Custom Pricing and Qualifying Tools by Daruma Tech Help BlueDog Group’s Clients Close Deals Faster

BOCA RATON, FLA—Software developers Daruma Tech are partnering with audiovisual systems specialists BlueDog Group to create innovative tools for providers of high-end home smart systems and entertainment systems. With these tools – a customizable online catalogue of available AV components and an app that allows contractors to provide prospects with accurate estimates for their projects in just minutes – systems builders will not only be able to prepare proposals faster by getting up-to-date information on needed components quickly, they’ll be able to negotiate and close deals faster by giving prospects transparent pricing information up front. 

With these solutions in place, BlueDog Group will complete the next step in its evolution from simply designing smart systems to providing online support services for other systems providers. BlueDog sees the customizable online catalogue, a more flexible and streamlined version of its current universal online catalogue, as a way to serve more providers more efficiently, since it allows installers to build their own product and price lists containing all and only components from vendors they’re authorized to sell. “It’s going to be a way for a much larger percentage of the market to have access to our data,” explained Curt Hayes, founder of BlueDog. “We estimate this will open us up to as much as 20% of our market.” 

Hayes shares an example of how this will save installers time and guesswork. “Say an audiovisual contractor goes and meets a homeowner building a new house. The homeowner is going to tell him ‘I want TVs in these rooms. I want an outdoor TV in my outdoor living area. I want to have music in all these areas, I want to be able to control it through my phone.’ He’s going to go back to the office and he’s going to say ‘I need the new Sony model TVs for 2024, and I need this new wireless access point from Netgear,’ and so he can either spend hours creating all that himself or he can say, ‘Ah, I’m a subscriber to BlueDog’s catalog. I log in. I’ll select here the new TVs I want. Here’s the Netgear equipment that I want.’  And click download, and it’ll just load it into his catalogue, and he can go to the business proposal.” 

The catalogue offers numerous other time-saving tools as well, including automatic price updates, labor time estimates for components, and integration with D-Tools, a popular project management tool for electronic systems developers. This means the specs for any item downloaded from BlueDog’s catalog will automatically be populated in D-Tools, saving users significant time and reducing the risk of errors. “It takes 10 to 15 minutes minimum to build an item in that software, and that’s if you know what you’re doing,” Hayes explained. “With the catalogue, they’ll be able to download an item in less than a minute.” 

The catalogue’s software also groups related components together. For instance, if a contractor downloads a ceiling speaker for a new project along with the brackets to hold it in place, the catalogue will prompt the user to include the bracket with the speaker in the project proposal. “It helps them in terms of not missing some of that product that a lot of salespeople don’t think about,” Hayes said. 

The qualifying app allows contractors to calculate estimates onsite, saving time and stress by giving prospects a realistic picture of their potential investment up front. “So if a homeowner says, ‘Oh, well, that’s way outside my budget,’ the contractor can massage that and say, ‘Okay, well let’s pare back on motorized window treatments. And maybe let’s wait on some of these TVs and get it down a range you can live with,” Hayes explained.  

The customizable catalog is expected to go live in the first quarter of 2024, and the qualifying app will be developed by the second quarter, Hayes said. 

Hayes is quick to credit Daruma Tech with making these innovations happen. “They are our technology department. If we didn’t have them, I don’t honestly don’t know that we would even have this part of our business. There’s just been so much that we’ve been able to do just in terms of how flexible they are in working with us,” he said. 

Daruma Tech is a privately held software design firm based in Research Park at Florida Atlantic University® in Boca Raton, Florida. Its mission is to serve businesses across a range of industries with innovative software applications incorporating both cutting-edge technology and designs focused on the unique logistical and human needs of each client. 

Visit us at https://www.darumatech.com/our_work/  

For more information, contact Rick Griswold at 561-990-1625.