There is an immense amount of technical knowledge and discipline that goes into every product of engineering that builds the modern world. Hundreds of variables must be considered, and even more possibilities need to be prepared for. While some may not have a high probability of becoming a real scenario, the moment a storm or a situation defies the odds and breaks what you have built, there is a problem. With so many factors to consider, the last thing a growing engineering firm should worry about is its business processes. Instead, it needs a solution to overcome the challenges facing a business trying to scale.

This was the situation for Pittsburgh Controls Engineering, a $10 million building control and automation consulting firm. While the company is well-versed in its trade, it had difficulty standardizing its sales approach to help create and generate leads for future projects. The CEO had previously owned another $25 million engineering firm, but when Pittsburgh Controls Engineering began to underperform, they knew they needed to find a solution.

Challenges included a complex sales process that broke down due to its complexity and the added stressor of the COVID-19 pandemic. This global upheaval in the business and personal worlds has affected every industry; nothing was safe from its reach. But, against the odds, and with Smart Systems Technology by their side, Pittsburgh Controls Engineering was able to thrive.

When the engagement between Pittsburgh Controls Engineering and SST began, they began with a “map-it workshop” to outline the entire organizational structure. Through this process, SST recommended a patent-pending, state-based data architecture to virtualize gaps in operational processes. The result was the implementation of SST’s VHOS or virtual human operating system. This revolutionary way to work is completely different from what has been traditionally available to business owners. It uses SST’s human specialists to automate complex processes for the business. Plus, as a Salesforce-certified partner, SST implemented its unique reflection architecture to facilitate better data communication between various platforms.

With the VHOS in place, Pittsburgh Controls Engineering implemented an improved sales process, getting it up and running for their sales team, which adopted major sales phases like relationship acquisition and management, win back, and more. The VHOS allows businesses looking to improve communications between business processes to manufacture complex process operations and help workloads move faster and higher quality.

The VHOS helped Pittsburgh Controls Engineering grow the volume of bids and sales they won by pooling low and mid-leverage work away from the lead engineers. This freed more time that they could spend in meaningful interactions with clients, which would produce a higher yield for the firm. Lead engineers were then able to focus on higher-level work, resulting in the firm’s growth during the pandemic when many competitors did not. During this time, the client grew their top-line by 15%, a substantial victory in a tough time for all industries. Plus, the firm was able to expand into new cities

After two years of working with Smart Systems Technology and adopting their VHOS early, they were prepared for the storm on the horizon, which has yet to pass completely. Staying afloat in such a turbulent time is a victory on its own, but prospering and coming out ahead is another victory entirely.