Saddleback Leather, an e-tailer of rugged and distinctive leather bags, luggage, wallets, and accessories, drives a big chunk of revenue during the November/ December holidays. Upgrading to NetSuite from a snarl of disparate applications, the company put its new ecommerce and business platform to a tough test—going live right before the peak shopping season got under way.

“We sell 100 percent on the Internet, so if NetSuite wasn’t rock-solid we would have been dead in the water,” says Chuck Bowen, CEO of the Texas-based Saddleback Leather. “It came off flawlessly and worked extremely well. The uptime, speed, and ability to get the information you need with NetSuite are tremendous.”

From that smashing launch in November 2011, the fast-growing Saddleback has reaped the rewards of a comprehensive NetSuite implementation that supports ecommerce, financials, CRM, marketing, manufacturing, inventory, order management, warehousing, and distribution. With NetSuite, Saddleback has gained efficiency and visibility not possible with its previous “spaghetti bowl” of Salesforce.com, QuickBooks, Excel, and a home-grown website.

Business Across Borders
In addition, the NetSuite OneWorld global solution supports multi-currency transactions with a manufacturing subsidiary in Mexico, and enables executives to manage five related business entities—Saddleback and sister companies for manufacturing, shipping and ecommerce—under a single virtual parent. With NetSuite, Saddleback has automated the full order-to-cash cycle across its subsidiaries.

The net result is 50 percent revenue growth since abandoning on-premise systems by improving inventory and sales management effectiveness, reducing administrative and IT expenses, and growing the customer base. “We don’t believe that growth would have been possible with the previous platform,” says Bowen.

“We’ve become much more empowered with NetSuite and have much better control over the business,” adds Jimi Gibson, Saddleback General Manager. “Because of the functionality inherent in NetSuite, we’re able to do things we could never have done before.”

Making the Most of NetSuite
Saddleback Leather, born from the experiences of its world-traveling founder, Dave Munson, in Mexico in the 1990s, also takes advantage of SuiteApp solutions from NetSuite partners to make the most of its NetSuite implementation. For example, a Valogix SuiteApp for inventory forecasting has enabled Saddleback to save two full-equivalents (FTEs) versus its previous time-consuming processes.

A CyberSource merchant gateway SuiteApp simplifies domestic and international payment processing. Meanwhile, Saddleback is enriching its web storefront with new capabilities in the NetSuite SuiteCommerce ecommerce platform for ratings and reviews, single-page checkout, greater interactivity, and more.

Liberated from manual administration and running an IT infrastructure, the folks behind Saddleback aren’t just channeling their energies into growing the business. Munson’s wife, Suzette, has used NetSuite to launch a charitable business called Love 41 (www.love41.com), selling jewelry, accessories, and a variety of custom-designed bags. One hundred percent of the profits are donated to orphans, widows, and street kids in Africa, where the Munson family has traveled extensively.

As Saddleback officials describe it, NetSuite is helping them turn their passion into profits and social good. Says Gibson, “The potential for expansion and growth are built into NetSuite—it’s up to us to push it.”