Online retailer ecoHarmony chose NoBlue to implement NetSuite and integrate it with its other systems. NoBlue’s assistance in helping ecoHarmony to obtain a vital government grant enabled the company to realise the project.
NetSuite has since helped ecoHarmony immeasurably during the coronavirus pandemic. It has allowed the staff to continue to have easy access to the system from home, which has meant they have been able to continue to trade and remain open for business for their customers.
ecoHarmony
ecoHarmony is an ecommerce operation that specialises in selling ecological and responsibly-sourced goods aimed at those that are conscious about the conserving the environment. The company sells a range of chargers and accessories for electric vehicles, solar and photovoltaic controllers, as well as bamboo drinking straws.
Stuck with a legacy system that wasn’t fit for purpose
The company had been using some legacy software that had been used by its sister company. Essentially, the software was more of a material requirements planning (MRP) system, rather than an ERP. Unlike its sister company, though, ecoHarmony is not a manufacturer, so the emphasis on control of bill of materials and works orders, and on logging manufacturing operations, was no use to them.
Said Jack Glover, Director of ecoHarmony, “Access to real-time data was limited and the system wasn’t scalable in a sensible way for us.”
At the time, rapidly-deploying a cloned system like this was cost-effective and was an ideal solution for the start-up company. ecoHarmony continued using this software for four years. But it only ever used about 30-40% of its capabilities, mainly the sales and purchase order processing functionality that the ecommerce aspects of the operation demanded.
On top of that, with other systems in use, like Xero accounting software, some processes were being duplicated such that data was being replicated on more than one application. The company had also moved premises and was employing VPNs and remote desktop applications so it could still access the software, which was still on-premise at its old location, where the sister company continued to operate. ecoHarmony wanted to break the dependency on the legacy software that had been shoe-horned into its own operation and was inadequate for its basic needs.
Helping to secure the funding
After scoping out around seven different software systems, Jack Glover settled on NetSuite and NoBlue as a provider. As a small company, ecoHarmony was unable to fully fund the project. But NoBlue helped the company to obtain a government grant that contributed the vital funds for the implementation.
NoBlue deployed NetSuite for ecoHarmony, and in tandem with the company’s Shopify website, the system captures the company’s mainly B2C orders.
Gaining efficiency and visibility and staying open for business during the pandemic
Once NetSuite had been set up and integrated, and the ecoHarmony staff had got over the initial learning curve, the company saw that efficiency has been enhanced and they are seeing the benefits of their new system. Said Jack, “There’s an improvement in the accounting side of things and we’re no longer duplicating work.”
Visibility into cash flow, receivables and financial and operational risk is critical. Plus, the company can now prioritise its KPIs and delve into the numbers that matter to them, with NetSuite’s multi-dimensional reporting.
While it wasn’t something the company had planned for, the current situation has demonstrated how NetSuite’s ability to allow users to work from anywhere has been extremely beneficial. “With the current situation, I’ve had to send all my office staff home, and this would have been a nightmare had we still been using the previous system.”
Continued Jack, “The whole idea that the system is accessed via the internet and is cloud-based has allowed us to adapt to this current situation. We can check inventory and process almost everything from anywhere. This also allows us to envision working from home scenarios in the future too.”
Read the full ecoHarmony case study to learn more. If you’re a small company that would also like to future-proof your business using NetSuite’s cloud-based ERP software, linked to a Magento, Shopify or WooCommerce website, we can give you a hand. For a free business consultation and quote, book an appointment now or contact us. We can also help you to secure a government grant towards the costs.
