HowMetropolitanTechnologiesCutSalesOrderTurnaroundby60%
A lean manufacturing team replaced scattered spreadsheets and email threads with an AI-powered operations hub, saving 22 hours per week and transforming how they manage sales orders.
Client: Brad Merkl, President, The Metropolitan Companies
A Growing Business Running on Spreadsheets
The Metropolitan Companies operates across card manufacturing, fulfillment, and commercial print. Their team is lean, capable, and fast. But their tools were holding them back.
Scattered Data
Sales orders, vendor POs, and production specs lived across multiple spreadsheets with no single source of truth. Finding the latest version of anything meant searching through folders and asking around.
Email Overload
Client approvals, vendor communications, and internal updates all flowed through email. Critical requests got buried, and the team spent hours each day triaging inboxes instead of fulfilling orders.
Slow Turnaround
Without centralized visibility, sales orders moved through the pipeline manually. Each handoff introduced delays, and the team had no real-time view of where any given order stood.
Limited Visibility
Management lacked a clear picture of operations. Answering simple questions like "What shipped this week?" or "Where is this order?" required pulling data from multiple places.
Mark: An AI Operations Hub Built for Their Workflow
We deployed Mark as Metropolitan's central operations platform, purpose-built around their actual processes, not a generic template.
Centralized Sales Order Tracking
Every sales order, from intake to fulfillment, tracked in a single view. The team can see order status, assigned tasks, and pending approvals without opening a spreadsheet.
Automated Email Triage
Incoming emails are automatically categorized, prioritized, and routed. Client requests, vendor responses, and internal updates are organized before anyone touches their inbox.
Document Organization
Production specs, invoices, POs, and client approvals are automatically tagged, categorized, and linked to the relevant order. No more searching through folders.
Real-Time Project Visibility
A live operations view showing what shipped, what is in production, and what needs attention. Leadership gets the answers they need without pulling reports manually.
AI-Powered Operations Hub
Mark acts as the team's central intelligence layer. Ask it where an order is, what shipped last week, or which invoices are outstanding, and get answers instantly.
Measurable Impact from Week One
The results showed up fast. Within the first few weeks of deployment, the team was already operating differently.
Client Response Time
Faster replies to client inquiries with automated email routing and centralized order visibility.
Order Visibility
The entire team can see real-time order status without pulling reports or chasing updates.
Document Retrieval
Production specs, invoices, and approvals are instantly accessible and linked to the right order.
Team Coordination
Fewer internal emails and status meetings. The platform keeps everyone aligned automatically.
From First Conversation to Full Deployment
Eight weeks from kickoff to a fully operational AI platform. Here is how it came together.
Discovery
Week 1-2
We spent time with Brad and the Metropolitan team understanding their actual workflow. How orders come in, how production gets scheduled, where communication breaks down, and what reporting they need.
Build
Week 3-6
We configured Mark around their specific processes. Sales order pipeline, email triage rules, document categorization, and the dashboards their team actually needs to run operations.
Deploy
Week 7-8
The team onboarded in stages. We started with sales order tracking, then layered in email automation and document organization. Each phase was tested with the people who use it daily.
Optimize
Ongoing
We continue to refine the system based on how the team actually uses it. New automations, adjusted workflows, and expanded capabilities as their business evolves.
Discovery
Week 1-2
We spent time with Brad and the Metropolitan team understanding their actual workflow. How orders come in, how production gets scheduled, where communication breaks down, and what reporting they need.
Build
Week 3-6
We configured Mark around their specific processes. Sales order pipeline, email triage rules, document categorization, and the dashboards their team actually needs to run operations.
Deploy
Week 7-8
The team onboarded in stages. We started with sales order tracking, then layered in email automation and document organization. Each phase was tested with the people who use it daily.
Optimize
Ongoing
We continue to refine the system based on how the team actually uses it. New automations, adjusted workflows, and expanded capabilities as their business evolves.
Ready to Transform Your Operations?
Every engagement starts with a conversation. Tell us about your business, and we will show you where AI can make a real difference.