Product companies face many hurdles in their drive to increase revenue, profitability, and customer satisfaction in a highly competitive space. Those obstacles are often rooted in entry-level or legacy systems not geared to support efficient growth as sales take off.

By upgrading to NetSuite with the help of one of our Alliance Partners, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers are creating well-oiled business machines. The NetSuite expertise and industry experience that Alliance Partners offer is pivotal in helping product companies boost efficiency, gain newfound business insights, and scale to support growth.

This sixth post in a blog series showcases our 2024 Alliance Partner Product Spotlight Award winners in the categories of wholesale distribution, health and beauty, manufacturing, and retail. Product companies typically unlock the next gear in performance when moving to NetSuite, a unified platform trusted by more than 40,000 organizations around the world.

Customer: IBS Electronics Group

Wholesale Distribution Spotlight Award Winner: Myers-Holum

IBS Electronics Group is a global distributor of semiconductors and electronics components serving industries including automotive, aerospace, consumer electronics, healthcare, energy, and telecom. Founded in 1980, IBS is based near Los Angeles and has 12 locations across the US, Asia, and Latin America.

IBS Electronics faced significant challenges with the legacy material requirements planning (MRP) system it had used for more than 20 years. The manual processes within this system, compounded by minimal integration capabilities and the lack of data validation, resulted in frequent human errors and inefficiencies. IBS engaged Myers-Holum for a NetSuite implementation that would automate many of these tasks.

With NetSuite, IBS Electronics has a stable system that empowers employees. Automations across purchase orders, inventory management, and other processes that previously required manual data entry reduced errors and increased efficiency. Data validation workflows have further improved the accuracy of information, supporting better decision-making and accountability with detailed audit trails. Myers-Holum drove additional efficiencies by customizing processes such as lead-to-quote, order-to-cash, and custom label printing.

In a next phase, the integration of a data warehouse will further augment this unified system, providing deeper, data-driven insights for IBS Electronics' continued growth.

“NetSuite has given IBS Electronics an incredibly flexible platform that allows us to take advantage of all the data that flows through our business processes,” said Alex Thompson, IBS Electronics’ global IT director. “Now we can use this data to our advantage to make better decisions and be more competitive. Working with Myers-Holum, we were able to design a system that can efficiently process and scale with this ever-increasing data flow.”

Customer: DIBS Beauty

Health and Beauty Spotlight Award Winner: Connor Group

DIBS Beauty is a fast-growing provider of vegan and cruelty-free facial, eye, lip, and body beauty products. Started in 2021, DIBS (Desert Island Beauty Status) is distinguished by its effortless approach to combining beauty essentials with no-nonsense applications. The brand has a strong social media presence and a network of influencers. It has won recognition from industry publications such as Vogue, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan.

DIBS lacked the foundation to ease continued growing pains, outsourcing accounting to a firm that managed the company in QuickBooks. The operations team painstakingly tracked inventory in spreadsheets and lacked the detailed costing information needed to guide pricing decisions and protect profit margins. To ready itself for the next phase of growth, Austin-based DIBS turned to Connor Group to implement NetSuite for financials and inventory.

Once live on NetSuite, DIBS gained groundbreaking visibility into financials and inventory now unified in one system. Template customizations by Connor Group let DIBS track landed cost with standard costing methods, providing crucial insights into these ever-fluctuating expenses. Automation of once-manual inventory and procurement processes has positioned DIBS for success as it continues to scale, including through its recent brick-and-mortar debut in Ulta Beauty stores nationwide.

The health and beauty brand is evaluating an integration between NetSuite and its Shopify ecommerce platform to further simplify transaction processing and order fulfillment.

Customer: Enova Illumination

Manufacturing Spotlight Award Winner: The Parker Initiative

Enova Illumination is a prominent name in the healthcare industry, specializing in LED surgical headlights, microscope systems, micro cameras, and a range of magnification and illumination products for medical, dental, and veterinary professionals. Established in 2006 and based in Minneapolis, the company is dedicated to enhancing healthcare outcomes through improved visibility and comprehensive training.

To boost its operational efficiency, Enova sought to transition from QuickBooks for accounting and Salesforce CRM. Integration challenges between the two platforms caused data inaccuracies and workflow inefficiencies, forcing manual processes involving paper, email, and spreadsheets. Furthermore, extensive customizations with Salesforce complicated usability and maintenance.

Enova found a transformative solution with NetSuite, implemented by The Parker Initiative (TPI). This move has made it easier to manage the business, enhancing visibility and efficiency throughout the organization. NetSuite now handles financial management, budgeting, work orders and assemblies, inventory, and CRM for Enova. NetSuite Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) empowers the company’s sales team to handle complex custom orders more effectively, minimizing delays and reducing extensive manual work to build and finalize quotes.

TPI facilitated a seamless migration of legacy data, and with the help of NetSuite dashboards and reporting tools, Enova’s leadership now has access to vital analytics that support informed decision-making to help drive profitability and growth.

Customer: Express Flooring

Retail Spotlight Award Winner: Bring IT

Express Flooring is a leading provider of flooring products and services for residential and commercial customers in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada. Founded 20 years ago in Phoenix, the company has grown to nine locations while broadening its selection of vinyl plank, laminate, tile, hardwood, and carpet flooring.

Running on RollMaster, a business management application for flooring companies, left Express Flooring with limited functionality to manage its inventory, supply chain, financials, and services that include installation and design consultation. Efficiency suffered with a heavy reliance on spreadsheets, introducing risks of missed deadlines and customer dissatisfaction. The company also couldn’t assess profitability by product line, orders, or job type (hardwood versus carpet versus vinyl projects, for instance). Express Flooring found solid business footing with a NetSuite implementation by Bring IT.

Detailed and adaptable reporting provides new insights into profitability by specific segments, significantly reducing the company's dependence on spreadsheets. Express Flooring also uses NetSuite Field Service Management to manage the many jobs it completes, separating them by installer specialization (hardwood, vinyl, carpet, etc.) to ensure the right person shows up to complete the job.

Find out how the unique skills of NetSuite Alliance Partners can help your organization get the most out of NetSuite.