How Defiant CNC Saved 10+ Hours a Week with a Machining Client Portal Built with Softr
The machining company automated key workflows to better serve its clients through a no-code customer portal.
10+
hours a week saved with the custom portal
16+
years in the manufacturing industry
5+
years in workflow automation services
INDUSTRY
Manufacturing
USE CASE
Client Portal, ERP
TECH STACK
Airtable, QuickBooks, Zapier
βCreating a customer portal with Softr allows us to give our customers that bit of extra value. They always comment on how easy it is to use, and they love the fact that it updates with data from Airtable in real time.β
Jeremy Taylor, Owner, Defiant CNC
Jeremy is the founder of Defiant CNC, a precision machining company that provides custom services in the manufacturing industry, including milling, laser engraving, engineering, and CAD/CAM.
He also helps other manufacturing companies build custom ERP software using no-code tools. His own industry expertise allows him to understand his clients better and propose solutions that fit their particular needs.
π€ The Problem
Jeremy started his first experiments with automation a few years ago when working for a manufacturing enterprise. The companyβs approach to data management was very manual β almost everything was done with pen and paper.
He decided to try some new approaches to workflow management and came across Airtable. After applying it company-wide as a back-end for managing data, Jeremy eventually started helping other companies as an Airtable consultant. Many of these businesses also needed a front-end solution that could go along with Airtable, so he got started with platforms like Softr.
When Jeremy started his own business, Defiant CNC, he needed a portal to manage his clients: a place where he could collaborate on 3D models of parts to be manufactured and manage quotes, invoices, and billing.
π‘ The Solution
To streamline client communication, Jeremy built a client portal with Softr and Airtable to organize his workflows and reporting in one place. Hereβs how it works:
- Clients send him 3D models or prints and he creates one (or multiple) records on Airtable with price quotes for each part.
- Clients log into the portal, view the outstanding quotes, and have the option of accepting or rejecting them.
- ο»ΏAs soon as they accept a quote, an automation is triggered, and clients receive an email with their order and can start making payments.
- When their order enters production, clients are able to follow the progress in real time and even make additional requests on the go.
The whole manufacturing process is accounted for in the portal, and clients are able to follow the progress and see how many parts have already been made for a particular job. The platform is flexible, allowing the clients to follow their job progress and update their orders as well (request additional quantities of the same part, for example).
A top Softr feature for Jeremy is advanced access permissions, which allows setting highly customized view and edit permissions for each client.
βItβs really easy to set up the whole system and give access to the users. You just set up the permissions for a given user group and send them a magic link, and, within a few seconds, theyβre logged in and have access to all the data they need.β
Jeremy Taylor, Owner, Defiant CNC
πͺ The Impact
The whole process of interacting with Defiant CNCβs clients is much clearer with the portal β Jeremy estimates that it has saved him 10+ hours a week and spared the need to hire additional employees for administrative work.
Heβs now working on adding inventory management capabilities to track the quantities of parts that are available, planning the manufacturing process and receiving orders accordingly. Heβs also happy with how other companies in the manufacturing industry have benefited from the Softr solutions heβs built for them.
βMy clients have different use cases, and Iβve tried all sorts of platforms that integrate with Airtable. Softr is my favorite solution that I recommend to my customers for creating client portals.β
Jeremy Taylor, Owner, Defiant CNC
