“Now I’m able to work with data right and left, and I can create reports knowing which customer ordered which item during which time with what special.”
— Jodi Anstandig, Finance Director
“Now I’m able to work with data right and left, and I can create reports knowing which customer ordered which item during which time with what special.”
— Jodi Anstandig, Finance Director
Biopelle was founded in 2005 as a division of Ferndale Pharma Group Inc., located in Ferndale, Michigan. They offer a portfolio of skincare technologies including retinols, brighteners, exfoliators, and customizable skincare programs. The Tensage line of growth factors is their signature product line, which harnesses the regenerative properties of the Cryptomphalus aspersa snail.
Operationally, company executives needed updated systems with improved methods for inventory planning. Biopelle had used SagePro 100 for five years, but production planning and forecasting in Sage was manual and tedious. Finance Director Jodi Anstandig would take data from Sage, enter it manually into Excel, and then create reports for the Operations Director. Creating a bill of materials manually was “a nightmare,” Anstandig said, because not only did Sage pull inventory from the wrong places, but it also created negative balances.
The outside sales team utilized Act!, which in the field was slow to access data. Without integration to the ERP data, the reps lacked valuable information when selling. To get needed information, reps had to contact home office and request updates on their orders. In addition, multiple reports were created in Excel and Adobe and emailed on a daily basis to keep the sales reps current.
For a company whose philosophy includes offering superior customer service, Anstandig knew they could operate more efficiently. When Sage informed Biopelle that they would no longer be supporting SagePro 100, she put together a dream list of features and operations she wanted to improve, and began looking for an ERP to fit all of Biopelle’s needs. “I was looking for something that would increase efficiency and improve our capabilities with as many bells and whistles possible,” she said. Her biggest challenge was finding an ERP system that could handle Biopelle’s complex sales order process system and financial practices.
Although other Ferndale Pharma Group divisions used QAD MFG/PRO, Anstandig eliminated it from consideration as it could not accommodate Biopelle’s operating processes. Anstandig evaluated Blue Link, Minotaur Software, and Acumatica.
“I chose Acumatica because I knew it could handle our complexities,” she said. “Acumatica offered a lot more customization than the other packages. It was easy to get around from one screen to another, and I felt like it would take us into the twenty-first century.”
Anstandig reports that implementing the software was a large undertaking, but worth it. “One of the great things about Acumatica is that you can set up the modules in so many different ways; everyone can use it in exactly the way that they need.”
Biopelle started with Acumatica’s Financial Management, Customer Management, and Distribution Management Suites. Since then, they have added Ecommerce to the mix, expanding their reach by selling their products online.
Anstandig used to get frantic calls from the outside sales team asking for access to vital information to help close deals. “The sales reps were never allowed into our ERP system, but now they can connect at any time. They can access data within the permission levels they have been granted,” Anstandig said. “They can see which customers ordered in the past and get reports. With access to CRM, they can see notes and activities entered by the customer service team. There is improved communication between our reps and the inside team, which we didn’t have before.”
Acumatica eliminated the need for the separate CRM (Act!) and its ongoing licenses for 15 seats. Acumatica also made the accounting and customer service teams more productive because they are no longer duplicating their work. Acumatica’s unlimited user pricing model allows Biopelle to ramp up the salesforce or operations without incurring additional fees.
Acumatica’s subaccount structure allows Anstandig to populate fields with custom information and gain insights she couldn’t before. “Now I can create fields that are reportable and informative. The attribute section of Acumatica is terrific,” she said. With SagePro 100, she was restricted to using existing fields, leaving her to determine how she wanted to use a field on a daily basis, and then inform employees how that field was to be used. “With Acumatica, we can create an attribute on-the-fly and pull up what we want. The attribute can be a text, a checkbox, a dropdown list—anything—and I can link it to other tables and generate reports.”
“Now I’m able to work with data right and left,” Anstandig said. “I can create reports knowing which customer ordered which item during which time with what special.”
“I’m able to drilldown and get information in ways I never could before,” she added. “I like that the GL doesn’t come with canned reports. I like that I can create what I want and get the information with just a push of a button.”
Acumatica has become a vital tool in Biopelle’s growth. “With the sheer capability of getting our sales reps online and giving them access to customer information through the CRM, Acumatica is allowing my business to grow.”