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Case Study

From 3 Disconnected Systems to 1: Building a Custom Inventory Management Solution & More for Ensemble Travel

We transformed Ensemble Travel's partner sales and marketing program by developing a custom product inventory management system within HubSpot, replacing their disconnected Zoho, Zendesk, and Smartsheet systems. This comprehensive solution automates marketing and inventory management across all travel agency partners, giving Ensemble's corporate team complete control over their product distribution and marketing operations.

Services Provided

  • Custom HubSpot inventory management
  • system development
  • Multi-portal implementation and integration
  • Dynamic content system strategy
  • Process automation
  • HubSpot onboarding for Marketing, Sales, and Service teams  

The Client

Ensemble Travel partners with independent travel agencies to help them compete in today's market. When travel agencies join Ensemble's network, they get access to Ensemble's travel products and marketing resources. But Ensemble doesn't just provide these tools — they handle the marketing work for their partners.

They create the campaigns, build the promotional materials, and manage the travel packages their partner agencies offer travelers. This hands-on approach lets local travel agencies focus on what they do best: giving their customers personal attention and expert travel advice.

The Challenge

When Ensemble came to us, they were trying to run their business using three separate systems:

  • Zoho for their CRM and marketing
  • Zendesk for service tasks
  • Smartsheets for tracking inventory and projects

This setup was causing daily headaches for their team.

Their existing system, Zoho, wasn't cutting it anymore. As they grew, they needed more from their CRM than Zoho could offer. They were tracking everything from asset inventory to content calendars in Smartsheets, but spreadsheets weren't enough for proper tracking and reporting anymore.

The biggest problem? Nearly everything was done by hand. Team members spent hours on basic tasks that could be automated, from updating inventory to setting up marketing campaigns and sales activities. As Ensemble is always looking to stay efficient, the team needed better tools to handle these tasks without hiring more people.

They also needed help implementing all of this. They wanted a partner who knew HubSpot inside and out, especially when it came to setting up multiple connected HubSpot portals — one for the main company and separate ones for their partners. And we were that partner.

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The Solutions

We broke down Ensemble's needs and created a plan that would fix their immediate problems while setting them up for future growth. Here's what we did:

Moving Everything to HubSpot

We started by getting seven different teams set up in three HubSpot hubs. This included:

Marketing Hub Setup

We showed the team how to use HubSpot's marketing tools effectively. This covered everything from mapping out customer journeys to scoring leads. The team learned to build targeted email lists, create landing pages, and set up automated email campaigns. Our training focused on lifecycle stages, lead management processes, and sophisticated campaign orchestration, ensuring the team could fully leverage HubSpot's marketing capabilities.

Sales Hub Setup

We set up the sales process in HubSpot to match how Ensemble actually sells. This included creating custom pipelines for their different, including new member acquisition, marketing program sales, and partner onboarding. We showed the sales team how to automate follow-ups and track their progress using custom reports. The training dove deep into HubSpot's object architecture, ensuring the team understood how to structure their data for optimal results.

Service Hub Setup

We helped them learn and implement Service Hub tools through dedicated training sessions, setting up an initial support pipeline as a model. Throughout the process, we focused on building their confidence and understanding of these tools, empowering them to independently manage and expand their support systems for future growth and success.

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Custom Inventory Management System

We built a comprehensive product management system using outside code and HubSpot tools to move Ensemble away from managing inventory in spreadsheets. This new system replaced their manual process inside Smartsheets and was designed to handle products sold on varying schedules - monthly, quarterly, annually, and one-time offerings. The system centers around three custom CRM cards designed to serve specific team needs while maintaining a single source of truth for product data.

Custom CRM Card Development

The heart of the system lies in our custom card solution, which brings inventory management directly into HubSpot. The first card lives in the deals section, where sales teams handle most of their work. It displays available products and lets users filter through options, add items to deals, and generate quotes without leaving HubSpot. We created a second card that lives in company records. This card shares the same core functionality as Card #1. It is implemented on the Company Object for improved accessibility, displaying available products with advanced filtering options, allowing users to put together a "cart" of products, inspect each product for details, create a deal, add products to the deal, and create a quote with said products associated to the deal, company and primary contact.

Calendar Integration

The third card provides a visual calendar view of product availability. Teams can toggle between monthly and weekly views, with each product color-coded to show its status - green for available inventory and red for sold out. Users can quickly preview product details or jump straight into creating a deal, all from the calendar interface. The system includes filters for product types, delivery dates, and inventory status, making it easy to find exactly what's needed.

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Backend Structure

Behind the scenes, we created two new sections in HubSpot to manage all the product information. The Product Types custom object handles the basics, from product descriptions and delivery schedules to pricing and access permissions. It's carefully configured with specific visibility permissions for Admins, Partnership Marketing, Marketing, and Member Relations teams. It works alongside the Product Inventory section, tracking real-time stock levels, quoted items, and sales numbers. This section maintains crucial associations with deals, events, and companies, creating a comprehensive web of relationships. This two-part system gives Ensemble a clear view of their product status while maintaining relationships with deals and company records.

Workflow Automation

We built automatic updates to make the system genuinely hands-off. When someone adds a product to a deal, the inventory counts adjust automatically. When deals close, the numbers update themselves. The system even sends out reminders to partners when they need to submit content, keeping everyone in the loop without requiring constant manual updates.

Multi-Portal Integration

Using the SyncSmart Portals product, we connected Ensemble's corporate HubSpot instance with over 100 individual travel agency portals. This integration created a foundation for their operation, replacing disconnected HubSpot accounts with a unified platform. The system enables individual travel agency portals to feed their data and contacts directly into the main corporate portal, creating a seamless flow of information.

Data Flow Management

The integration allows contact and deal information to move automatically between the corporate portal and agency portals. When a travel agency updates client information in its portal, it syncs to Ensemble's corporate account. This two-way sync ensures everyone uses current information while maintaining proper data relationships.

Marketing Coordination

The portal connection lets Ensemble handle marketing from their corporate account while maintaining brand consistency across all partners. They can create and distribute marketing materials on behalf of their travel agencies, track engagement, and measure results - all from one central location.

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Dynamic Content System

We built a content management system that automates much of Ensemble's marketing work, focusing on two key areas that previously required extensive manual effort.

Landing Page System

Using HubDB, we created landing pages that automatically pull in partner and member information. The system connects with their existing Sitefinity platform, ensuring content stays current across all channels. When partner information changes, the pages update automatically without requiring manual intervention.

Email Campaign Management

We developed an email system that pulls current offers and member information directly from HubSpot records. The marketing team can now create targeted campaigns that automatically populate with relevant partner content, current travel packages, and accurate pricing information. This eliminated the need to update email content for different partners or regions manually.

Results and Impact

The impact of these changes has been evident across Ensemble. Their seven teams work together seamlessly in HubSpot, ending the days of jumping between different systems to get work done. The manual data entry used to eat up hours of team time has largely disappeared.
They've said goodbye to tracking inventory in spreadsheets and now have a clear picture of their sales and inventory at any moment.

Marketing has become notably more efficient. Creating and personalizing materials for partners happens much faster, and adding new partners to the system no longer creates a mountain of setup work. The connection of over 100 travel agency portals has created a smooth flow of information between Ensemble and its partners, making everyone's job easier.

But we're not done yet. We're working with Ensemble to build a system that automatically directs leads from their main account to the proper travel agencies using a sophisticated lead rotator system. This kind of ongoing collaboration is what we love – helping our clients fix their current challenges and keep improving and growing.

Want Results Like These For Your Company?

This project shows what's possible when you combine the right technology with a clear understanding of how a business actually works. We've ensured Ensemble's team knows how to handle everything, but we're always here when they need us for new projects or have questions about getting more from their system.

Want to learn how we can help your business work better? Get in touch with our team today.