Where Hovn Actually Fits With The Tools You Already Use
If your stack “mostly works,” it’s probably all Ops and no engine for growth.
Every provider who says “our stack mostly works” is describing their operations and ignoring the two layers that actually grow the business.
Welcome back to Behind the Scenes.
Last week I asked you to do something most providers never do:
Add up the real cost of your infrastructure:
Tools + People + Missed Opportunities.
If you did that honestly, the total was probably way bigger than “our Enrollware bill” or “our website retainer.”
The moment you see that number, the same question shows up on every call:
“Okay, but I already have a stack that basically works.
What happens to it if I move to Hovn?”
This is the answer to that question.
The three stacks we see over and over
Underneath all the brand names and edge cases, almost every CPR / medical training business we talk to is one of three setups.
1. The Enrollware stack
What it looks like:
Classes live on Enrollware.
You link a single schedule page from your website.
Students register and pay there.
Enrollware sends reminders and basic notices.
You submit rosters / eCards through Enrollware and agency portals.
You export to spreadsheets whenever someone asks a “hard” question.
What it’s actually strong at:
Operations: scheduling, registration, payments, rosters, eCards. The filing/admin side of “did the class run and did people get cards?” mostly works. That’s why people stay for a decade.
Where it’s thin:
Marketing:
One main registration URL.
Almost no true class‑level pages.
“SEO” is a toggle and an email to support if you want a custom meta description.
Google sees a storefront, not your shelves. Enrollware doesn’t really help you get found.
Data:
“Students” are rows in a registration table. You export to Excel because “Student Search” gives you a list of registrations, not a person.
“Employers” are promo codes and filtered reports at month‑end, not accounts with staff and history.
Campaigns are “X days before/after class,” not driven by real expirations or relationship value.
So Enrollware gives you decent Ops, and then you, your coordinator, and your spreadsheets quietly try to be Marketing + Data.
That’s where your “People” number from last week is hiding.
2. The booking‑app stack (Acuity / Calendly + plugins)
What it looks like:
Prettier website home page (Wix, WordPress, Squarespace).
Generic scheduling widget (Acuity, Calendly, etc).
Sometimes that widget is bolted on top of Enrollware “for the look.”
Behind it: Square/Paypal, Mailchimp, agency portals, shared drives, spreadsheets.
What’s actually true:
Marketing is still weak.
You might have better keyword‑targeted pages.
But the scheduler, Wix plugin, or booking tool still doesn’t generate real class‑level SEO Google can trust as inventory.
Google sees “this business does CPR,” not “this exact BLS class, at this time, at this location.”
Operations are worse.
Unlike Enrollware or Hovn, these tools are not integrated to AHA, ARC, HSI, etc.
Rosters, cards, and blended links are all manual and spread across systems.
If you stacked a booking plugin on top of Enrollware, you kept the marketing problem, lost operational simplicity, and added a facade your staff now has to maintain.
Data is basically non‑existent.
No true student system of record.
No real employer accounts.
No network view.
You get nicer aesthetics, but Marketing is still shallow, Ops becomes manual and fragmented, and Data disappears.
You feel this as “we look better, but it’s more work and I still can’t answer basic questions.”
3. The custom‑build stack
What it looks like:
Fully custom website or portal on top of a legacy or DIY back end.
Agencies/contractors or in‑house devs did a big build.
Every change is a quote and a wait.
What’s actually true:
You’re now building the full stack from scratch:
Marketing, Operations, and Data are your responsibility.Unless you’re very large, you will almost never get deep, maintained integrations to the agencies.
Every new AHA/ARC/HSI requirement is a dev project.
Every guideline change is a risk.
You didn’t just buy software. You became a software company.
You feel this as “we can’t move” and “every guideline or agency change costs us real money.”
So where does Hovn fit, really?
Hovn is not “Enrollware but shinier,” and it’s not “a prettier booking app.”
It’s meant to sit in the middle and do three jobs at once:
Marketing layer:
The class you post tomorrow is automatically its own, structured, bookable page in Google.
You don’t email anyone, you don’t toggle a hidden setting, you don’t hire a dev. Your inventory is actually visible.
Operations layer:
Registration, payments, blended learning delivery, reminders, rosters, certifications all run through one workflow built for CPR, not haircuts.
The thing your coordinator currently holds together with five tools and a checklist becomes “how the platform works.”
Data layer:
You can pull up “Acme Dental” and see staff, classes, and history without touching Excel.
Students are real profiles you can track across time.
Your catalog is version‑aware, so guideline shifts are a rollout, not a rebuild.
Renewals and reporting run off actual history, not guesses.
We’re built to solve the real problem, not just crank out features.
For example: today, we also don’t give employers their own login to manage staff directly.
But under the hood, they already exist as first‑class entities in the data model. That’s the difference between “we can turn on an employer view when it’s ready” and “we’d have to re‑architect the whole product to do that.”
Hovn’s bet is simple: if Marketing, Operations, and Data don’t work together natively, you’re always going to be the glue.
What I recommend based on where you are
Now the part you actually care about: what do you do with your current stack?
If you’re on Enrollware and it “mostly works”
Don’t rip and replace your whole world on Day 1.
Plan a migration that starts at the center of your network:
Start with the classes you directly run
Your own corporate/group classes and core open‑enrollment schedule move to Hovn first.You control both demand and delivery.
This is where the Data and Marketing gaps hurt you most.
It’s where you see the before/after fastest.
Prove the push model on your own inventory
Once your own classes are running through Hovn, you can actually see:Employer accounts with staff and history.
Students as real profiles instead of exports.
Classes showing up in Google as individual, bookable pages.
Then roll it out to your network
After the core is working, you extend Hovn to your sites/instructors.
Not as “here’s a new tool you have to use,” but as:
“Here’s the system we’re already using that can actually send you students and handle the admin.”
That’s how TCs and large sites are rolling out Hovn right now: core first, network second.
If you’ve been following this series, this is where the card‑mill death loop, the DoorDash problem, and the filing‑cabinet trap all converge: you’ve been running pull‑network infrastructure.
Starting your own classes on Hovn is the first step toward a push network.
If you’re on a booking‑app stack
Here, there is no network to shepherd. It’s usually you, maybe a small team.
The move is simpler:
Switch to Hovn and use it as your operating system and data layer for your classes.
Keep your domain, brand, and list.
Replace the widgets and duct tape with an OS that handles the class lifecycle end‑to‑end and is actually wired to the agencies.
If you’re on (or scoping) a custom build
Stop paying to build generic infrastructure.
Use Hovn for the boring, repeatable plumbing and reserve “custom” for the 10 percent that’s truly unique to you.
Otherwise, you’re signing up to be a software company and an integration shop, on top of running a training business.
This week’s action step: Score your stack like an owner
Pull out last week’s list: every tool, every chunk of coordinator time, every “we just do it manually.”
Next to each line item, write:
M if it’s really doing Marketing (helps you get found)
O if it’s really doing Operations (helps you run & complete classes)
D if it’s really giving you reusable Data (students, employers, history you act on)
Now total the dollars in each bucket.
Most providers discover they’re paying “all‑in‑one” money for a stack that is 80–90 percent O, thin D, and almost no real M.
That’s why it feels like your tools are “fine,” you’re working hard… and nothing truly compounds.
If you want a second set of eyes, that’s what we do on a walkthrough: we’ll map your stack live, label every line item M/O/D, and show you exactly where Hovn would fit and how that rollout would actually look for you.
— Jon & Shubs
Co‑founders, Hovn
If you missed any of the earlier posts in this series, here they are:
Next week: I’ll deconstruct Hovn’s core pillars – the actual building blocks under everything I’ve described so far – and walk through a feature-level tour so you can see how it all works together in the real product.