Production Services Industries was founded in 1996 by Steven Vian in beautiful Toronto, Canada. Leading the industry as a supplier of Audio Visual services, equipment rentals, and installations, their switch to the new, cloud-based Intellievent Lightning has helped their bottom line skyrocket. Beginning as a small, self run event rental company, their inventory was maintained and stored without a software system in place; however, as they began to expand their customer base, they realized their need for a more efficient, organized, clearly laid out software system that records and tracks their inventory, employees, cross-rentals, and accounts. CEO, Steven Vian, describes, “Our growth for our business has been organic. We realized we needed the software because we were making mistakes. We could no longer track our inventory or where it was going, who was taking it on what show, when it was coming back, if it existed, if I sold it. There was a real disconnect between myself, my staff, and the equipment.”
As business began to grow and jobs began to add up, Steven Vian could feel the lack of a management software weighing down the success of the company. Double renting specific inventory to two different customers for the same day, long and tedious quotes, miscalculations of numbers, and other miscommunications showed PSI that it was time to research inventory control software. Entering the market for event management software, Steven Vian received quotes from IntelliEvent Lightning and four other competitors. His company was looking for a solution able to track, control, and regulate the flow of inventory in and out of Production Services’ headquarters. Steven reached out to a fellow IntelliEvent user, MultiVision Inc. for their input on the product. Due to MVI’s good referral, Steven Vian decided to partner with IntelliEvent Lightning to help manage and grow his business. PSI signed with IntelliEvent Lightning in early 2014. Since the formation of the partnership, the CEO says,“We’ve really realized the benefit over the past year. Once we started implementing the software month to month we doubled our revenue - part of that is due to the fact that we have a clear representation of what a show entails from the equipment portion, the staffing, and the transportation. As soon as we saw that, our prices started to go up…with not a lot of resistance”
Like anyone playing around with a new software, Steven admits to being a bit clumsy with the product in the very beginning, although, he adamantly claims it was well worth the effort. He shares,“When you think about the cost of it, it pays for itself. What I’m able to make now pays for it ten times over. As far as the cost goes, it’s irrelevant, it doesn't even factor in. It’s become an invaluable tool that allows us to make more money and see where our equipment is going”. Through open communication with his IntelliEvent account manager and the readily available Lightning support team, Production Services learned and implemented the software in very little time. IntelliEvent Lightning, a cloud-based software, diminished Steven’s tedious job of putting together quotes, sometimes taking up to 45 minutes per quote, to an amazingly efficient 5 minutes. The ability to access the software on any device allows him the flexibility to work from anywhere; “My favorite part is the ease. It’s fast. I can put a quote together in 5 minutes”.
IntelliEvent Lightning not only posed as a tool to simplify PSI’s jobs and clean up formerly made common mistakes, but it also is the leading role in the company’s evident growth from 2014 to 2015 with the software. “We still only utilize 40% of how much is available in the software. My revenue has doubled. Profit is 35-45% more than it was last year at the same time”. The software gives PSI the ability to clearly define the revenue and profit they will receive when entering an event. Lightning is a system that can track a company’s gear, as well as, the cost of the equipment and how much revenue will be produced.
“If you can increase sales, why wouldn’t you do it?” (Steven Vian, CEO)