Our client is a market leader in oil field logistics and transload services.  They own and manage a nationwide network of transload terminals where they store and move millions of pounds of bulk sand, crude, and other materials to and from trucks, railcars, silos, and other containers.  Their services are a critical element in the energy supply chain in North America.

Problem

This transload company contracted with one of their clients to install 4 200 ft silos to store frac sand and more quickly process inbound and outbound loads from one of their facilities. The silo installation included a pit and bucket elevator system for unloading railcars, truck scales and gate valves for loading trucks, and an automation system to control all this equipment remotely from an onsite scale house.

The facility is owned operated by the transload provider, but the silos would be owned by the client and used exclusively for their product. The silos were constructed because this was one of the busiest terminals in the region, with an extremely high volume of trucks.

The facility is located in a small town on one of its major thoroughfares, and the long line of trucks waiting to be loaded had caused traffic blockage for the entire town, much to the annoyance of local residents.

The silos were designed to be managed using an piece of industrial automation software called a SCADA (short for “supervisory control and data acquisition”). This significant investment in mechanical equipment and software promised to increase throughput for the terminal. However, since the SCADA was provided by their client, the transload company had no control over the software, and limited access to its data.

Our client has a custom terminal management application, which we helped them build, and which manages inventory, bills of lading, transload billing, and all other aspects of on-site terminal operations. It also feeds data to report systems used by management and customers to make strategic decisions.

Any loads into and out of the silos needed to be tracked in the terminal management application in order to maintain accurate inventory, and to generate correct bills of lading. Additionally, the terminal management application needed to feed data into the SCADA system about the trucks being loaded through the silos, to ensure the correct product was loaded on each truck.

Solution

The SCADA system implemented at this site had limited integration capabilities. However, it was configured to write out a log of trucks unloaded and railcars loaded to a local MySQL database, in two separate tables. The system also had the ability to consume an XML feed of incoming trucks.

We had previously built the client a custom microservice service in Node.JS. It ran on an appliance installed at each of their facilities, and collected data from truck scales, interfacing with the terminal management application in the cloud through a REST API.

We modified this service, adding a microservice to provide the XML feed the SCADA required, pulling data from the terminal management application. We also added a service which would repeatedly poll the SCADA database for new and updated records in the relevant tables. Any new loads would be translated to the format required by the terminal management system’s REST API, and forwarded to that system, in as close to real time as possible.

Result

This project had a very tight deadline but we were able to execute quickly and deploy our solution within just a few days. Our client’s operators on-site were able to run the automation system and load trucks far more quickly, increasing throughput while decreasing traffic.

The automation system received the truck and product data it needed to correctly assign products. The operations team was able to generate bills of lading through the terminal management application, utilizing all the optimizations already present in that system.

Since all load and unload events occurring at the silos were automatically logged in the terminal management application, they were able to track inventory without manual double entry, saving time and avoiding errors.

The transload provider was able to exceed expectations for their client, and the terminal became the most productive site in the client’s entire logistics network.

What you’ll need:

• A HubSpot account with access to the Calendar API (requires a paid account)
• A Trello account with a board/list for your HubSpot cards
• A Zapier account

Step 1: Create A Trello Board For Your HubSpot Tasks

The first thing you’ll need to do is create the Trello board that your new HubSpot tasks are going to be added to. If you already have a board created that you plan on using for this Zap, feel free to skip to Step 2.

To create your board, you’ll need to go to your homepage in Trello:

Once there, you’ll select Create new board…, which brings you to the following screen:

Make sure that the title of your board makes it clear that the added items are from your HubSpot Zap. Having a designated Trello board for the cards created by your Zap is a good idea, since you may find that combining your Zap created cards with the rest of your Trello cards creates too much clutter on one board.

Once you’ve created your new Trello board, you’re ready to create your Zap.

Step 2: Create Your Zap

Now that your Trello board is in place, you’re ready to make your Zap. If you’ve never used Zapier before, your “Zaps” are just the automations that you create within the service. To make your Zap, you start by connecting your Trigger app to your Action app. In our case, our Trigger app is going to be HubSpot and our Action app will be Trello. On your Zapier dashboard, you should see this at the top of the page:

In the Connect this app… field, you’re going to search for “HubSpot”. Make sure that you select HubSpot and not HubSpot CRM. In the second field – with this one! – you’re going to search for “Trello”. Your page should look like the following:

From here, all you need to do is select Make a Zap!

Step 3: Create Your HubSpot Trigger

You should now be looking at the following screen:

This is where you’re going to choose your Trigger. As the name implies, your Trigger is what tells your Zap when to run. In our case, that’s going to be anytime a new task is created in HubSpot. You’ll notice, however, that you don’t see New Calendar Task as an option. In order to bring it up, you’ll need to type the “Task” into the search field.

Once you select it, hit Continue. You’ll now need to connect your HubSpot account to Zapier if you haven’t already. All you need to do is select Connect an account and follow the instructions on the next page. After your account is connected and selected, you can Continue.

At this point, Zapier will bring you to the following page:

To continue creating your Zap, Zapier needs sample information. This information is only used to establish how your Zap will work, and won’t actually be used when your Zap runs. If you already have tasks created on your HubSpot account, then you can have Zapier pull in a random task to use as your template. If (like in the image above) you don’t have any tasks created yet, you can choose Skip This Step. Choosing this means that Zapier will create a fake task to use as our sample going forward. Either one of these options works fine, so the choice is up to you.

Once you’ve chosen your sample, you’ll keep clicking Continue until you get to the second part of your Zap, creating the Action.

Step 4: Create Your Trello Action

After you’ve finished setting up your Trigger, you’ll end up at the screen below:

Since we chose to connect HubSpot to Trello when creating our Zap, you should see Trello listed first, as in the image above. If not, you can simply type Trello into the search field and choose it from the list. Once Trello is selected, Continue.

Now you’re going to choose the Action that Trello performs when your Zap runs. You should be on the following page:

Since our goal is to create a card on our Trello board, you’re going to choose Create Card from the list of actions. Once you’ve chosen it, Continue.

Next, just like with HubSpot, you’re going to connect your Trello account to Zapier, assuming you haven’t already done so. Once you’ve connected your account, Continue to the next page.

Now it’s time to create your template:

This is where you’re going to decide how the Trello card that your Zap creates looks like. You can fill in the bare minimum amount of information, or fill in every field you want – it’s up to you. We’re going to cover the required fields, as well as a few other fields that you may find handy.

First, you need to choose what board your card is going to be created on. On the right of every field, you’ll see a tab for a drop-down menu. These drop-down menus pull information from your connected accounts as well as the Zap itself. If you choose the drop-down menu for the Board field, you’ll see all of your Trello boards available as options:

Once you’ve chosen the Trello board that you want your HubSpot cards to be added to, you’ll need to choose a List on that board for the card to be added to. For organizational purposes, you may find it helpful to create a list specifically for your HubSpot cards.

Next, you’re going to Name your HubSpot card. Obviously, you don’t want all of your HubSpot cards to have the same name. This is where variables come into play. You’ll notice that when you choose the drop-down menu for this field, Zapier pulls information from your first Zapier step using the sample information you chose. Just to keep things simple, we’re going to name our card after the HubSpot task that triggered it, like so:

For the Description field, you can essentially do the same thing by choosing Description from the drop-down menu. However, you can also customize your Description a bit by combining text and variables. Next is the Label field. You don’t have to fill in this field, though it might be helpful to label your Zap-generated cards as such – just so that there’s no confusion for you or your team later on. In the Custom Labels field, you can enter something like “Zapier-created card,” to let yourself and others know that it was created by an automation.

The next couple of fields are fairly self-explanatory and will be used differently by different users. In the Due Date field, you can select Task Due Date from the drop-down menu. The rest will likely be left empty, though that’s entirely up to you. Once you’ve filled out your template exactly how you want, you can Continue.

Next, Zapier will ask you if you want to send a test to Trello. All this means is that Zapier will run the Zap using your sample information, just to make sure that everything is working as it should. Just keep in mind that the testing the Zap will create a sample card on your Trello board, so you’ll need to delete it after testing the Zap. Once you’ve skipped or submitted the test, you can Finish your Zap.

You’re now at the last step!

All you have to do from here is name your Zap and turn it on. Once you click the OFF switch in the image above your Zap will go live, and any new tasks created in HubSpot will automatically be added to your Trello board as cards.

Conclusion

Here’s a quick recap of everything we did:

• Created a new board/card in Trello specifically for our HubSpot tasks (optional)
• Created a new Zap that links HubSpot to Trello
• Set our app to trigger anytime a new task is added in our HubSpot account
• Set our Trello account to add a new card to our Trello board using the information from the HubSpot task that initiates the Zap

Automatically adding your HubSpot tasks to your Trello board is a great way to stay in touch with your team and save yourself time. It ensures that no HubSpot tasks ever get overlooked as well, so you’ll be much less likely to fall behind.

This is only a sample of what can be accomplished through Zapier. Don’t hesitate to explore what else the service has to offer, and get creative with your automations!

Step 1: Create A Mailing List

The first step is going to be a bit of prep work: Creating your mailing list in MailChimp. If you already have the mailing list in place that you plan on using, feel free to skip this test. For everyone else, let’s get into it!

After you’ve created/logged into your MailChimp account, you should see a page that looks like the image below (minus the “Example List”). From here, you’re going to click Create List in the top right. This will walk you through the process of creating your list.

After your list is created, you need to create a way for people to subscribe to it. The best way to do this is through an embedded form. An embedded form is just a pre-created bit of code. This code will create your typical online subscription form, which looks like a pair of text boxes asking for a person’s name and email.

To get the code for this form, click on the list you just created. From there, you’ll see a screen that looks like the image below:

Any of these options will give you a subscription form, but the simplest choice is Embedded Forms. Selecting this option will provide you with a bit of HTML code, which you can copy and paste onto your site wherever you like. And voilà! You now have a mailing list and a way for people to join that list on your site.

Step 2: Create Your Zap

Now that you have your MailChimp mailing list in place, and you have a Salesforce account ready to go, you’re all set to start creating your Zap. If you’ve never used Zapier before, your “Zaps” are just the automations you create. On the home page of Zapier, you should see a form that looks like this:

In the first field – Connect This App – you’re going to input MailChimp, and in the second field – with this one! –  you’re going to input Salesforce. You’ll do this simply by typing the name of each app in the appropriate fields and clicking on them when they pop up. When you’re done, it should look like this:

You can leave the When This Happens… and then do this! fields blank for now, and just click Make a Zap!

Step 3: Create Your MailChimp Trigger

Now that you’ve created your Zap, it’s time to make it do something! After making the Zap, you should find yourself at this page:

You’ll notice that on the left side of the page are two boxes, Trigger and Action. The Trigger is whatever you want to make your Action happen. In our case, that’s a new subscriber. Click New Subscriber and select Continue.

The next step is where you connect your MailChimp account to your Zapier account. If you’ve already used MailChimp with Zapier, you should see that your account is already selected. If this is the case, you can simply select Continue.

If you’ve never used MailChimp with Zapier, you’ll choose Connect an Account. This will take you to a MailChimp login page, and all you have to do from here is login, enter any verification codes, and accept any pop-ups. Once you’re finished, you can go back to Zapier, select your now connected account, and Continue to the next step.

The next step will ask you to choose a MailChimp list. At this point, you’ll click your MailChimp list from the drop-down menu and hit Continue. Zapier will then bring you to the following step:

If your list already has subscribers, then you can choose to Pull in Samples. All this will do is use random subscribers from your list to fill out the next couple of forms with. This doesn’t mean that the subscriber it chooses will be affected in any way, it’s only there to make filling out the forms easier. If you don’t have any subscribers, or you’d rather use fake subscribers that Zapier creates, just click Skip This Step. If you skip the step, you’ll see something like this:

Subscriber A is just a fake subscriber made up by Zapier that we’re about to use in the next step. Just click Continue With Default Sample.

Step 4: Create Your Salesforce Action

Okay, so just to recap everything that’s happened so far: First, we created our MailChimp list and integrated it with our website. This allows people to join our mailing list. Then, we made a new Zap on Zapier that connects your MailChimp account to your Salesforce account. For our trigger (the event that puts your Zap into action) we chose New Subscriber. This means that anytime you get a new subscriber, this Zap will do its thing. And now, we’re going to tell Zapier what that thing is.

You should be looking at the above screen. Since we told Zapier that we wanted to use Salesforce when we created the Zap, it should be the first choice of Action App. If it isn’t there, you can easily search for it and select it in the search box. Once you’ve chosen Salesforce, scroll down and Continue.

Next, Zapier will ask you which action you would like to perform. In our case, that would be Create Lead. Choose this option and Continue.

Just like with MailChimp, Zapier is going to need to connect to your Salesforce account. Select Connect an Account and Continue to the next step once you’re all set.

Now the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Creating your new Salesforce Lead. The page you’re looking at now should be a bunch of empty boxes asking you to fill in information. The only boxes you have to fill in are Last Name and Company.

These boxes – and any others you choose to fill in – will determine what the created Lead looks like every time you gain a subscriber. If you wanted, you could fill in “Jim” in every field, and every time you gained a subscriber, you’d get another Lead on Salesforce named Jim Jim, Jim Ltd. However, we’re going to opt for something a little more useful.

In the first box, Last Name, you’re going to pull the last name from MailChimp and fill it into the box. To do this, click the button on the right of the Last Name box. This will give you a drop-down menu like the one below:

You’re going to select Merges Lname, which just means that whatever the last name of your new subscriber is will be filled into this box. Salesforce also requires that you enter a Company for any new Leads. This creates an issue, though, since you won’t know what company a person belongs to just from their email subscription. So instead, you can fill in this box with anything that associates the Lead with this Zap – that way you know where the Lead came from. To do this, simply type something along the lines of, “MailChimp Subscriber” or “Zapier Lead” into the Company box.

You technically don’t have to fill anything else out for this section, and the majority of it is information that you won’t have unless you interact with a Lead more. However, there are a few boxes you can fill in, just so that you have a little more than a last name for your Lead. If you scroll down a bit, you’ll see a box labeled Email. For this field, you can choose the drop-down menu and select Email – filling in the email that the subscriber used to join your MailChimp list.

Right below that you’ll see the First Name box, which you can fill in using the drop-down menu with the Merges Fname option. For the Lead Source box you can choose Use Custom Value and fill in something similar to what you filled in for Company, i.e., “MailChimp Subscription”. This just tells you later on that the Lead came from this Zap.

Feel free to fill in as many or as little boxes as you see fit, and hit Continue when you finish. You should see the following screen:

This page is just here to test the Zap before turning it on. Whether or not you choose to send the test or skip it is completely up to you, it doesn’t affect the final outcome. Once you finish this section up, you’ll arrive at the final page:

This means you’re almost done! All that’s left to do is name your Zap and turn it on. Once you click the Off switch in the middle of the screen, the Zap will go live, and any new MailChimp subscribers you receive will automatically become Salesforce Leads!

Conclusion

A quick recap of what we did:

• Created a mailing list in MailChimp and integrated it with our website
• Created a new Zap in Zapier that connects MailChimp to Salesforce
• Created a trigger that runs the Zap every time someone new subscribes to our MailChimp list
• Created an action that adds that new subscriber as a Lead on Salesforce

By identifying each of your new MailChimp subscribers as potential Leads, you make it easier to stay in tune with your mailing list and keep up with prospective customers. Both Salesforce and MailChimp are valuable tools for managing your customers. By combining these resources with Zapier, you strengthen your ability to secure and retain clients.

This is only a sample of what can be accomplished through Zapier. Don’t hesitate to explore what else the service has to offer, and get creative with your automations!

Recently I’ve observed this phenomenon specifically with New Years resolutions. I know a great deal has already been said about New Year’s resolutions, everything there is to say, one might think. It’s an arbitrary day, just like any other. Everyone breaks their resolutions within the first month, and often end up worse than they started because they’re depressed about their failures. Peoples’ resolutions are shallow and selfish. You get the idea. But you know what? I’m going to take a crack at it anyway.

I really like New Years resolutions. I like to take some time once a year to reflect on the year and think about what progress I’ve made, what I’ve learned, where I’ve failed, and to make goals for the coming year. I feel like it’s a really great way to take control of the direction of your life, and who you’re going to become. I suppose there are other ways to accomplish this, maybe even better ones, but if you don’t have some sort of intentional practice like this, you’re doomed to drift aimlessly. You might stop growing and stagnate, but it’s more likely you will continue to develop and change, just not according to your own design, rather according to the will of the forces acting upon you, whatever that may be (that’s not why I brought up inertia, but ii ties in rather nicely, doesn’t it?).

So, every year, and sometimes at points within the year, I make personal resolutions, about changes I want to make in my life, habits I want develop, goals I want to achieve, feats I want to accomplish. And most of the time… I fall off whatever wagon I’ve boarded within a week to a month. But we are getting close to the end of February when all hope and pretense has typically been abandoned, and while things haven’t gone perfectly, I’ve managed to stick with most of the changes I decided to institute. There are various factors at play there, but the common thread I see, is better harnessing of the law of inertia.

For example, one change I wanted to make was to get back to reading my Bible and praying daily. This is something I’ve done habitually off and on since I was a teenager, but it has been more off than on the last few years, and I wanted to change that. I’ve tried to instantiate a habit of daily Bible Study at various times, and in various ways in the past. I’ve tried making it part of my nightly routine before going to bed, but I find myself rather tired after a long day, and it’s very tempting to skip Bible Study in favor watching TV or going to sleep. That’s not a flattering thing to admit, but it’s true. At other times, I have tried to incorporate it into a midday lunch or coffee break, but I don’t usually eat lunch, and if I do, it’s usually for social reasons, to talk to another person. Coffee breaks are more likely to be solitary, but again, I don’t take them reliably. Not only that, once I start work for the day, my mind is full of tasks and work-related considerations; I find it very difficult to clear my mind enough to focus on prayer and study of ancient religious texts. I can read the words, but in my head I find I can barely hear them over the buzz of ideas, tasks, possible solutions, and the rest. So, why not get up early and do Bible Study before the day starts? Sounds great. But I found that the peace and quiet encountered getting up early to do Bible Study just lulled me back to sleep. My head would crash down on the page after reading the same sentence 5 times. Are all of these excuses for lack of character and discipline? Absolutely. Does that make me a terrible person? Yes! I may be struggling with my daily Bible Study, but I got that far. Does any of that help me solve my problem? Not even a little.

The last time I was really consistent about Bible Study, I was working for a software company down in Austin. I didn’t have to be in the office until 9:00AM or so, but I found that traffic was much better if I came in earlier, before 8:30AM. So I would drive in early, and then sit in my car doing Bible Study before I walked into the office. I was totally alone, the demands of the day wouldn’t hit until I got out of my car and walked inside. And I had been driving for 20-30 minutes, so my brain had time to work the cobwebs out and I was no longer in danger of falling asleep. I kept my Bible in my car in the passenger seat, within easy reach. It meshed with my daily routine and everything was going great, until I moved to a different job where I got to telecommute. Telecommuting was great, except that I no longer had a commute to provide that space between waking up and starting work, and the habit was soon lost.

Today, I am self-employed, and there is a bit less routine in my routine. Most days I work at my office in Round Rock, but some days I work from home, and sometimes I work on site with clients. But about a year and a half ago I started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at a local gym. They have 6:00AM classes every weekday just around the corner. So I decided to keep my Bible in the car again, and do my Bible Study in the car before class. If that doesn’t work out, when I drive to my office or wherever I am going to work for that day, I get a second chance to do my Bible Study.

What does this have to do with inertia? When I would try to break away from work midday, I already had significant momentum propelling me down a different path. Likewise, when I tried to get up early, inertia was causing me to want to stay at rest, falling asleep again. But when I am in the car about to go into the office or the gym, my previous momentum has already been halted and a force is being applied (existing habit) to move me in a different direction, but I can nudge it slightly by pausing to read my Bible right there. Choosing that moment in my day allows me to make my change by applying the minimal force, which makes it more likely I’ll be able to stick with the habit for the long haul.

Here’s another related example that applies our handy metaphor slightly differently. As I mentioned, I started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu weekday mornings at 6:00AM. It’s great exercise, both mental and physical, I always leave in a great head space to start my day. The problem is, when my alarm goes off at 5:30AM, it’s a little hard to remember all those benefits, and to accurately weigh them against how warm and cozy my bed is. At first, it was easy, because it was new and fresh, but after I had been training a few months, that motivation wore off. And I particularly ran into trouble after taking a few days off if I was sick or injured. If I slept late one morning, it was easier to sleep in the next, and harder to get up (inertia strikes again). The same issue would crop up on Monday mornings, since I didn’t train on the weekends. So recently, I instituted a new personal policy. I would get up at 5:30AM, 7 days a week, sick, injured, healthy, training or not, traveling or home. I have fallen short of that a few times, but by and large, I manage to get up at 5:30AM more consistently, and make it to BJJ more regularly. And when I am not going to BJJ it affords me extra time to get other things done.

Whatever I am doing, I lay out my clothes and gear the night before, and I decide in advance what I’m going to do when I get up, selecting physical, rather than sedentary activities, so I don’t sit down and fall asleep. If I’m not training, I might work out, or meet a friend for coffee, or work on some project around the house. Even if I just do some dishes, it gets me moving, I get something done, I’m better able to sleep that night, and I’m better able to get up at the same time the next day.

The key here is that I don’t have to overcome as much inertia to get up 5:30, because it’s become the thing I do every morning.

Now this blog is really supposed to be about technology and business, so I probably shouldn’t have spent so long on personal habits and physics, but if you’re still reading I guess you’ve forgive me. I’ll bring it back home, I promise. Thanks for sticking me this far.

Businesses have inertia as well. For example, it has often been observed that it is far easier to sell to existing clients than it is to acquire new ones. You have already overcome inertia by establishing yourself as a vendor, service provider, or supplier, a solution to that clients’ problems. You already have their trust; they already know your value. With a new client, you have to build that relationship from scratch.

But this can apply other aspects of your business. This is why we try to develop repeatable processes. If you find a way to solve a problem, or generate a new stream of revenue, you want to try and turn that into a repeatable process, so you can continue reaping those benefits, and hopefully scale out by having more people use the same process to generate even more revenue. Once you discover and document that repeatable process, you can start to look at automating it. There are probably software tools out there that can handle parts you were doing manually. If not, it might be an opportunity for some new custom software that could give you a competitive advantage. Maybe you already have some tools you’re using in a repeatable process, you just need a solution to integrate those tools, or eliminate manual entry. Each step refining your repeatable process makes you more efficient, more scalable, and more profitable, but in each case you’re just adding a bit of force to an already spinning flywheel. It takes effort to refine the process, but the return on investment is much greater, and the risk much lower, because you’re refining an already verified process.

You also see this a lot with online marketing. There are so many ways to promote and market a business, that when you’re starting from square one, it’s hard to know where to focus your energy. Everything seems like a shot in the dark, but when you find something that works, modern marketing analytics can help you zero in on exactly what it was that worked. Was it landing page A or landing page B? Was is that Google Ads campaign or the Facebook campaign? What demographics seemed to respond the most? If you can find these patterns, it’s very easy to take something that has been successful in generating leads and repeat it at larger scale, driving ever more business to your doorstep. Once you find something that works, it only takes a little extra force to accelerate it, because it’s already an object in motion.

What are the repeatable processes that you’ve discovered in your business which consistently discover success? How do you go about defining and documenting them? How can you refine them to be more efficient and more effective?