The fun thing with helping start-up food companies take the next step, is that you get completely different questions during the sales process than with more established companies. Whereas the selection criteria of traditional organizations are often focused on eliminating risks that come with a new system, start-up companies tend to focus on the possibilities that come with it. Possibilities that we, as a business software vendor, even don’t even think about at first.
‘We want to make working with us as enjoyable as possible’
A couple of weeks ago a start-up food company asked us: “If we choose NetSuite, how will this system help bind more customers and suppliers to us? We want to make working with us as enjoyable as possible for them.” What a great question. A food company that wants to incorporate business software in their commercial strategy and not look at it from a ‘stupid back-end burden’ perspective like so many do.
Actually, they even literally said: ‘We want to take a list of NetSuite benefits with us as part of our overall proposition when we visit possible customers and sourcing parties. Could you make us a list?” Of course, we can! Making this list became an interesting exercise that also helped us look at business software from a different perspective.
NetSuite benefits for your partners
So, what NetSuite benefits can our customers communicate to their partners for example?
- We can access NetSuite everywhere in the world at any time, because it is cloud-based (online). Our outbound sales reps have the same real-time info that we have back at the office so we always have a concrete answer for you. Even when we visit our sourcing partners outside of Europe.
- It has a partner app. NetSuite contains a Partner Center app that gives you, our suppliers and our customers, real time access your important information, such as order-status and account-payables. Fast and transparent.
- It helps us in offering you a faster and more personal service, thanks to integrated CRM-functionality.
- It helps us grow with you, because NetSuite is easy for us to adjust when your demands or legal rules change, such as EDI, packaging, labelling, quality demands or tracking and tracing.
- We can implement it fast and continuously improve. That way we can focus on our daily business: helping our partners in the best possible way. And since NetSuite continuously stays tuned with the latest features and standard, so do you!
- It allows us to adapt our business model to future changes in the food marketplace. Expand with production functionality or SSCC-labelling if that’s what the customer wants, without having to upgrade? No problem. It is a flexible and scalable solution.
- NetSuite is strong in working with outsourced activities, such as warehousing, packing, sorting and quality management.
- It helps us optimize our service levels, thanks to detailed Business Intelligence insights and the ability for us, and you, to see what the status is of all goods and services provided.
- It is implemented by Consultants who understand our business: FoodQloud supports us in the implementation and support of NetSuite. They have more than 20 years of experience with implementing IT systems in the Food Industry.
There are probably dozens of other great examples of how NetSuite can make working with you ‘as enjoyable as possible’. But these were the ones that applied to our customer. If you are a NetSuite professional or user: feel free to contribute to this list of benefits in the comments section.