QUICK READ:
- Ronin Gallery is a second-generation family business with brick-and-mortar and online art galleries.
- After running on QuickBooks, Magento, and paper ledgers, Ronin Gallery chose NetSuite ERP to “fast-track” growth.
- The team worked with NetSuite Advanced Customer Support to earn three hours back in their week from just one process adjustment.
- A three-person team uses NetSuite Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to do the work of an estimated 30 sales reps.
- Ronin Gallery’s president estimates that overall, NetSuite has helped double employee productivity.
About Ronin Gallery
Ronin Gallery is both a family business and a legacy. In the 1920s, after the Libertson family immigrated from Eastern Europe to the US, Herb Libertson’s father served as a merchant marine radio officer in ports of call including Indonesia, China, and Japan. During these stops, he collected art objects — but only those that could fit in his footlocker, making Japanese woodblock prints just the right size. Thus the Libertson family art collection began.
When Herb Libertson heard that a large collection of Japanese woodblock prints — which had belonged to Frank Lloyd Wright, no less — were on offer at a Chicago church fundraiser, he raced to buy the pieces. In 1975, he and his wife opened the Ronin Gallery in New York City.
Today, Ronin Gallery is the largest privately owned collection of Japanese woodblock prints in the country. Over 8,000 works have been cataloged so far. The company runs an online art gallery with weekly exhibitions, plus an exhibition space in New York City that hosts up to eight shows annually along with an artist-in-residence program.
A New Generation Replaces QuickBooks, Magento, and Paper Ledgers
When Herb’s son David Libertson took over the business 10 years ago, Ronin Gallery still managed inventory on the same paper ledgers it was founded with. It handled accounting in QuickBooks. Consignments were logged in five white binders that sat behind Libertson in his office. If someone needed information on a consignment but couldn’t get into his office, they had to wait.
Ronin Gallery had also contracted developers to build a proprietary ecommerce system using Magento. When Magento sold to Adobe, its open-source days were over. Ronin Gallery would have to migrate onto a subscription-based Adobe service, which would also require completely rebuilding its ecommerce system.
That’s when Libertson started looking for a long-term business management solution. He didn’t want to work in a system that relied on outside developers — with their associated fees and frequent turnover — anymore. He didn’t want to continue working in systems that didn’t talk to each other. And he certainly didn’t want to deal with APIs and manual software updates. He knew there was a better way to keep track of Ronin Gallery’s 350 art consignors and thousands of artworks, especially as those counts continued to grow.
Libertson evaluated business management solutions specific to art museums and institutions, such as Salesforce-based Veevart. Tools like Veevart and BigCommerce were fine individually, but they wouldn’t integrate well enough to support the many facets of Ronin Gallery’s business. NetSuite ERP(opens in new tab) soon emerged as an ideal solution, with a suite of integrated modules and the ability to easily accommodate any necessary customizations.
ERP Implementation as a Work of Art
Libertson described the NetSuite implementation team as “incredible.” Ronin Gallery adopted NetSuite at the peak of the pandemic, with team members working from various locales. Together, they had to digitize 45 years of data and develop an entirely new consignment process, a lofty task. But Libertson said he was never left alone to figure things out. NetSuite’s implementation consultants took the time to learn about his business, so they tailored the system excellently.
Once Ronin Gallery migrated its data to NetSuite, each consignment contract was linked directly to its consigner. Each employee had a complete view of every aspect of the business and could answer important questions without having to go through Libertson. Meanwhile, he could focus on strategic decisions.
Nowadays, Libertson works with NetSuite Advanced Customer Support(opens in new tab) (ACS), which he sees as an extension of that implementation team. NetSuite ACS acts as an embedded consultant, he said, helping Ronin Gallery find ways to use the ERP to its full potential. For example, the business had to organize inventory on its website into commerce categories, and the only way to update the site was to log out and enter a category from a different screen. Libertson presented the issue to the NetSuite ACS team, which devised a more efficient process that gave his team three hours back in their week.
A Masterpiece of Efficiency
Consolidating processes on NetSuite has dramatically simplified Ronin Gallery’s workflows, Libertson said. Previously, managing consignments required involvement from two employees. Now, they require just one because all the information is stored in one place.
Similarly, cataloging new artwork used to take two employees but now requires one, because cataloging and registering happens on the same system. Libertson estimates that overall, NetSuite automation has doubled employee productivity. The boost has allowed Ronin Gallery to run more than 50 exhibitions each year with a team of just four people total.
Meanwhile, Libertson has a clear snapshot of Ronin Gallery’s financials, as its sales software and payment system flow directly through to its accounting system. He likes being able to pull up the company’s balance sheet at any time with one click — and if the gallery is running a sale, he can see the financial effects immediately.
Other functions the team has optimized with NetSuite include:
Inventory management: Ronin Gallery has multiple offsite storage facilities for its 8,000 SKUs, and Libertson runs an “inventory room” where he keeps artwork in 110 flat-file storage drawers. Those conditions previously made it all too easy for Ronin Gallery to accidentally sell pieces in one channel that were in fact already purchased, because inventory counts hadn’t been updated yet. But telling discerning customers that the art they just bought was in fact not available anymore had the potential to damage trust. Now, Ronin Gallery uses NetSuite Inventory Management(opens in new tab) to communicate updated stock availability in all storage locations and outlets, avoiding that risk.
Ecommerce: Libertson runs Ronin Gallery as a “digital-first” business. Its online gallery now runs on NetSuite SuiteCommerce Advanced, which he said has proven vastly superior to Magento. Ronin Gallery’s NetSuite SuiteCommerce Advanced(opens in new tab) site integrates with its inventory and order management, customer support, and financials in NetSuite — providing an overview of stock, customers, financials, and more in a single system rich with insights.
Customer relationship management: Selling artwork involves a long sales cycle with various touchpoints. Ronin Gallery uses NetSuite CRM to make each of its 30,000 customers feel prioritized throughout. When customers call in, sales employees can instantly pull up a record and see which types of artwork the customer has shown interest in, what they’ve purchased before, and what they’re likely looking for now. Libertson estimates that he’d need 30 sales reps, not three, to maintain customer relationships of this quality with Ronin Gallery’s old way of doing things. With NetSuite CRM(opens in new tab), “it's almost like cheating.”
The Legacy Continues
Leaders of family-owned businesses are often tasked with maintaining high levels of quality and service that have been passed down for generations, thus honoring the family legacy. This becomes difficult to do when customer volumes explode and inventory counts grow.
But with the right technology, it’s possible. Libertson said that with NetSuite ERP, Ronin Gallery is prepared for any challenge or opportunity that comes next.
Take your family business to the next level(opens in new tab) with a well-crafted hiring strategy and strong technology