Beyond the Spec: How Catalyst Acoustics Group Connects Products, Projects, and People

Company Name: Catalyst Acoustics Group

Location: United States & Canada

Industry sector: Across industries and markets

Products used: RIB SpecLink

“SpecLink reporting helps us identify who’s specifying products we sell and uncover new opportunities in our markets.”
Shannon Fleury – Lead Generation Manager, Catalyst Acoustics Group

The Customer

Catalyst Acoustics Group is the parent company of an elite group of acoustic, seismic, vibration and noise control brands including  Fräsch, IAC Acoustics, Kinetics Noise Control, Lamvin, Madrid, Noise Barriers, RealAcoustix, and Sound Seal. With manufacturing centers in California, Utah, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, and Massachusetts, and the broadest portfolio of noise control solutions across the North American market, they share a relentless desire to be a best-in-class acoustics manufacturer and solutions provider.

The Mission

Catalyst Acoustic Group’s market spans the entire architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector, including commercial, residential, hospitality, medical, educational, manufacturing, and governmental projects. Knowing which projects are specifying the acoustic, seismic, vibration, and noise control products they sell helps target their marketing and sales to ensure that designers, specifiers, and contractors discover their products. It means getting the right information in front of the right eyes to influence specifications before bid and procurement stages, and tracking products mentioned in project documents. It was only when they were introduced to RIB SpecLink that they realized they needed value beyond specification as a design resource.

The Solution

Catalyst Acoustics Group previously used other platforms to build contact lists of companies that they believed were specifying in their markets. The filters and criteria available in these reports sometimes cast too wide of a net, providing prospects outside of their scope of work. Not being able to track how their specifications were performing was a big concern for them. This, in addition to SpecLink’s reporting tools, motivated their move to RIB SpecLink.

The Result

The biggest difference that using SpecLink has made for Catalyst Acoustics Group is visibility. The reports they generate from SpecLink highlight companies that are actually specifying their products, and they can learn which companies are specifying in their areas of manufacturing – and this creates an opportunity for discussion. From a competitive point of view, not only are they able to target specific territories, but they can also see how they’re faring against their competitors.

Making the right noises about noise reduction – where it matters

More than 75,000 design projects are created every year in SpecLink, and more than 38,000[AR1] building owners and design professionals rely on SpecLink for their specification needs. They know the information is vetted, which not only reduces the time they spend on researching products, but it also ensures that they make accurate selections. The way it works and helps is by:

• Automatically updating spec content
• Leveraging global terms to manage recurring info
• Maintaining multiple office masters

The results are real-time visibility and coordination of current information, promoting accuracy, efficiency, and risk reduction.

Moving to SpecLink meant no more static text- and document-based spec authoring, old specs being put in the wrong divisions, an end to zero market visibility and limited integration potential, and no more manual updates.

Catalyst Acoustic Group has been using RIB Software since September 2023 and since then, they have benefited from linked, object-based data, analytics on active projects, and real-time cloud updates with a collaborative approach.

“Being able to meet with the spec writing team when creating a new specification and discuss their recommendations has been informative and helpful. We also appreciate having the ability and ease to make changes to our specifications at any time.”
Shannon Fleury – Lead Generation Manager

RIB SpecLink has delivered value through strategic insight beyond just better specs. Through these data-driven insights, Catalyst Acoustic Group can now:

• understand where their noise control solutions fit in the market
• target architects and engineers earlier
• quantify and expand their specification footprint

They can outline product design, material tolerances, production methods, assembly instructions, testing procedures, and other relevant product details in SpecLink to inform the decisions of potential customers and support quality control. As AEC customers source proprietary content directly from the manufacturers, it supports relationship building and empowers Catalyst Acoustic Group with better control over how their products are presented in the market.

How RIB SpecLink connects people, processes, and data

When Catalyst Acoustic Group onboarded their SpecLink platform, they found the system very easy to understand and the RIB support team responsive and great to work with.  

Investing in SpecLink came with five broad benefits that made the move a no-brainer.

1. Market Intelligence: With a living database of specs across active projects, Catalyst Acoustic Group can now track how often and where their products are being specified, identify trends and emerging opportunities, and benchmark against competing products.
2. Connected Data: With automatic updates and consistent coordination across divisions, there is easier integration of product data directly into spec sections and lower risk of inconsistencies or product substitutions at project level, while Catalyst Acoustic Group can trace connections between related systems.
3. Seamless Integrations: SpecLink’s ability to integrate with CRM and marketing tools enables Catalyst Acoustic Group to connect their specification data with customer engagement efforts.
4. Real-time Insights: Catalyst Acoustic Group benefits from automatic synchronization with industry standards, while pushing product updates directly into specs and reducing administrative overhead for specifiers make their products easier to include.
5. Opportunity Identification: With data-driven insights, Catalyst Acoustic Group can now identify early-stage design intent when products are first considered, align their sales teams with active projects before bid release, and use analytics dashboards to uncover new segments or underserved markets.

The data leaves a breadcrumb trail of clues and with SpecLink analytics in hand, Catalyst Acoustic Group has been hoovering them up! The reporting tools have been very beneficial, particularly the SpecRate Trend Analysis Report that clearly shows which companies are specifying their products. They share this report with their sales reps, so that they can open a dialogue with those companies.

“We like that we can target specific territories and the ease that we can produce these reports on demand.”

They also derive great value from the SpecLive Search for Comparative Analysis to check their performance against competitors.

When asked to identify one major improvement to their business operations since switching to RIB SpecLink, they noted the ability to identify how specification listings are performing, which allows them to know where to focus their marketing efforts. Knowing where these companies are located and what divisions they are specifying in allows them to plan conversations and targeting strategies.

RIB SpecLink’s reporting functionalities leverage spec data to better target design professionals, enabling faster go-to-market strategies with actionable intelligence, higher specification rates and lower bid friction, and improved alignment between their marketing and sales teams. It has empowered Catalyst Acoustics Group to uncover new opportunities and win more projects.

“The easy, on-demand reports give us powerful insights to support our Reps and stay ahead of competitors.”
Shannon Fleury – Lead Generation Manager, Catalyst Acoustics Group