and maintain a system to track neon tubes being created, prints bar-code labels to
track their location and batch, and controls the oven temperature which varies depending
on the color of the neon tube.
|