IOT Innovation Leader Blues Boosts Sales & Supply Chain Efficiency With Breadwinner for NetSuite
Breadwinner helps Blues increase inventory visibility, streamline order creation, and improve data access by connecting Salesforce and NetSuite.
Blues helps companies connect “things” to the cloud with simple, secure out-of-the-box wireless connectivity.
“Breadwinner allows our Sales team members to stay in Salesforce. They can create quotes and build NetSuite sales orders in Salesforce without leaving the Account. And they have real-time visibility into the inventory and pricing data. It’s been great – Sales and Supply Chain are communicating better than ever, our processes are more efficient, and everyone loves it.”
Brent Cline, Chief of Staff & Head of Sales Operations, Blues
Blues Turns Ordinary “Things” Into Cloud-Connected Smart Devices
The “internet of things” (IoT) is helping organizations around the world harness the power of real-time data and wireless connectivity to drive change and work smarter, faster, and more efficiently.
IoT connectivity opens up a long list of exciting possibilities: remote equipment monitoring, data-driven preventive maintenance, automatic error detection, long-distance troubleshooting, GPS fleet tracking, and smart city planning to name just a few.
There’s just one problem: for companies with existing “dumb” infrastructure, equipment, and legacy systems, getting connected often seems too expensive, time-consuming, and complicated to be possible.
Not with Blues!
The company’s innovative Notecard and Notehub solution makes IoT connectivity easy and affordable for everyone.
With the help of the postage stamp-sized Notecard, and Notehub connectivity, Blues customers can connect any physical device or object to the cloud.
Traffic sensors, processing equipment, sensors and gauges, trucks and tractors, trash cans – if you can name it, the Blues Notecard can connect it.
Blues Links Sales & Supply Chain Systems With Breadwinner for NetSuite
“Our Sales people were bouncing between different systems trying to prepare quotes and invoices and get agreements signed. We wanted to keep the Sales team in Salesforce and connect their processes with our new NetSuite-based inventory management tool.”
Brent Cline, Chief of Staff & Head of Sales Operations, Blues
Blues was all in on Salesforce. The company used Salesforce as a CRM, ERP, and everything in between – with Xero added to the mix for quotes and invoices, plus Dropbox Sign to handle agreements.
The system worked, but it wasn’t ideal. Sales reps had to switch between multiple systems to find data, prepare quotes, send agreements, set up orders, and create invoices. And the Supply Chain team was desperate for a better inventory management tool.
When Supply Chain switched to NetSuite for managing inventory, Head of Sales Operations Brent Cline knew it was time to shake things up.
“We had to do something,” he said. “We needed to either find a way to connect Salesforce and NetSuite or settle for using siloed Sales and Supply Chain systems. We didn’t want to keep the processes separated, so we started looking for a solution.”
Cline and his team had no idea what to expect when looking for a way to integrate NetSuite and Salesforce, but they knew they wanted a solution that would keep Sales in Salesforce, minimize software touchpoints for the Sales team, and be easy to install and maintain.
Blues evaluated several NetSuite to Salesforce integration solutions before making a choice. The team seriously considered Celonis before deciding that the time, effort, expertise, and cost to install and maintain the integration was more than they wanted to take on.
Breadwinner entered the discussion thanks to a referral from Blues’ Salesforce partner, OpMethods, who had heard good things about the Breadwinner API. The Blues team loved Breadwinner for NetSuite’s data integration features, but, in the end, it was the simplicity and easy installation that won them over. They decided to move forward with Breadwinner for NetSuite – a decision that looks even better now that the system is up and running successfully.
Easy, Secure Salesforce + NetSuite Connectivity for the Win
“We were completely blown away by how easy it was to access and connect to the Breadwinner API – and by the benefits we’ve seen so far. It’s enabled our ERP to function. Without Breadwinner for NetSuite, we’d be missing 30% of what we need to see in NetSuite. With it, Sales and Supply Chain both have better access to sales orders, inventory, price books, and real-time fulfillment data.”
Brent Cline, Chief of Staff & Head of Sales Operations, Blues
Breadwinner for NetSuite more than delivered on the promise of easy installation. Blues’ tech team had zero previous experience with NetSuite, but they were able to get the integration up and running in no time.
And the Blues Sales and Supply Chain teams couldn’t be happier with the results.
Favorite features include creating NetSuite orders in Salesforce; viewing up-to-date inventory, pricing, and fulfillment data in Salesforce; and assigning existing NetSuite sales orders Accounts and Opportunities in Salesforce.
These features aren’t just nice to have – Cline says connecting Salesforce and NetSuite is driving real business benefits, including some that “we definitely weren’t expecting.”
For starters, the entire Sales process, from quotes and agreements to order creation and invoicing, is faster and more efficient. It’s easy to find data; manual order creation is a thing of the past, and Sales and Supply Chain are collaborating and communicating on a whole new level.
Blues has also used Breadwinner for NetSuite to streamline reporting by consolidating data from NetSuite and Salesforce on a single dashboard in Salesforce. As a result, executives can see critical metrics in real-time and make smarter decisions faster.
As for the “unexpected” benefit, let’s just say that Sales isn’t the only team thrilled with their new software. Supply Chain is enjoying being able to simply fulfill orders in NetSuite instead of having to create them. They’ve also embraced their newfound ability to see real-time forecasting and order data in Salesforce.
Faster order creation and fulfillment, data-driven decision-making, and better collaboration are awesome results, but the most impressive part of the story might be that Blues has seen so much improvement after only a month of steady Breadwinner for NetSuite use.
As for the future, Cline is optimistic that as time goes on, Breadwinner for NetSuite will help drive even more improvement and innovation.
For more information about Blues, visit www.blues.io.
Want to learn more about integrating Salesforce and NetSuite? Set up a discussion with our friendly product team.
