Multifaceted distributor sweeps away legacy ERP, Magento and Salesforce.com with NetSuite in just four months
SAN MATEO, Calif.—June 7, 2016—NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry’s leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP and omnichannel commerce software suites, today announced that leading chimney services and supply company Lindemann Chimney has implemented NetSuite in just four months to fuel its omnichannel business spanning direct telesales, B2B and B2C ecommerce and Amazon distribution. Lindemann now relies on NetSuite to run its end-to-end ERP, ecommerce, manufacturing, order management and inventory management systems to enable its expansion from a local services company to a national, omnichannel manufacturer and distributor.
What started as a one-man, part-time chimney services company in Chicago has grown into a well-known and trusted brand with 90,000 local service customers. The company has also expanded into a bicoastal manufacturing and supply business, boasting 8,000 B2B clients that provide similar services across the US. Lindemann’s legacy systems and outdated software could no longer support its growing operations with order, inventory and customer data inaccuracies and costly, manual and error-prone processes to move data from one siloed system to another. The company required a scalable solution to manage, grow and unify its existing B2B channels that include its website, Amazon distribution and sales representatives, while cost-effectively launching its new B2C channel.
Lindemann chose NetSuite’s cloud-based platform to consolidate systems, streamline operations and help enable its transformation into a true omnichannel business. On the front end, Lindemann replaced its Magento ecommerce site with NetSuite SuiteCommerce to support its B2B clients and create a new B2C online channel on the same platform. From the website, business buyers can manage and make payments, print statements and manage invoices and view account balances. With these enhancements, Lindemann expects to reduce traditional call center volume by 75 percent and free up sales representatives to focus on growing revenue. Lindemann’s online, direct-to-consumer business helps the company reach new markets with a more consistent product and services revenue stream extending beyond the busy fall season of chimney maintenance and other services. Consumers also benefit from online, self-service capabilities that include the ability to check order status and track shipments.
Lindemann also wanted to minimise integrations from its online storefront to its back office systems. For ERP, NetSuite replaced Lindemann’s legacy financial software. No longer must the company endure a painstaking, month-end close process by manually consolidating separate data sources for customer service, distribution, manufacturing and financial information. With centralised order and inventory management, Lindemann gains real-time inventory visibility across all of its distribution centers for better forecasting, lower shipping costs and an improved order experience for customers. Managing and forecasting inventory has shifted the company’s focus from a laborious process of exporting order and inventory data into spreadsheets to making timely, informed business decisions. As part of the deployment NetSuite also integrates with Amazon and its third-party logistics (3PL) freight provider. Lindemann also replaced Salesforce.com with NetSuite CRM to gain a single record for each customer, eliminating the manual process of copying and pasting customer data from Salesforce.com into its legacy financial software.
“We wanted a single system for our entire business to help continue our growth and expansion into new markets,” Lindemann President Michael Boudart said. “From the very start, the NetSuite team leveraged its knowledge of the technology and our industry, so we deployed successfully and quickly.”
With NetSuite, Lindemann has gained the following benefits:
Omnichannel brand experiences. Business buyers and retail customers experience a consistent and seamless buying journey as they traverse both online and offline channels, from product purchases to service offerings, to help to increase their brand loyalty and repeat purchases along the way.
One website for B2B and B2C. A single webstore supports ecommerce for business and consumer users, providing the agility and flexibility to help merchants more cost effectively launch new business and consumer channels, and remain industry leaders.
Self-service account management. Business buyers can access their account online to view invoices, make payments against open invoices, review past orders and easily reorder products and services, allowing call center representatives to focus on offering value-add services and building brand loyalty.
Enriched online experience. Lindemann aims to be the go-to source of information about chimney services with SuiteCommerce’s ability to support videos and other, how-to website content about its own products and service practices to educate its business and retail customers.
Single view of every customer. NetSuite unifies all customer information captured within NetSuite is unified into a single profile. Customer service representatives get an immediate, 360-degree view of any customer in real time to help them provide better service.
Data-driven decisions. With a unified platform, Lindemann has real-time access to a single source of data across its entire enterprise to make better informed decisions that help it to enable and advance its new and existing business opportunities.
Native cloud solution. Version lock, painful upgrades and maintaining on-premise systems can all go away. Instead, Lindemann gets automatic product updates and a platform that allows for easy customizations and integrations.
Today, more than 30,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex, mission-critical business processes globally in the cloud. Since its inception in 1998, NetSuite has established itself as the leading provider of cloud-based financials/enterprise resource planning (ERP) and omnichannel commerce software applications for businesses of all sizes. Many FORTUNE 100 companies rely on NetSuite to accelerate innovation and business transformation. NetSuite continues its success in delivering the best cloud business management software to businesses around the world, enabling them to lower IT costs significantly while increasing productivity, as the global adoption of the cloud accelerates.
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