NetSuite for Wholesale

Just Off Base Case Study

"We experienced an immediate 30% increase in business when NetSuite was installed. It was incredible.” — Tim James-Parker, Partner Justoffbase

At A Glance:

• Company: Justoffbase
• Location: Suffolk, UK
• Industry: Electronic Commerce; Wholesale/Distribution
• Challenges: - Drop-ship operation required real-time communication with suppliers - Non integrated sales and financial systems meant manually duplicating data entry
• Software switched from: custom-built systems
• Results with NetSuite: - Automating routine processes and integrating company-wide operations produced a 30% increase in business - Small team of staff process over 40 orders daily and generate a multi-million pound turnover by performing more profitable strategic tasks - Automated invoice/order reconciliation reduces lost capital from billing error - Hosted system eliminates maintenance and majority of IT costs

The Results:

Automating routine business tasks by integrating front-end Web applications with back-office financials has turned Justoffbase’s online business into an international operation with a multi-million pound turnover. According to Justoffbase partner, Tim James-Parker, “We experienced an immediate 30% increase in business when NetSuite was implemented. It was incredible.”

A minimum Justoffbase staff process around 40 orders per day from business-to-business customers and consumers purchasing tools and other hardware equipment. As time is not wasted handling standard business processes, the team can concentrate on timely follow-up of repeat orders, notifying customers of special promotions, and so on.

A hosted service delivers further savings. NetSuite handles all maintenance, guaranteeing maximum uptime and use of the latest technology. “My main concern with a hosted system was availability,” explains Tim James-Parker. “However, this hasn’t been an issue. In fact, we probably have an advantage as we mainly use the system when NetSuite’s US customers are offline and so have more bandwidth to ourselves.”

The Challenges:

Web-based Justoffbase operates a purely ‘drop-ship’ operation which allows costs to be kept down as no stock is held internally. Justoffbase handles order and payment processing whilst the product manufacturers take care of fulfilment and despatch.

Justoffbase developed numerous systems to manage these processes. However, keeping these up-to-date with technological advancements was expensive and required experienced IT skills. Because the systems were stand alone, orders had to be transferred manually from the Web to the manufacturers’ systems. The absence of integration between sales and accounts meant tracking incoming payments, and checking manufacturers invoices had to be performed manually.

According to Tim James-Parker, “A reliable and up-to-date infrastructure is crucial to running a Web business 24x7 with no downtime. Because we work on a drop-ship basis, fast communication with manufacturers is essential for good customer service. Eliminating wasted staff resources through badly managed processes was necessary to improving our bottom line.”

The Solution:

“NetSuite was the only solution that offered a business of our size the ability to automate standard processes from one end of the business to the other,” explains Tim James-Parker.

Now customers enter orders directly onto the system. Data links to manufacturers systems enable real-time product availability, pricing and accurate delivery dates for out-of-stock items to be displayed on the Justoffbase Web site. Once order entry is completed, details are routed electronically to the manufacturer for handling packaging and despatch direct to the customer.

NetSuite creates comprehensive customer records for each transaction. Staff is alerted to any problems with the transaction, dealing with them promptly as all the relevant information is quickly accessible through their dashboard. Fast response has given Justoffbase a competitive edge, as has providing customers with the ability to view their order histories and track orders online.

Customers can also amend data about themselves through the Web site. According to Tim James-Parker “this helps us meet the three key responsibilities required by the Data Protection Act—customer data stored on our system is always available, accurate and only kept for the required length of time. Meeting these responsibilities is an issue for small businesses where limited knowledge and manpower make it difficult to meet these complicated demands. NetSuite has simplified this for us. We can now avoid the heavy penalties that non-compliance incurs.”

With NetSuite, Justoffbase manages finances effectively via central billing accounts created for each customer. Payment is accepted when the order is placed, or by system-generated invoices that are automatically despatched by fax, post or email depending on the customer’s preference. Overdue payments are highlighted so staff can take prompt action to recover outstanding amounts. The system’s multi-currency facility simplifies dealing with overseas orders.

Cash flow is further protected as NetSuite will automatically check the thousands of items that manufacturers invoice Justoffbase for against actual customer orders. Non-matching items are highlighted for querying so over payments are avoided. This was previously impossible to manage manually as it was also too time consuming and labour-intensive for a small staff.

For more information regarding NetSuite please visit www.netsuite.co.uk