The company initially began as a jewelry distributor, connecting local artisans in Nairobi to global retailers. With that in mind, Floyd and her SOKO co-founders decided to create a mobile marketplace that provided the infrastructure local artisans need, effectively becoming a demand-responsive virtual factory that increases artisan income by five times. It also allows SOKO to fulfill orders in mass quantities for large retailers like Anthropologie and Nordstrom.
SOKO then began expanding its supply chain technology to other brands, effectively becoming a Manufacturing as a Service (MaaS) company. Before it launched NetSuite, Mirelle’s team was using QuickBooks accounting software that didn’t connect easily with the supply chain, a wholesale platform to book orders, a CRM system to manage hundreds of accounts, while a simple spreadsheet was being used to keep track of tradeshow costs. “We had to do a lot of manual data cleanup and reformatting across our systems,” Guy said. “And that’s not even counting double-checking for errors.”
Guy and her team wanted to be able to do more with their operations data, like building out projections, accessing customer history and finding ways to align expenses with performance reporting. Customization was a top consideration given the unique business model. Accessibility was a high priority as well, with the team distributed in Nairobi, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
As a result of selecting and implementing NetSuite, the SOKO team is now able to perform sales forecasting with real-time visibility, improving cash flow projections. Past sales forecasts help make the sales team more accurate in future forecasting. They’re able to look at conversion rates from leads to customers, segment wholesale customers by category and territory, and slice and dice reporting on a number of attributes like sales channels, SKUs and territories. Expense reporting for trade shows, customer payment schedules and credit terms are all in one place.
“Information is easily available much more quickly,” Guy said. The increase in time savings related to NetSuite has allowed the SOKO team to better allocate headcount and be a bit more aggressive. “We’re more lean because we’re not allocating resources towards operational maintenance,” she added. Going forward, Guy and her team are confident that NetSuite can meet their operational needs no matter what direction the business goes.
To learn more, visit the NetSuite Newsroom.
For the 2020 Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guide:
Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services at http://www.software4distributors.com and to use our Vertical Markets Matrix, visit http://www.software4distributors.com/compare/default.aspx.
Also, read our 2019 Mid-Year Supplements at http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2019_Mid_Year_Supplement_Blog.pdf?utm_source=DownloadPDF&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2019Supp.
Developed through a partnership with Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, these 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.
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