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October 23, 2007
Best Kiteboarding Sails with CRM Solution from NetSuite
By Patrick Barnard, Senior Web Editor, TMCnet
When Best Kiteboarding, a leading maker of kiteboarding and snowkite gear based in Delray Beach, Fla., started witnessing explosive growth in 2005 it faced a challenge in upgrading its front and back-office operations. At that time, the company was still using manual processes to create invoices to send orders internationally – and its front and back office systems were yet to be integrated.
“The original system that was put in place never linked up properly," said Troy Lawson, COO of Best Kiteboarding, in a customer testimonial found on CRM solutions vendor NetSuite’s (News - Alert) Web site. "Our front-end wasn't as stable or flexible as we would have liked, and there was a lot of duplicate entry required to keep the systems in sync.”
Lawson added that very often data had to be entered into three different places, and “data entry cost us so much time that as an organization, we couldn't grow as quickly as we needed to.”
“We were running at full speed, but we weren't getting anywhere," he said. “We had customized our shopping cart to the point where we couldn't develop it anymore—we were stuck. We could never upgrade or increase its capabilities …”
Fortunately, the company turned to NetSuite to revamp its front and back office operations. Lawson said since switching over to the NetSuite system, data entry expense has been slashed by over one-third and the company is now able to keep all orders and invoices in one consolidated database. Thanks to NetSuite's product matrix, managing pricing and availability is no longer a headache. Now, the company's wholesale customers can place their orders directly online, rather than waiting for paper invoices to be processed. In addition, NetSuite’s system lets the company tailor its pricing to many different types of customers, including its wholesale customers. In fact, this led the company to develop a new method of tailoring on its Web site that lets customers to fully configure their custom kiteboarding rig with fewer screens.
This, Lawson said, helps get the company’s customers “through the shopping cart and to the checkout quicker, which was one of our goals.”
Lawson said Best Kiteboarding decided to go with NetSuite’s system after undertaking an “exhaustive” search. He said the company evaluated about 80 systems, “and this system was the only one that met all of our requirements.”
Lawson said prior to adopting the system, very few of Best Kiteboarding’s supplying vendors were prepared to meet the company’s requirements for customizable products. In addition, Best Kiteboarding was unable to support automatic tracking and crediting of affiliate marketers who direct buyers to the company through third-party Web sites. Now, the affiliate performance is recorded in NetSuite's Partner Center, where both internal sales managers and the affiliates can monitor it.
In addition, NetSuite has enabled Best Kiteboarding to integrate PayPal’s payment service, which was a huge improvement over its previous ecommerce application. As of the time of the testimonial, the company was also planning to integrate with the FedEx shipping module, as well as multi-location inventory software to track its stock.
To read this and other fascinating testimonials attesting to advantages of NetSuite’s CRM solutions, click here.
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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for Customer Interaction Solutions magazine and Assignment Editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.
“The original system that was put in place never linked up properly," said Troy Lawson, COO of Best Kiteboarding, in a customer testimonial found on CRM solutions vendor NetSuite’s (News - Alert) Web site. "Our front-end wasn't as stable or flexible as we would have liked, and there was a lot of duplicate entry required to keep the systems in sync.”
Lawson added that very often data had to be entered into three different places, and “data entry cost us so much time that as an organization, we couldn't grow as quickly as we needed to.”
“We were running at full speed, but we weren't getting anywhere," he said. “We had customized our shopping cart to the point where we couldn't develop it anymore—we were stuck. We could never upgrade or increase its capabilities …”
Fortunately, the company turned to NetSuite to revamp its front and back office operations. Lawson said since switching over to the NetSuite system, data entry expense has been slashed by over one-third and the company is now able to keep all orders and invoices in one consolidated database. Thanks to NetSuite's product matrix, managing pricing and availability is no longer a headache. Now, the company's wholesale customers can place their orders directly online, rather than waiting for paper invoices to be processed. In addition, NetSuite’s system lets the company tailor its pricing to many different types of customers, including its wholesale customers. In fact, this led the company to develop a new method of tailoring on its Web site that lets customers to fully configure their custom kiteboarding rig with fewer screens.
This, Lawson said, helps get the company’s customers “through the shopping cart and to the checkout quicker, which was one of our goals.”
Lawson said Best Kiteboarding decided to go with NetSuite’s system after undertaking an “exhaustive” search. He said the company evaluated about 80 systems, “and this system was the only one that met all of our requirements.”
Lawson said prior to adopting the system, very few of Best Kiteboarding’s supplying vendors were prepared to meet the company’s requirements for customizable products. In addition, Best Kiteboarding was unable to support automatic tracking and crediting of affiliate marketers who direct buyers to the company through third-party Web sites. Now, the affiliate performance is recorded in NetSuite's Partner Center, where both internal sales managers and the affiliates can monitor it.
In addition, NetSuite has enabled Best Kiteboarding to integrate PayPal’s payment service, which was a huge improvement over its previous ecommerce application. As of the time of the testimonial, the company was also planning to integrate with the FedEx shipping module, as well as multi-location inventory software to track its stock.
To read this and other fascinating testimonials attesting to advantages of NetSuite’s CRM solutions, click here.
---------
Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for Customer Interaction Solutions magazine and Assignment Editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.
