NetSuite for Retail

Case Study for BLUW

"We operate on three continents and our business is undergoing enormous growth. It would be impossible to predict future systems and infrastructure requirements for our business. With NetSuite OneWorld, we don't have to.” — Ian Harkin, Financial Director, BLUW

At A Glance:

• Company: BLUW is an innovative product designer and manufacturer of fun novelty gadgets for people of all ages.
• Location: New York City; Hong Kong, London
• Industry: Ecommerce/Retail
• Challenges: - Needed globally accessible, real-time financials and CRM - Needed multi-location inventory and distribution chain management - Needed a single platform for e-commerce, inventory management, CRM and marketing - Needed financial consolidation of multiple locations and currencies
• Software switched from: QuickBooks
• Other software considered: SAP; Exchequer
• Results with NetSuite: - Since coming on board with NetSuite OneWorld, have experienced rapid sales growth — from £1.2 to £2.7 million - NetSuite reduces cost of IT infrastructure and support by £50,000 - OneWorld multi-company financial consolidation and global CRM - Improved team performance, including £50,000 additional savings through efficiencies of single platform
• NetSuite Partner: First Hosted Ltd (www.firsthosted.co.uk)

The Results:

As a young, dynamic entrepreneurial business, BLUW turned to NetSuite OneWorld as a single solution for rapidly developing business needs of a global nature. "We operate on three continents and our business is undergoing enormous growth," says Ian Harkin, Financial Director. "It would be impossible to predict future systems and infrastructure requirements for our business. With NetSuite, we don't have to. NetSuite gives us the flexibility to meet our future needs, whatever they are, with little or no effort and minimum cost."

For the first time, BLUW was able to formulate executive decisions on concise, accurate, real-time financial data, consolidated across multiple locations and currencies. This makes for timely and appropriate responses, essential in a rapid-growth environment. The globally accessible CRM solution for account management allows BLUW to properly manage the customer experience of world-leading retail group clients — from concept to finished product.

Multi-location inventory and distribution chain management has improved BLUW's fulfilment capability and reduced inventory investment. Partner centres and automatic sales commission tracking ensures that the complete supply chain is managed efficiently, providing a positive impact on sales.

A single platform e-commerce solution, linked to inventory, finance, CRM and marketing is the key growth engine for the BLUW business. NetSuite facilitates this with the minimum of manual intervention.

"NetSuite allows us to focus on what actually generates income for our business, and that is spending time with our customers," says Harkin. "Having everything operating on a single platform is highly efficient. Our online stores, outsourced warehousing facilities, delivery and dispatch system, and shipping are fully integrated with UPS and our payment processing with PayPal, dramatically reducing investment on overhead. Harkin explains that NetSuite OneWorld will support planned growth from current third year turnover of £2.7m to £5m, £10m, £20m and beyond.

“With NetSuite we must have saved in excess of £50,000 in computer hardware and infrastructure alone — and at least as much again in salaries and fees for maintenance and support. It makes no commercial sense for BLUW to own major infrastructural computer equipment.” — Ian Harkin Financial Director BLUW

The Challenges:

With operations in New York (USA), London (UK), Hong Kong and Shenzen (China), and warehousing in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, and Basildon, UK, BLUW, a small company in strong growth, was faced with the challenge of operating in multiple time zones across three continents. With conventional "on-premise" IT infrastructure, having a centralised server running on UK GMT time without 24 hour support meant occasional complete working days being lost due to not having access to centrally held data. Customer management information was managed locally in each country with overlaps occurring between the Hong Kong-based merchandising and UK-based sales team. Accounting systems were diverse and restricted to financial operations only. Cash management and forecasting was extremely challenging due to miscommunication — due to the lack of a centralised system. Production planning and product development were also becoming extremely difficult with localised data and lack of accountability. Having no CRM solution in place made it difficult to provide the customer experience sought. A shortage of accurate data meant that executive decisions were difficult to make, growth potential was not realised and business system overhead was disproportionately high.

The Solution:

That's when BLUW turned to NetSuite, and the results have been phenomenal.

"With NetSuite, we must have saved in excess of £50,000 in computer hardware and infrastructure alone and at least as much again in salaries and fees for IT maintenance and support," says Harkin. "It makes no commercial sense for BLUW to own computer equipment."

In June 2007, UK-based NetSuite Solution Provider First Hosted Ltd implemented NetSuite in the BLUW New York office, creating total visibility on the US operation for the executive team at head office in London.

Advantages such as integrated website, advanced financial management and many efficiency improvements compelled BLUW to commit to NetSuite OneWorld for all three operations by October 2007.

First Hosted Ltd systematically tailored the NetSuite OneWorld solution to meet BLUW's business needs in finance, e-commerce, CRM, marketing and distribution. Once configured, a combination of Web-based and one-to-one coaching and development of each location teams ensured rapid uptake of the solution and a fast track to improved operating efficiencies.

Definition of roles and identification of key performance indicators (KPIs) for the dashboards contributed to a strong and cohesive team ethic. Automated sales processes and highly efficient fulfilment and customer service processes have all contributed to significant time savings throughout the operation. The net result is increased visibility of key data, improved sales, better team communications and a closer focus on performance.

"Our demands were high" says Ian. "The system was new to everyone. The service we received from First Hosted Ltd was second to none. Their delivery and customer management in what was a highly complex system implementation was an exemplary case of how all customers should be managed. We were communicated with efficiently and nurtured through the entire process. We look forward to continuing to use the services of First Hosted Ltd for continued training for our organisation and we would recommend them to everyone. NetSuite the product, like First Hosted Ltd, is top class!"

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