Business Software

How'd you like to be able to give your CRM software vendor this recommendation:

"NetSuite (News - Alert) has simplified our company's operations, given us great efficiency, power, and flexibility, helped us do business on the Web, and has helped unify our customer touchpoints by linking CRM with ERP and Ecommerce.  In IT, NetSuite changed our role.  We're not traditional IT anymore -- we now spend our time adding value rather than answering requests."

That's from Advantage Sign Supply, talking about their recent NetSuite CRM software installation.

They're a large supplier of sign-making materials and components, and they wanted to attract more franchise customers, improve profitability. Hey who wouldn't?

They have to deal with over 15,000 SKUs and frequent price changes by materials suppliers, and were trying to keep a handle on it all with fragmented IT systems, forcing company to set prices manually, SKU by SKU.

The company wanted to be able to negotiate standardized pricing for all franchise stores and quickly change prices to maintain profitability. For this they needed better per-product profitability reporting, as well as more efficient, reliable daily posting capabilities.

Perhaps most importantly, they realized they needed to launch a Web site in response to competition.

So they replaced a combination of Counterpoint and in-house software with NetSuite ERP, CRM, and E-commerce applications, putting all 85 employees, in field and across nine company facilities, on NetSuite.

Today their NetSuite Advanced Shipping integrates order management with warehouse software to automate picking, packing, and shipping, and Advantage Sign Supply is now using NetSuite partner SPS Commerce for outsourced EDI.

The results are as good as they'd hoped. "NetSuite has helped cut the time required to set or change prices, from two hours to just 10 minutes for about 500 prices, and the per-item percentage reporting now helps us monitor profitability in real-time," company officials say.

Daily and monthly postings don't require system shut-down and backup, as they did before. Integrated order processing has improved sales efficiency and customer relations, cutting the time required to take orders by 66 percent.

The electronic invoicing now saving about $1,000 per month over costs of paper mailings, and the Web site attracts up to 50 new customers per month, accounting for 11 percent of revenues.

You can see why they're pleased.