Vivobarefoot Business Goals
Vivobarefoot is a forerunner among modern-day companies with minimalism at its heart. By creating regenerative footwear and experiences to bring people closer to nature, Vivobarefoot is today a world-renowned footwear brand available across the globe through its e-commerce channels and popular eCommerce marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.
In addition to the wholesale channel of orders, Magento & Divendo were two different e commerce platforms used by Vivobarefoot. NetSuite was used as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. The preferred integration method for Vivobarefoot was to use a file server to exchange files with multiple third party logistics(3PL) providers using SFTP because it enabled maximum flexibility in the event of a change of 3PL, change of Warehouse Management System and change of ERP system.
The main goal of this project is to connect NetSuite to each of the Warehouse Management Systems so that all inbound and outbound transactions are automatically synchronised between the systems. With a lean development team, Vivobarefoot required a low-code integration solution that is easy to maintain but capable of architecting a multi-layered e commerce integration.
The Need for Modern Integration
Vivobarefoot Third-Party Logistics (3PL) providers had different custom Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), and they were not integrated into NetSuite. Instead, they were integrated into e-commerce platforms (Divendo and Magento). This setup led to several issues and inefficiencies both internally and externally:
- Multiple stock holdings in the same facility
- Lack of alignment of stock between WMS and ERP
- Delayed reporting of transactions between WMS and ERP
- Inefficient processes to move stock between locations
- Difficulty in unifying the product value chain with wider business planning
- Labour intensive management of stock in NetSuite to retrospectively reflect WMS
The long-term approach was to have scalable integrations that could be quickly spinned-up by a relatively small IT in-house team of Vivobarefoot. They should be able to add new 3PL partners and make changes to existing ones without causing any downtime to the broader order fulfilment process.
How NeosAlpha Helped?
Integration consultants of NeosAlpha, with more than three decades of varied integration experience, worked closely with Vivobarefoot to understand their current landscape and future roadmap. We could map the Vivobarefoot supply chain model and current pain points where an effective integration is needed. Our consultative approach enabled us to produce a custom integration strategy for Vivobarefoot in a week. We chose the cloud-native, low-code Boomi AtomSphere Platform as the most suitable iPaaS solution for its combination of power and ease of use.
Boomi’s out-of-the-box application and technology connectors made the data flow frictionless between SFTP, NetSuite, and Warehouse Management Systems. We architected the solution such that data synchronisation between all the layers of the e-commerce supply chain istolerant to any system-level failures. We meticulously crafted an error handling framework with an in-built notification capability to minimise business impacts. Our team of Boomi-certified integration developers ensured that the integration processes were thoroughly tested by adhering to an industry-proven Behaviour-Driven Approach.
The phased design & delivery approach opted by us proved to be cost-effective.
Results
NeosAlpha’s implementation of this multi layered e-commerce, ERP and WMS integration met the original integration goals of Vivobarefoot.
- Reduction in 3PL costs
- Single physical stock holding in each warehouse facility
- Close to 99% accuracy level in the alignment of stock between NetSuite and WMS
- Real-time (or close to) synchronisation of transactions between NetSuite and Warehouse Management Systems
- PLM integration enabled ‘Single source of truth’ for the product data, made it easier for their design teams to make changes to existing products and innovate newer ones
Boomi AtomSphere has now become an integral part of the Vivobarefoot digital ecosystem. Operational handover integration documents produced by NeosAlpha helped the Vivobarefoot IT team to be self-sustainable in maintaining and enhancing their integration platform to meet their growing needs.
