My Flat in London, Dale & Thomas Popcorn, Bonjour Fleurette, and Timbuk2 Run Their Businesses on NetSuite for Ecommerce, Financials, and CRM
San Mateo, CA and London – December 16, 2004 – NetSuite, Inc. today announced that among its more than 1000 ecommerce customers, several well-known fashion and retail companies are leveraging NetSuite for ecommerce success for the 2004 holiday season. This list includes My Flat in London (Frenchtown, N.J.), maker of high-end designer bags; Dale & Thomas Popcorn (Lyndhurst, N.J.), retailer of Indiana-style popcorn and co-owned by NBA great Isiah Thomas; Bonjour Fleurette (Novato, Calif.), designer of flower slippers and seen frequently on the show Sex in the City; and Timbuk2 (San Francisco), maker of custom messenger bags. Each of these companies has received national attention and has been extremely successful in competing in the competitive fashion and retail industries. One of the keys to their success is NetSuite. For more stories on NetSuite customers please go to www.netsuite.com/customers.
By standardizing on NetSuite, companies deliver an “Amazon.com-like” experience for a fraction of the cost. NetSuite delivers an easy-to-use, low cost solution that eliminates the technical challenges of bringing all aspects of a business to the Web. NetSuite automates everything from designing, hosting, and managing the Web site; to tracking customers the moment they enter the site; to enabling online transactions whether via credit card or purchase order; to automating back-office inventory processes; to delivering unparalleled online customer service such as 24/7 access to order history, package tracking and multi-level support. In addition, NetSuite gives businesses the power of a Fortune 100 data center, allowing growing ecommerce companies to meet the traffic spikes associated with holiday shopping without missing a beat – or an order.
My Flat in London (www.myflatinlondon):
Todd and Jan Haedrich are more than typical husband-and-wife entrepreneurs. Todd, a venture capitalist, and Jan, a handbag and accessories designer who graduated from Harvard, together could be the next Kate and Andy Spade story. Their company My Flat in London, based in Frenchtown, N.J., is recognized as one of most unique brands in the accessories business. My Flat in London makes chic, luxury handbags targeted to the jet-set aristocrat, and sold through high-end specialty stores such as Fred Siegel and Stanley Koshak, and in ninety-one Nordstrom stores. Recent customers include Drew Barrymore, Cher, and Sandra Bullock, who will be sporting one in her upcoming Miss Congeniality 2 movie. Jan Haedrich was recently named "Handbag Designer to Watch" by Nordstrom, where customers have been known to line up for her bags.
But My Flat in London's early success is due to more than a hot product. Todd Haedrich knew straight away that a strong IT system was key. From Todd's venture days in technology he was familiar with software such as SAP and Siebel. But he also knew he needed something nimble and Web-based to support his and Jan's constant travelling to My Flat in London’s worldwide offices and stores. And, of course, the system had to be cost-effective. NetSuite fit the bill ... literally. With NetSuite, Haedrich got one, powerful Web-based system without breaking the bank.
"I absolutely love NetSuite," said Haedrich. "I use the Dashboard to monitor sales, cash flow and profitability, and our sales team uses it to take orders and service our customers; our warehouse team will soon be using it to close the loop with our inventory management and fulfilment. We're growing so fast that a scalable, customizable product like NetSuite is absolutely necessary. It is key to our growth."
Dale & Thomas Popcorn (www.daleandthomaspopcorn.com):
When basketball legend Isiah Thomas walked into Popcorn Indiana's New York retail store and asked if he could invest in the company, Warren Struhl knew he was sitting on a goldmine—or rather a popcorn mine. Popcorn Indiana was quickly renamed Dale & Thomas Popcorn with Dale, a third-generation Indiana popcorn farmer and Thomas, the most well-known popcorn lover of all time, joining forces under Struhl's guidance. A major marketing push ensued—including an appearance in Oprah Magazine's "my most favorite things." But with the 2004 holiday season looming, a cost-effective yet powerful Web presence to sell the popcorn online was needed immediately.
"Our challenge was simple: we needed a fully functional website running within two months," said Founder and CEO Warren Struhl. "We looked at other systems, but they were either a) more costly, b) not as robust, or c) not able to meet our holiday timeframe. NetSuite was the only one that had an integrated front and back-end and Web store for our light manufacturing, inventory management, and customer-facing operations. The orders are coming in quickly now, just in time for the holiday rush. We look forward to how NetSuite will scale as we grow rapidly."
Bonjour Fleurette (www.bonjourfleurette.com):
"When our founder Judi Flowers was featured on Oprah in late 2003, our Web site received 1.2 million hits and we knew we were in trouble," said Carmel Barella, Executive Vice President of Operations at Novato, Calif.-based Bonjour Fleurette, whose floral designed footwear is sold through over 1200 prestige boutiques, retailers and catalogues nationwide including the Neiman Marcus Catalogue. "We received 7,000 to 8,000 orders from that TV show, but we lost many of them as a result of our weak IT system at the time. We had to hire temporary workers just to manually take down their information and then transcribe it. That's when we switched to NetSuite, which has been wonderful. We can now process orders the same day—a huge difference from before. Whenever we have had product questions the NetSuite Support team has been fabulous—always available, patient and professional with us. Bonjour Fleurette is now preparing to receive more national publicity soon, but this time we're prepared."
Timbuk2 (www.timbuk2.com):
"For many years at Timbuk2, account management and true inventory visibility was difficult because we were using disparate business systems, including Great Plains for financials, Salesnet for sales force automation, a home-grown system for order-entry and an e-mail client for customer support," said Brian Jennings, Ecommerce Business Manager at San Francisco-based Timbuk2, which sells its distinct messenger bags direct to consumers over the Internet as well as through retailers such as REI and Apple. "Because we were using different systems, we had no unified view of our business, much less our various sales channels. But now with NetSuite, Timbuk2 has one central account management and inventory control system and all our business information is in one place. Our distributors and retailers will soon have access to their orders through the NetSuite Partner Center. Our sales have more than doubled in the last year, and last week was our biggest sales week in company history. Having NetSuite to drive our business is critical for us going forward as we grow."
NetSuite enables companies to manage all key business operations in a single, integrated system, which includes customer relationship management; order management and fulfilment; inventory management; finance; ecommerce and Web site management; and employee productivity. NetSuite is delivered as an on-demand service, so there is no hardware to procure, no large, up-front license fee, and no complex set-ups. Finally, NetSuite’s patent-pending “real-time dashboard” technology provides an easy-to-use view into role-specific business information that is always up-to-date. |
