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West Point Optical Group’s Journey to Automation Excellence with the help of The Greentree Group and Robocorp

INTRODUCTION

The economic landscape for small to medium-sized businesses is increasingly competitive, requiring innovative solutions to streamline operations and enhance efficiency.

This case study explores how West Point Optical Group, faced with operational inefficiencies and data management challenges, embarked on a transformative journey alongside The Greentree Group and Robocorp to implement a level-up automation solution. As a result, the cost to manage and utilize sales reporting data decreased by 86%.


ABOUT

About The Greentree Group and West Point Optical Group

The Greentree Group is a technology-based consulting firm headquartered in Beavercreek, Ohio. Greentree provides a wide array of technology expertise including Intelligent Automation, Cybersecurity, IT Support, Managed Services, Organizational Change Management and government contracting. Greentree’s Intelligent Automation Team partners with Robocorp to deliver bespoke, full-service automation as a service including process mining and mapping, solution development, maintenance and updating.

West Point Optical Group is a family-owned business with a personal goal to provide quality patient care by developing experienced, well-rounded vision health teams operating in over 90 franchised Pearle Vision stores throughout the United States. As one of the largest, fastest growing retail optical franchisors in the country, West Point’s network of providers offer vision care ranging from comprehensive eye exams to retail sales of a full range of vision care products including frames, lenses and contact lenses.

THE CHALLENGE

West Point Optical Group, a burgeoning retail optical store franchise, was hamstrung by manual business data processing tasks across its 14-state operation.

The Vice President of Finance was spending 15-20 hours per week querying and uploading dozens of reports from three different sales platforms in use throughout the company. Because the stores are geographically distributed over four time zones, prior day sales reports were not available during normal business hours. To distribute these reports in a timely fashion between the close of business on the west coast and the opening of business on the east coast, the VP was often tasked with prompting reports between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. most days. The company sought a solution to reduce labor-intensive work, minimize errors, and improve reporting accuracy.

Strategic Automation Implementation

Greentree and West Point Optical Group used the power of Robocorp to virtually eliminate human labor time and optimize the value and speed to users of data reporting.

The Greentree Group worked closely with the client’s stakeholder team to carefully define and map all reporting requirements and develop an unattended automation that queries the reports daily, restated daily and weekly and uploads them to a file share site for distribution to recipients.

  • This automation currently runs as scheduled with zero requirements for interaction from the VP of Finance, saving the company more than $100,000 in labor costs annually.  
  • During the development and testing phase, Greentree identified multiple errors in the manual process that were producing inaccurate information in the reports being disseminated throughout the company.  These errors were corrected by the automation.
  • The automation greatly enhances the speed and actionable value of disseminating the reports to the recipients by running through the night between the close of business as late as 9:00 p.m. and the opening of the next business day as early as 8:00 a.m.

At the beginning of Greentree’s relationship with West Point Optical Group, this automation was created with UiPath as a unique, specific response to this process inefficiency.  With the success of this automation and the significant ROI generated as proof of concept, WPOG decided to strategically invest in expanding its automation portfolio.  Greentree sought another platform partner in the marketplace to deliver a more flexible, cost-effective and scalable option for clients in the SMB space and chose Robocorp.  WPOG has now scaled up its automation program with multiple bots – all running in Robocorp.  The original automations built in UiPath have now been migrated to Robocorp.

Robocorp’s innovative and highly responsive customer success team has played an essential role in empowering Greentree to build and orchestrate unique solutions for this client.  Robocorp’s cost model encourages rather than discourages expanding the deployment and implementation of intelligent automation solutions without incurring oppressive licensing fees for adding additional automated processes.

“Robocorp is really an ideal solution for SMBs.  The cost model makes it easy and practical for companies of all sizes to quickly and cost-effectively implement automation solutions without the significant upfront licensing costs and limitations of the no-code/low-code platforms. Our partnership with Robocorp allows us to deliver great solutions that empower our clients to scale up their automation portfolio and realize ROI immediately,” explained Pamela Rigling, Intelligent Automation Team Manager from The Greentree Group

The implementation of automation led to significant outcomes for West Point Optical Group

The financial implications were significant:

  • Manual labor was reduced by 62,400 minutes annually, equating to over $100,000 in salary and overhead cost savings.  
  • Overall, year one costs were reduced from $112,320 to $15,400
  • Over a three-year period, this automation will save the client $310,760

The switch to automation yielded notable additional ROI:

  • Error rate plummeted as automation achieved error-free execution
  • Continuous operation was ensured with a system that runs 24/7/365
  • Compliance became consistent and auditable, eliminating human-related variability
  • Data processing speed increased significantly, with data now available much faster, allowing for actionable insights to be circulated throughout the company on a more timely basis.
  • Employees shifted focus to innovation, working on forward-thinking initiatives
  • Scalability of business processes improved, allowing for flexible adjustment to business needs
62,400

Manual labor minutes saved

$310,760

Saved over three-year period

Error-free

Automation achieved

Conclusion

An Automation Roadmap for SMBs

West Point Optical Group’s success story serves as an inspiring example for other SMBs facing similar challenges. The case study concludes with insights into how SMBs can leverage automation not only to solve operational inefficiencies but also to gain a competitive edge in their respective markets. The collaboration between West Point Optical Group, The Greentree Group, and Robocorp illustrates the power of strategic partnerships and innovative technology in achieving business transformation.

Learn more by watching webinar recording with The Greentree Group, Westpoint Optical Group and Robocorp.