iAutomation drives growth and acquisitions with NetSuite
Machine Automation Supplier Replaces Sage and Epicor with NetSuite, Gains Scalability and Faster Time-to-Value
SAN MATEO, Calif.—May 5, 2016—NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry’s leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP and omnichannel commerce software suites, today announced that iAutomation, a leading supplier of machine automation products and services, has implemented NetSuite to help accelerate innovation and fuel business growth. iAutomation is using NetSuite to manage mission critical business processes, including financials, purchasing, order management, inventory management, sales and customer relationship management (CRM). With NetSuite, iAutomation has been able to seamlessly and quickly bring together multiple acquired companies under the parent company, while arming its field sales engineers with anywhere, anytime access to critical business information to better and more effectively serve its customers.
The seeds of success were sown 12 years ago, in 2004, when a Greensboro, N.C. company called Integrated Motion upgraded from an on-premise Sage MAS 90 system to NetSuite. Integrated Motion was acquired in 2007 by what was then called AutomationSolutions, with the merged company later renamed iAutomation. The North Attleboro, Mass.-based iAutomation, elected to standardise its ERP and CRM systems on NetSuite, which Integrated Motion was already using after replacing a complex snarl of six different systems including Sage Peachtree and Goldmine. In 2011, iAutomation acquired Action Automation and Controls, and was able to replace the acquired company’s existing Epicor system and the seven in-house servers it was using to support its on-premise applications with NetSuite in just three months.
Across two acquisitions, with NetSuite supporting its core business processes, iAutomation has realised double digit revenue gains while growing to a 150-person company with more than 5,000 customers, and 11 offices up and down the East Coast. iAutomation has also gained better capacity to channel resources into innovation and highly focused expert customer service, rather than spending money and time on costly on-premise IT systems and personnel. About one-half of iAutomation’s workforce are field sales engineers routinely at work at client sites, using NetSuite to help deliver the machine control and automation solutions that customers need.
“We pride ourselves on being an innovative company and seek out suppliers that continue to innovate,” said Alan Morrison, Vice President of Operations at iAutomation. “NetSuite allows us to be innovative both internally and externally in the way we manage our business. If we have a new idea, it’s not out of the question for us to implement it the next day.”
Now a NetSuite customer for more than 12 years, iAutomation has been through 24 upgrades of the system with all of its customizations carrying forward automatically with every upgrade. iAutomation has realised significant benefits, including:
- A Flexible and Powerful Platform. NetSuite’s SuiteCloud development platform enables iAutomation’s engineers to customise NetSuite for their unique business needs. The company is currently running about 240 scripts and “Suitelets” supporting transactions, consolidated purchasing, customer records and work orders, reducing cycle times for demand replenishment from once per week to once per day.
- Superior inventory management. With real-time visibility into inventory, iAutomation can now better plan for how much inventory it needs, track the movement of goods and meet customer demand in real time. In combination with lean principles of waste reduction, since adopting NetSuite, iAutomation has increased inventory accuracy to 99 percent and reduced the time to replenish needed inventory to as little as one day.
- Better business forecasting. Real-time data enables iAutomation to pinpoint business opportunities and track the sales pipeline, with about 15,000 customer and prospect entities accounted for in the system.
- Warranty management. NetSuite gives iAutomation a unified view of warranty and rebate management.
- Pricing management. iAutomation can dynamically determine market and customer-specific pricing based on the relationship with a particular customer, volume or industry.
- Rapid deployment. Capable of being implemented in weeks vs. years, NetSuite speeds time-to-value, enabling iAutomation to get acquired companies up and running under the parent company within 90 days.
- Efficient order management. iAutomation is able to centralise orders and efficiently process orders.
- Mobile access. NetSuite’s mobile capabilities enable engineers in the field, which make up about half the company’s employees, to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time addressing customer requirements.
Today, more than 30,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex, mission-critical business processes globally in the cloud. Since its inception in 1998, NetSuite has established itself as the leading provider of cloud-based financials/enterprise resource planning (ERP) and omnichannel commerce software applications for businesses of all sizes. Many FORTUNE 100 companies rely on NetSuite to accelerate innovation and business transformation. NetSuite continues its success in delivering the best cloud business management software to businesses around the world, enabling them to lower IT costs significantly while increasing productivity, as the global adoption of the cloud accelerates.
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