We understand that having all your systems communicate seamlessly with each other is critical when you’re running a training management company. That’s why we’re proud to introduce Arlo’s Zapier integration!
Time is tight and few people have time to sit around and manually move information from one system to the other (something that would pretty much be a full-time job for most successful businesses).
Integrations within business applications help keep things streamlined in a few different ways. For starters, they eliminate the need to do repetitive tasks manually. These are often things that happen frequently enough that doing them manually creates a bottleneck in your process (which eats up both time and money).
Integrations help create a source of truth for applications, ensuring that not only all data comes from the same place, but it also helps eliminate errors caused by manually moving the data around. And, integrations reduce data latency down to almost nothing. You’re no longer waiting for someone (or yourself) to go into a program to move things from Point A to Point B. It just happens.
Arlo comes with built-in integrations for the platforms that our customers use the most. You also asked for more integrations. To make this possible we’ve built out a native integration with Zapier.
What is Zapier?
Zapier is a workflow automation tool that makes connections to over 1,000 different business applications like Gmail, Slack, or Dropbox and allows them to integrate with Arlo.
What happens with the integrations is up to you. Zapier comes with a level of customization that allows you to create a system that does exactly what you want, the way you want it to, and (this is the truly beautiful part) you can do it without any programming at all.
Traditionally, creating integrations and automated workflows was a long, time-consuming process that required programmers to work with APIs to create a bridge between applications. With Zapier, all you need to do is start an account and set up the parameters for the integration you want to connect.
Zapier takes care of all the API stuff and in a few short minutes, you’re up and running.
Zaps, Triggers, and Actions (A look at how Zapier works)
Within Zapier, the automated workflows it creates are called Zaps. Zaps are used to replace the boring, mundane tasks that we need to deal with in our businesses, things like adding appointments to calendars (and automatically sending out invites to those appointments) or uploading email attachments to Dropbox from Gmail.
Zaps are set up within Zapier based on the parameters you establish. If you want to upload email attachments in Gmail to Dropbox, you select the options for your Zap that make that happen. The interface is mostly point and click and you can be ready to go in no time.
A Zap is made up of two pieces, a Trigger and an Action.
Triggers are events that start a Zap. These are the start of the process that you want to automate and can be anything from a customer paying an invoice in Freshbooks to someone booking an appointment with Calendly. Since Zapier provides integrations for over 1,000 apps, the sky’s the limit when it comes to triggers.
Once a trigger has been tripped, it’s followed by an Action. The action is the desired outcome of the Zap. So someone pays the invoice in Freshbooks and Gsuites updates a spreadsheet you keep that tracks payment.
An Arlo example might be that once a registration has been received, you automatically send that data through to your accounting system, from there an invoice can be sent.
How Zapier and Arlo are going to help you grow your business
We know how important it is to you, as a business, to have a streamlined process in place that removes as much of the manual bits and pieces of your job as possible. You don’t need to spend your time (or the time of anyone else on your team) dealing with tasks that involve lots of cutting and pasting or making sure that the right columns have been updated once you sign a new client.
This need forms a big part of the foundation for Arlo. We provide a single solution to replace the many different solutions that you used to use.
We created our Zapier integration to help you take this to the next level. Your business doesn’t exist fully inside of Arlo (as great as that would be). So we wanted to be sure that everything you need to run your business talks to each other and creates a system that reduces the time and money you spend on tasks.
Being able to efficiently create custom integrations and processes with Zapier, without having to write any code, lest you create the ultimate business suite for your company. This not only puts you in a position to save time and money, but it also allows you to scale your business without needing to upgrade your business apps.
You also gain an edge over your competitors who spend too much of their time bogged down with the manual tasks you Zapped away.
What can you do with Zapier and Arlo?
Because of the sheer number of possibilities, we decided it was a good idea to provide some examples of the things you can use Zapier to do with Arlo, broken down by category. These are just a few examples of what you can do.
CRM
- When someone new registers for a course or fills in a lead form, contact information is sent to your CRM, keeping your database up to date.
- When an existing person registers for a course, contact information is updated with the new registration data in your CRM, giving you a complete view of learner journeys.
- When a lead is generated in Arlo, tasks are created in your CRM for a salesperson to follow-up.
Email marketing tools
- Send the contact information for new contacts or leads from Arlo to your email marketing tool, to allow you to send emails to your entire (up to date) database.
- Add or remove people from marketing lists in your email marketing tool based on learning journey data from Arlo. You can then tailor marketing communication based on their journey.
Webinar tools
- When someone attends a webinar, the data is sent to a new contact or existing records are updated within Arlo. This keeps your database up to date and lets you see complete learner journeys.
Spreadsheet
- When a person is created in Arlo or updated in Arlo, they get added to an Excel or Google spreadsheet, giving you the ability to do more in-depth reporting.
Calendars
- When a course is scheduled in Arlo, create a booking in Outlook or Google Calendar. You have oversight over all courses and other appointments in one calendar.
- When an appointment for a presenter is scheduled in Outlook or Google Calendar, create an appointment in Arlo. You can see full presenter availability from within Arlo.
- When a course is changed or canceled in Arlo, the required change is made to the appointment in Outlook or Google Calendar, and staff/presenters are updated.
Accounting system
- When an order is created in Arlo, order details get sent to your accounting system, so financial information is accurate and invoices can be sent.
- When an order is paid, update order details/status in Arlo and your accounting system.
LMS
- When an elearning course is completed in your LMS, the course is marked as being completed in Arlo.
- When someone registers for an elearning course on Arlo, create them as a learner/user in your LMS and enrol them on the course.
Zap Templates make it even easier
We’ve created a library of templates to make the process of joining Arlo to your favourite systems even easier. Here is a small sample of them…
Ready to learn more?
Visit our Zapier app directory to see what apps are supported.
If you’re not yet an Arlo customer, let us give you a guided demo or sign up for a free 14 day trial.