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Edible Blooms Grows Stronger And Sweeter With NetSuite


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SYDNEY and San Mateo, Calif., — NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated business management software suites for mid-market enterprises and divisions of large companies, today announced that Edible Blooms, the fast-growing edible bouquet company that is expanding rapidly across Australia and New Zealand, is using NetSuite to power its end-to-end business operations from accounting / ERP to customer relationship management (CRM) and Ecommerce. As part of its overall goal to use cutting-edge technology to stay lean and nimble while growing profits, Edible Blooms left MYOB, Xcart and home-grown CRM software for NetSuite. Since going live on NetSuite in September 2008, Edible Blooms has streamlined its operations significantly and gained unprecedented visibility into its business. NetSuite’s on-demand, web-based architecture has also enabled the company to move into new markets. Edible Blooms recently opened a fifth store in Auckland, New Zealand. To listen to the NetSuite / Edible Blooms podcast, please click here: www.netsuite.com.au/ediblebloomspodcast.

Edible Blooms is the brainchild of entrepreneur Kelly Baker, who got the idea for the company in 2005 while on an overseas holiday. Later that same year, she opened the first Edible Blooms store in Brisbane and launched the first EdibleBlooms.com Web site—both based around the idea of offering edible bouquets with stylish presentation. The company began by selling fresh fruit bouquets, but gradually expanded into bouquets of chocolates and cookies. Now the best-selling gifts are bouquet-like arrangements of chocolate or biscuits. Because men have become the company’s primary target, Baker also created “bouquets” of beers presented in the shape of cakes. So far, sales have skyrocketed in 2008.

But this exponential growth had a downside: it caused Edible Blooms painful challenges with its business management software. For its first two years as a business, Edible Blooms ran on MYOB for accounting, Xcart for Ecommerce, and an in-house CRM system for customer relationship management. The information residing in these systems was server-based and siloed, impeding Edible Blooms’ growth. For example, the executive team had to wait until month-end to get reports of the company’s financials and order volume trends, which kept them from making strategy adjustments in real-time. It was an obstacle the new company needed to overcome in order to keep growing.

“My business advisor told me that if I didn’t get a better IT solution, she would simply quit!” said Kelly Baker, founder and managing director. “She said it half in jest, but she was serious. Our whole premise in building this company was to do as much as possible with as few people as possible. We needed the best system out there. Once we learned about NetSuite, we realized that it was what we were looking for. It was the only way for a company like ours to growth and thrive.”

NetSuite became the obvious choice for many reasons. First, a fast-growing new company like Edible Blooms needed a system that would scale and that could be accessed from each of its expanding locations and by employees on the road. NetSuite’s Software as a Service (SaaS) architecture allows new users accessibility wherever and whenever needed, with no new capital requirements or software to purchase and install. Secondly, with NetSuite, Edible Blooms no longer suffers from the pain of having critical business information residing in multiple applications, which wasted time due to duplicate data entry and resulted in complicated communications and delayed reporting, and hindered company agility and growth. In contrast, NetSuite integrates accounting / ERP, CRM and Ecommerce into a single system; employees can then access real-time key performance indicators (KPIs) using role-based dashboards. Finally, NetSuite provides enterprise functionality that meets the specific needs of large wholesale-distributors and retailers, including multi-location inventory, advanced shipping and Amazon.com-like Ecommerce functionality—at a fraction of the cost of a typical ERP system.

Edible Blooms went live on NetSuite for ERP, including financials and inventory management, CRM and SFA, and Ecommerce. All company stores in Australia—Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane—are using NetSuite business management software, and inventory in each of the stores is accessible from anywhere a store manager has a Web browser. Now Edible Blooms executives are able to travel between stores and log in from anywhere to see how the company is doing from a management perspective on a day-to-day, even up-to-the minute basis. As a result, in the short time since coming on board with NetSuite, Edible Blooms has seen productivity increases in terms of more volume of orders handled in less time, and higher production from employees across the entire company.

“For the first time ever, our phone orders and Web orders are in sync,” said Baker. “We can easily trace or track a missing order. Our 20 employees are in love with NetSuite for that fact alone and o ur customers appreciate it as well. We now send our customers automated order confirmations via NetSuite that detail their order information and tracking number, and tell them where they can access it. It gives customers control of their order, which is a phenomenal way to grow business. We are extremely excited about continuing to expand the company into more cities and markets. With NetSuite, we will have no limitations.”

For information about NetSuite Inc. in Australia and across Asia Pacific, please visit www.netsuite.com.au.

NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are service-marks of NetSuite Inc. Other marks are the property of their respective owners.



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