Learn how Withum helped a Bridal Manufacturer improve and optimize its e-commerce capabilities by successfully implementing and fully leveraging NetSuite’s SuiteCommerce Advanced (SCA).
Executive Summary
After successfully implementing Oracle NetSuite’s ERP and Suite Commerce “SC” solution, a leading U.S. wedding dress designer and manufacturer looked to Withum to improve and optimize its e-commerce capabilities. A solution was devised based on an initial SC health check, which grew into an e-commerce strategy and ensuing SC Advanced global design. Our client championed modern B2B e-commerce, marketing and operational best practices for national and international business operations.
The Client
The client is a privately-owned $50M international gown and wedding dress designer and manufacturer based on the East Coast with operations in the USA, Australia, China, and Canada. The company offers a wide range of bridal gowns and related fashions through its private and additional well-known fashion brands. After being in business for more than 30 years, the company went through a transformational NetSuite ERP and SC implementation to modernize their legacy systems and causing operations to become more efficient through a data driven environment. As a result, the client was eager to carry forward the transformation to expand its online retailing strengths and B2B e-commerce capabilities in the digital modern marketplace by moving to SC Advanced solution.
The Challenge
The manufacturer had been in a state of continuous optimization and championing further transformational change since implementing NetSuite’s ERP program. From undergoing various new strategic directives, the company had also procured Oracle’s SuiteCommerce instance as its B2B e-commerce portal to accompany the initial ERP and SC rollout. As the client continued to grow, SuiteCommerce’s limited customization capabilities in its source code developed into hurdles as expected when SC first launched. Our client ultimately required more system functionalities that were customization-driven, such as unique workflows and processes that regulated online ordering, delivery fulfillment and vendor management.
The Approach and Solution
Withum’s customer journey technique was used as a starting approach to understanding the company’s evolving key processes and customer interactions. By assessing their functional areas, varying IT landscapes and daily pain points, Withum’s team looked for opportunities to
address key challenges by:
- Leveraging existing technology to minimize cost and maximize value
- Improving connectivity and workflow
- Enhancing management’s ability to easily extract data for informed decision making
- Focusing on longer-term successes as well as possible quick fixes
- Validating, modifying and organizing observations based on leadership review and feedback
Assessments through Withum’s diagnostic health check, comparative modeling and collaborative workshops were paramount to identifying where the manufacturer wished to be in its defined future state. This was critical in fully understanding the designer’s perspective and current outlook, defining how the SCA global design would shape out.
Withum’s B2B e-commerce maturity model was implemented with the Eisenhower Prioritization Matrices to define marginal-to-competitive-to-innovative states for key processes, as well as the urgency and importance of how these changes were to be engaged in, given the client’s resource constraints. By using a prioritized-workshop approach, our segmented initiatives split into four categories: People, Process, Technology and Data. As the diagnostic neared completion, wireframe workshops, process-flow diagramming, and project/program management governance were executive to jumpstart the creation of the designer’s e-commerce SCA global design.
The client was advised that a migration from their current instance of SuiteCommerce as NetSuite’s e-commerce B2B portal to that of SuiteCommerce Advanced would be best. This would allow for the portal’s basic functions, such as self-service options and facilitated re-ordering efficiency, to remain customer-centric. It would also allow for the much-needed customization capabilities for future organizational change, retain the NetSuite-focused solution and provide a central location for future projects. In essence, SCA would allow the client to retain out-of-the-box features that enabled them to leverage NetSuite’s offerings while providing the growth it would look for through future customizations.
The Results, ROI
Withum drove and successfully executed the implementation of SCA for the client through implementation methodology. Over a 7-month period, a new portal was released that saw benefits across all levels of complexities. It was more user-friendly, responsive and easier to navigate while also having more compatibility with customization when working with order management, payment processing and overall UI/UX. The NetSuite-centric solution continues to be leveraged at its fullest while maintaining a consistent and leaner-yet-simplified architecture.
