Computerworld

Kiwi lifestyle brand deploys SAP Business ByDesign

The implementation, carried out by SAP partner Soltius will allow the business to consolidate its core project management and finance operations to an integrated cloud business platform, providing flexibility and scalability.

Coastlines, a Kiwi surf and beach lifestyle brand that supplies global retail firms, online retailers and consumer brands, has become the first New Zealand organisation to adopt SAP Business ByDesign. The solution was launched in New Zealand in 2013, as an integrated suite, which allows businesses to run all its operations in the cloud.

The implementation, carried out by SAP partner Soltius will allow the business to consolidate its core project management and finance operations to an integrated cloud business platform, providing flexibility and scalability.

Coastlines customers include the likes of French retail giant, Carrefour, Decathlon, Sportzone, and Australian retailers Torpedo7 and Super Retail Group. Coastlines CEO Sean Kennedy states that SAP is helping the company handle their diverse requirements in an improved manner.

“Each of our customers presents us with thick, multi-tabbed procedural manuals detailing their precise requirements on packaging, labelling, shipping and invoicing. We have to comply with them in every respect. When we load a 40’ container we have to match exactly the plan they give us so their people anywhere in the world can unpack it in 24 minutes. If we don’t, they can’t, and then we incur penalties. SAP enables us, hand on heart, to guarantee we can meet their standards, every time.”

“We knew that as we compete in global markets, then one day we would have to take big a step up from the software we were using and adopt the systems and business processes that would let us consistently meet our commitments. Capital Office, MYOB and manual spreadsheets were good for business last century, but they can’t cope with where we need to be tomorrow. We looked around for a several years and finally chose SAP,” says Kennedy.

According to the company, though the project is still in implementation phases, it is already paying off.

Coastlines’ operations manager Duncan Turnbull, says, ”“ByDesign has end-to-end business processes already preconfigured. While we could have changed the system configuration, we made the decision to take the standard functionality and process flows as much as possible. The built-in implementation process helped us to get hands-on early, and things have gone very smoothly for us so far.”

“Soltius has been great. At the outset they spent time helping us to understand the system. They didn’t just give us a fish: they taught us to fish,” he adds.

In the next phase, Coastlines will roll out the CRM functionality of SAP Business ByDesign across the business. Turnbull says the ability to simply switch on additional functionality and easily configure it to the business needs is one of the strengths of the system. “It can scale with the business as we grow, and it provides a long-term global platform for us.”