BirdRock Brings Success Home with TrueCommerce EDI for NetSuite

The Challenge:

Manual processes couldn’t keep up with demand growth, especially as BirdRock expanded its sales channels.

The Solution:

BirdRock implemented TrueCommerce’s EDI integration with NetSuite to automate EDI transactions and streamline order processing.

The Results:

• EDI automation reduces transaction processing time from hours to minutes per day, so teams can focus on doing what they do best
• Purpose-built NetSuite integration is easy to set up and works seamlessly, saving time and stress
• Pre-built trading partner connections enable BirdRock to add new customers quickly and stay compliant
• Scalable EDI supports massive eCommerce growth, so BirdRock can sell more products in more places

“TrueCommerce definitely pays for itself. The growth we’ve had with customers that we’ve brought on since starting has more than covered any integration costs.”

Background

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Austin, TX, BirdRock Brands is a manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer of high-quality products for home, office, outdoor spaces, and more. The company has multiple warehouses across the United States and sells their products both on their own website, as well as popular home goods marketplaces like Amazon, Wayfair, and Overstock.com.

When BirdRock joined Amazon’s Seller-Fulfilled Prime program, the company quickly realized that its supply chain technology couldn’t keep up with demand. After switching from QuickBooks to NetSuite, BirdRock hired NetSuite Administrator Mark Chuberka in 2018 and tasked him with finding the right tools to accelerate BirdRock’s growth.

Mr. Chuberka commented, “We move thousands of orders a day, even in the slow season. Holidays are insane. Orders were coming in through a variety of systems, some being sent to email and processed through a website and then turned into a CSV. Others were coming in and being downloaded through platforms like CommerceHub. It was very manual, even with a powerful system like NetSuite.”

In order to handle all the incoming orders, one of Mr. Chuberka’s colleagues spent most of his day checking for orders, moving them into NetSuite, and generally managing the exchange of order messages. That wasn’t even their primary role, which meant all the time spent typing in orders was taken away from other business priorities.

Those manual processes also led to tracking issues. If a customer’s order was damaged or lost and they wanted a replacement, it was difficult for BirdRock to find the order and understand the product movements that led to the problem.

Mr. Chuberka summarized, “It was inefficiency on a massive scale, and it wasn’t going to allow us to grow our business. It was awful.”

Finding the Right Solution

A self-proclaimed “techie,” Mr. Chuberka knew there had to be a better way to manage orders.

“If we’re spending X hours a day on something, and we invest and build a system, we can take that from hours a day to nothing a day—a totally automated system,” he said.

Mr. Chuberka started reading and came across electronic data interchange (EDI). He learned how EDI provides a standardized system for order message exchange and has helped other companies attain the growth that BirdRock envisioned.

The BirdRock team understood that EDI wasn’t something they’d be able to build and manage in-house. According to Mr. Chuberka, “Why would we want to reinvent the wheel? Instead, we decided we needed an EDI provider. And boy, am I glad we did.”

Finding the right partner who could integrate into NetSuite and act as a translation matrix for orders was the next step. After speaking with a TrueCommerce representative, Mr. Chuberka knew he had found what he was looking for.

“It came down to two providers and both would have worked. But TrueCommerce just felt like a better match for our company. All the way through the sales process it just felt good, and we thought we found a fantastic partner. TrueCommerce has upheld that initial promise.”

Changing Processes for the Better

Once the TrueCommerce EDI solution was implemented, said Mr. Chuberka, “Our everyday processes became so different. An order would come in and be processed by the system, the label was automatically printed, and the package was placed on the truck for delivery. All of this happened automatically.”

TrueCommerce’s solution automatically generated key documents like acknowledgements, ASNs and invoices and sent them to BirdRock’s trading partners. While previously, managing invoices had been a hassle, Mr. Chuberka attested that EDI made it simple, easy and seamless.

“Immediately, TrueCommerce EDI changed our ability to bring in orders and send them out.”

Company growth also became easier. When BirdRock wanted to expand to new channels and work with new retailers, they saw that most already used EDI. Having a system in place allowed BirdRock to connect with these opportunities quickly and maintain ongoing compliance.

“It became as simple as adding a customer connection, rather than building a whole new process, because the connection via TrueCommerce was already set up. It works so much better.”

For example, BirdRock wanted to start selling to Target. Without EDI, this simply wasn’t possible. But TrueCommerce went a step further than just EDI—not only does it have an existing Target connection, but also a mapping team that will help BirdRock stay in line with Target’s mandates. BirdRock later expanded to sell via Target+, and once again, TrueCommerce had a connection at the ready.

In addition to streamlining customer connectivity and message exchanges, TrueCommerce’s solution also features the tight integration with NetSuite that BirdRock needs. Mr. Chuberka explained, “The connection TrueCommerce provides in and out of NetSuite is fantastic. It was easy to set up and it’s unlocked doors by making it easy to keep up with customer changes, too.”

Time is Money

Mr. Chuberka emphasized that by using TrueCommerce EDI, BirdRock has been able to save significant time by automating key processes. Not only has this given employees time back in their day, but it’s also supported BirdRock’s ongoing growth.

“We’ve had massive growth since we started with TrueCommerce. We’ve brought on multiple new partners and are making really good numbers with them,” he noted.

Attaining that growth wouldn’t have been possible without EDI. As Mr. Chuberka observed, “We would’ve had to hire a slew of people to manage the manual processes. That’s not cost effective.” Instead, BirdRock enjoys the benefits of a cloud-based system that can scale to meet both steady growth and acute demand spikes.

While implementing EDI can be a large investment, Mr. Chuberka maintained that the solution has already achieved a positive ROI. He reported, “TrueCommerce definitely pays for itself. The growth we’ve had with customers that we’ve brought on since starting has more than covered any integration costs.”

Embracing the Future with EDI

Overall, Mr. Chuberka describes his experience with TrueCommerce as extremely positive. He said, “EDI has made our lives so much easier. It’s enabled us to make more money, to expand to new markets, and to meet our goals.”

For others in the eCommerce industry, Mr. Chuberka had this to say:

“I would definitely recommend TrueCommerce. It’s given us a platform that is intuitive, and it works. It’s designed to integrate with systems at both ends of your supply chain. Because of our relationship with TrueCommerce, we can manage more products for more partners.”

He went on, “TrueCommerce has enabled us to become a better company, to work with more people, and empower our people to do more. We’re not wasting time anymore. We are a better company today for having invested in EDI.”