BlueDog Data Services has merged with Audio Design Inc., a provider of outsourced system design and documentation, to form the BlueDog Group.
BlueDog Data Services and BlueDog Design Services (formerly Audio Design Inc.) plan to offer a more comprehensive suite of design (proposals), project documentation (drawings), and data management services to integrators. Residential and commercial systems integrators can utilize these services on an “as needed” basis. By partnering with BlueDog, integrators can focus their internal staff on sales, installation, and customer service, leaving the time-consuming tasks to BlueDog.
Utilizing BlueDog’s Design Services, systems integrators using D-Tools will have detailed, accurate proposals reflecting equipment, materials, time budgets, and support documentation, with current product information and pricing. For architects, contractors, and interior design professionals, the BlueDog Group will develop realistic budgets for each client, based on detailed specifications as well as work alongside the client to select a contractor through a formal bid process.
The BlueDog team says that while the concept of outsourcing design and documentation is not new to the residential integration community, outsourcing the management of data in the product and labor catalog that feeds proposal and engineering software is. Most integrators either manage their data poorly, they say, or dedicate a portion, if not all, of their internal staff’s time to enter and maintain product and labor data in their D-Tools catalog. The result is either missed revenue opportunities or increased costs, both resulting in reduced profits and a drag on growth. BlueDog contends that outsourcing the creation and maintenance of the product and labor catalog to them provides integrators accurate, consistent, complete, and timely information for sales, engineering, and accounting. This not only reduces turnaround time for proposals and engineering drawings, but can also be done at a fraction of the cost of managing the data for the catalog in-house.
Through the BlueDog Group data and design services, the company says, integrators can shrink the time it takes to develop comprehensive proposals during their sales effort and utilize the same data to support the engineering, installation and programming phases.
“With the BlueDog Group, we can fulfill the needs of an in-house engineer for a fraction of the cost,” said BlueDog Data Services CEO Curt Hayes. “While providing integrators with one-on-one, personalized services, the BlueDog Group specializes in accurate, complete, and consistent data for proposal, engineering, and accounting needs. We look forward to providing existing customers and potential new customers with comprehensive, complementary services only available at the BlueDog Group.”
