Bloom & Grow selects NetSuite OneWorld

Bloom & Grow selects NetSuite OneWorld : NetSuite announced that Bloom & Grow, a leading Asian wholesale distributor of baby, infant and maternity products, has selected NetSuite OneWorld to power its core business processes and to expedite its expansion across Asia and Australia. The wholesale distributor replaced its own custom-built on-premise ERP software with a single instance of NetSuite OneWorld to manage its financial consolidation, inventory management, order management, tax compliance, and customer relationship management (CRM). The company is also leveraging NetSuite’s superior omnichannel commerce platform to support its B2B ecommerce.

Established 10 years ago, Bloom & Grow represents some of the premium baby, infant and maternity brands from the U.S. and U.K. in the Asia Pacific region. As the company rapidly expanded across Asia Pacific, Bloom & Grow developed its own open source ERP platform to meet the needs of the First-In, First-Out (FIFO) accounting standard. However, the three-tier client server architecture of the platform—which was hosted on servers in Hong Kong with VPN access from Bloom & Grow's other offices—could only be accessed from one terminal and often had technical issues and was not mobile accessible. The company made a swift decision to dismantle its platform and move to cloud-based ERP software. It initially reviewed solutions from MYOB, which was too Australia-focused, as well as SAP and Oracle, which were too complex and expensive, before identifying NetSuite as an ideal partner that offered the flexibility, scalability, agility and speed of implementation that the company was looking for, as well as offering the cloud-based, ERP and multi-currency capable features that were essential to the organisation.

NetSuite now provides Bloom & Grow with the following key features and benefits:

• B2B ecommerce. Bloom & Grow recently migrated from a custom-built ecommerce site to NetSuite SuiteCommerce to power its B2B ecommerce website. The company's previous website had limited functionality, lacked ecommerce capabilities and was ill-suited to the multi-country footprint of Bloom & Grow. With the new site, Bloom & Grow's B2B retail customers have access to a superior consumer-like online shopping experience where they can log in to the B2B portal and browse and purchase products online, anytime and from anywhere. The new site has also transformed its content marketing capabilities and is customised per region. As a direct result, stock availability is now available in real-time on the site, which ensures customer satisfaction.

• Real-Time analytics and reporting. To maximise profits and streamline operations, NetSuite's dashboards, reporting and analytical tools enable Bloom & Grow to monitor, report and analyse overall business performance in real-time. The management team can now access detailed insights into its business, wherever they happen to be in Asia Pacific, which has significantly improved the company's confidence and speed at which it is able to make more informed business decisions.

• Inventory management. NetSuite's Advanced Inventory management feature gives real-time, detailed visibility into key inventory control and supply chain management measures, including inventory trends, stock on order and supplier on-time performance. It has given Bloom & Grow the tools to effectively measure its stock turn. This enhanced and real-time insight has enabled the company to reduce its stock turn and positively manage its cash flow.

• Data consistency. NetSuite provides 100 percent consistent and up-to-date information, regardless of the location. Bloom & Grow's previous system produced inconsistent data and the move to NetSuite has transformed data consistency, reporting and budget projections across the organisation.

• Cost savings. NetSuite has eliminated the need for Bloom & Grow to pay software developer expenses, and removed the requirement to buy servers, pay server hosting fees and manage a firewall. The subscription model has enabled it to cost effectively and immediately add users and clients to its core business systems, as the business continues to expand; and is a variable cost on the company's P&L. In addition, the cost of building its new B2B website was a quarter of its previous build costs.

• Time savings. Bloom & Grow's previous financial software took several weeks to close each month. With NetSuite OneWorld's real-time financial management, this can now be done in a matter of days. The company can also process orders, raise sales orders and cut invoices faster with a much more user friendly cloud system.

• Improved staff morale. The deployment of NetSuite has been a morale booster for Bloom & Grow's staff, as the introduction of a world class system has transformed efficiency and effectiveness across the organisation and eliminated frustrating and laborious business processes. For example, an invoice can now be raised within three clicks versus its previous highly customised, complex and lengthy process.