CASE STUDY: PEC Markets Inc.
Scaling Beyond the Spreadsheet: How PEC Markets Inc. Automated Operations and Reclaimed Strategic Time Within Their Existing Budget
The Context: A High-Stakes Operational Bottleneck
PEC Markets Inc. (PECMI) operates a successful portfolio of culinary and artisan festivals across Ontario, including the Great Canadian Chocolate Affair and the Great Canadian Cheese Festival.
When PECMI first reached out to WallDX, they were weeks away from a major launch. Their operational systems were fragmented across multiple disconnected spreadsheets, and the small core team was spending hundreds of hours on manual administrative tasks.
They did not need a massive, corporate IT department or an expensive proprietary software package. They needed a fractional partner to step in, clean up their infrastructure, and connect their tools so they could run their business efficiently.
The Core Transformation
WallDX worked alongside PECMI’s leadership to implement four key operational pillars:
1. The Centralized “Operational Brain” (Simple CRM)
- The Challenge: Crucial business data—including history with hundreds of past vendors, sales forecasts, and partner communications—was locked in individual spreadsheets across different festival brands. This made it difficult for the team to share information, track vendor crossover, or plan future events.
- The Solution: WallDX selected, configured, and implemented a centralized, easy-to-use CRM system. We migrated their legacy data and structured the database to track partners across multiple distinct events. Instead of static files, PECMI now has a single, searchable database where a vendor’s history across the Chocolate, Cheese, and Christmas festivals is retained in one profile.
2. Automated B2B Intake Pipelines
- The Challenge: Onboarding vendors involved back-and-forth emails, PDF forms, and manual data entry to keep tracking sheets updated.
- The Solution: We replaced manual paperwork with structured online application forms that feed directly into the CRM. When a vendor applies, their details, contact information, and documentation are automatically captured. This reduces manual data entry, shortens the onboarding cycle, and keeps records accessible to all PECMI staff in real time.
3. Low-Effort B2B and B2C Email Operations
- The Challenge: Coordinating logistics with hundreds of vendors (B2B) while promoting events to thousands of ticket buyers (B2C) was a time-consuming manual effort.
- The Solution: We integrated clean, authenticated email delivery systems with the CRM. PECMI can now deploy targeted marketing campaigns and critical transactional updates quickly. The performance of these emails is easily measurable, showing exactly which campaigns drive ticket sales and vendor engagement.
4. The Connected Digital Flywheel (In Action)
Because these systems are built on a shared, multi-site architecture, PECMI can execute localized campaigns across different event brands without duplicating their administrative work:
- The B2B Cross-Promotion Flow: A vendor applies via an Online Form for one event
→→their profile is saved in the central CRM→→when PECMI launches their next seasonal festival, they can instantly invite approved vendors from previous events using centralized, authenticated email domains (ops.pecmi.ca). - The B2C Marketing Flow: Once a vendor is approved, a stylized profile card is generated on the specific festival website. PECMI uses these active web profiles to run targeted social media campaigns, driving high-intent traffic to the event site and straight to the checkout.
- The Outcome: This connected loop increases web traffic, drives ticket sales, and gives vendors measurable digital exposure—all managed systematically without manual design work or administrative overhead for each individual website.
The Business Impact: More Value, Same Budget
This transformation did not require PECMI to increase their technology spend. Instead, WallDX redirected existing budgets from disjointed, low-value platforms into an integrated network that scales.
- Complete Operational Visibility: Leadership can view the real-time state of vendor applications, ticket sales, and outreach campaigns across their entire portfolio of events to make informed planning decisions.
- Rapid Portfolio Scalability: Because the core operational template (database structure, application forms, email setups) is centralized, PECMI can now launch a new festival brand or website in a fraction of the time and cost of starting from scratch.
- Reclaimed Staff Capacity: By automating manual data transfer between forms, spreadsheets, and websites, PECMI staff are free to focus on building stronger, face-to-face relationships with vendors, sponsors, and attendees.
- Data-Backed Future Planning: Rather than guessing, the team can analyze search data, sitemap downloads, and ticketing clicks to continually refine their event layout, pricing, and scheduling.
In Their Own Words
“WallDX didn’t just hand us a website—they gave us our operational freedom. During our busiest weeks, having Mia and Kevin handling our email operations, data, and technical execution is like having a seasoned IT and operations department on call. They are the duct tape holding our digital world together so we can focus on building outstanding experiences.”
— Patricia McDermott, CEO, PEC Markets Inc.
“We are actually working from real data and analytics now—last year we were guessing, which was a tough way to run a business. WallDX has completely modernized how we communicate with our vendors and our audience, and the results are showing in our ticket sales.”
— Rosalind, Chief of Staff, PEC Markets Inc.
What This Means for Your Business
You do not need to spend more money to get better business results; you need your existing budget directed more intelligently. WallDX serves as your fractional operational partner to make that happen:
- We audit and clean up your setup: Connecting the tools you already use.
- We build simple, automated pipelines: Eliminating manual data entry.
- We train your team: Ensuring the systems we build are easy to run day-to-day.
- We do the heavy lifting: Managing the technical backend so you can focus on growing your business.