When Summit LLC's Salesforce environment evolved, its document generation strategy needed to evolve with it.
The team was not looking to change software simply for the sake of change. It needed a solution that could automate manual work, support future growth, and deliver the required capabilities without dramatically increasing licensing costs.
After implementing MergeUp, Summit transformed two of its highest-volume document generation workflows, reduced licensing costs by approximately 88%, and eliminated an estimated 300–450 hours of manual work every year.
“MergeUp delivered on every capability gap we were trying to close.”
Summit at a Glance
- Industry
- Transportation
- Current Solution
- MergeUp
- Primary Use Cases
- Quotes, Trip Confirmations, Trip Sheets, Invoices, and Excel Outputs
- Implementation Timeline
- March 5 to April 7, 2026
- Licensing Savings
- Approximately 88%
- Annual Time Savings
- 300–450 hours
The Results
- Reduced document generation licensing costs by approximately 88%
- Eliminated an estimated 300–450 hours of manual work annually
- Automated Trip Sheet generation across tens of thousands of records each year
- Automated proforma invoice generation through record-triggered workflows
- Removed licensing constraints through unlimited-user licensing
- Completed implementation in just over one month with immediate user adoption
- Retained included implementation hours for future enhancements as new business needs emerge
“The solution wasn't broken. It just wasn't built for where we needed to go.”
That statement summarizes Summit's journey. The team was not dissatisfied with its existing approach to document generation. The business had simply reached a point where it required greater automation, scalability, and a licensing model that better supported how it wanted Salesforce to work.
When Your Business Outgrows Your Document Generation Strategy
As Director of Salesforce CRM Platforms, Kelly oversees Summit's Salesforce ecosystem and the document generation processes supporting quotes, trip confirmations, trip sheets, invoices, and Excel-based outputs.
When Summit originally implemented its document generation process, it met the organization's needs. As the business grew, however, those needs evolved.
“Our primary driver was a combination of cost and capability.”
At the time, document generation was performed one record at a time, with each document requiring a user to manually initiate generation. As document volume increased, the team wanted to move toward batch document generation and record-triggered automation.
The team was not searching for more features. It was looking for a platform that better aligned with how it wanted to automate work inside Salesforce.
Finding a Better Long-Term Solution
When Summit evaluated the next phase of its document generation strategy, the path forward became surprisingly straightforward.
The team's evaluation ultimately came down to five advantages:
- Unlimited-user licensing
- Batch document generation
- Record-triggered automation
- Included implementation hours
- A dramatically lower total cost
Kelly summarized the decision simply:
“We were getting more capability for roughly 88% less cost.”
For Summit, the numbers spoke for themselves.
A Smooth Implementation
The project officially kicked off on March 5, 2026. Just over one month later, on April 7, implementation was complete.
The migration finished without issues, user adoption was immediate, and Summit still has included implementation hours available to support future enhancements as additional use cases emerge.
That gave the team confidence it had selected a platform capable of supporting long-term growth.
Automating Two Critical Business Processes
The most significant improvements came from two workflows that previously required continuous manual effort.
Trip Sheet Generation
Summit's charter operations involve a complex Salesforce data model. Each Opportunity can contain multiple Legs, and each Leg can contain multiple Vehicles. Every Trip Sheet pulls information from both Vehicle and Line records that have no direct relationship to one another.
Before implementing MergeUp, staff manually generated Trip Sheets for each individual Vehicle. The workflow touched tens of thousands of records annually, with documents often needing to be regenerated as trip details changed.
Today, a single batch action generates Trip Sheets for every Vehicle associated with a Leg, dramatically reducing the amount of manual work required.
“Staff were manually triggering document generation on each individual Vehicle record, one at a time, every day, across tens of thousands of records annually, with frequent regeneration as trip details change. Now they generate Trip Sheets for every Vehicle on a Leg in a single batch action. That's the kind of change that's immediately visible to the people doing the work.”
The technical improvements were just as significant. One of Summit's most complex Trip Sheet templates had previously required weeks of creative problem-solving because of the complexity of the underlying data relationships. Using MergeUp, Kelly rebuilt that same template in just a couple of hours.
Automated Proforma Invoice Generation
The second transformation involved Summit's monthly proforma invoice process.
Previously, every invoice required users to manually generate documents before they could be reviewed and approved.
Today, MergeUp automatically generates the required documents as soon as an invoice reaches Pending Approval, eliminating a repetitive manual step from the workflow.
“Each account can have multiple proforma invoice records generated monthly, and each record previously required a user to manually trigger generation. Now, document generation fires automatically when a record status moves to Pending Approval, so by the time a user is alerted to review and approve, all three documents are already waiting for them.”
A Better Experience for Salesforce Administrators
Automation was not the only thing that surprised Kelly. The administration experience improved dramatically as well.
Before implementing MergeUp, template development often required administrators to write raw SOQL queries, manually navigate Salesforce object relationships, and rely on specialized merge syntax for formatting.
MergeUp replaced that complexity with an intuitive field picker and built-in formatting tools for dates, currency, and locale.
The result was easier template development, easier maintenance, and significantly faster implementation of even highly customized templates.
Advice for Organizations Evaluating Their Document Generation Strategy
Kelly encourages organizations to think beyond today's requirements and choose a solution that can support future growth. She also advises teams not to let migration concerns become the deciding factor.
“Don't let the effort of migrating existing templates be the thing that holds you back. The implementation experience is seamless, and the support is excellent. It's more manageable than it sounds, and you'll be in good hands.”
Kelly also recognized the MergeUp team for making the implementation a success, giving a special shoutout to Product Architect Karl Erb for his partnership throughout the project.
“Our engagement kicked off and delivered on time, without issues, and the MergeUp team was a genuine pleasure to work with throughout. Shoutout, Karl!”
Looking Ahead
For Summit, implementing MergeUp was not simply about adopting a new document generation platform. It was about building a document generation strategy that could scale alongside the business.
Today, the team has a scalable platform that automates critical workflows, reduces licensing costs, removes licensing constraints, simplifies administration, and is well positioned to support future growth as Summit continues expanding its Salesforce ecosystem.