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When demand is increasing and you’re losing oversight in Excel, what do you do? You implement a leading Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. That’s precisely what Belgian flower pot ‘brand creator’ The Pots Company did: “SAP Business ByDesign professionalized our operations drastically.”
In the past, The Pots Company was using Microsoft Office for handling administration. While this can be manageable for small companies, it leads to chaos and loss of data when the business reaches a certain size. In recent years demand for its durable and sleekly designed Ecopots has risen exponentially among eco-conscious customers, just like the ambition to grow even further.
“After a while, it became very difficult to keep our records structured and we wanted to avoid data loss or errors. That’s when our search for a fitting ERP began,” says The Pots Company C.O.O. Delphine Bossuwe. “To keep up with growth, we needed something easy to use and quickly deployable.” When looking for a durable and experienced partner, delaware proved to be the right pick.
Cloud-based was a logical choice since it does not involve any infrastructure costs. “The big advantage of the cloud is that it allows you to scale things up fast, perfectly fit for a growing SME,” says Stéphanie De Wispelaere, project manager at delaware. "Flexibility and expandability are what matters most to us,” explains Delphine. SAP Business ByDesign turned out to be the ideal choice.
In the past, The Pots Company had to manually file sales and purchase orders for each step, resulting in a never-ending administrative burden. “Through an online portal, our customers submit their orders. The only thing we still have to do is upload this data into SAP Business ByDesign,” says Delphine. “We made giant leaps in terms of saving time and professionalization.”
Implementing a leading ERP gave the SME a huge boost and enables The Pots Company to realize its ambitions. SAP Business ByDesign comes with a wide set of predefined business scenarios, ranging from order-to-cash and procure-to-pay to third-party order processing. The chaos of Excel worksheets is now a thing of the past.
“Having to migrate all data from Excel sheets enabled a fresh start in terms of data consistency. This was definitely the most challenging part of the project. But it’s also where we achieved the biggest gains. An ideal opportunity to thoroughly clean all data,” adds Delphine.
Like many small and mid-size businesses, The Pots Company had no dedicated in-house implementation team. Delphine: “This made the project particularly challenging. However, thanks to delaware’s ability to adapt quickly, we were still able to complete the implementation a month before the deadline, set in February 2022. Perfectly timed for the new fiscal year.”
Now that the implementation is complete, The Pots Company is continuing to explore new possibilities offered by SAP Business ByDesign. Like expanding reporting with detailed overviews. In addition, The Pots Company is also looking into opportunities to link SAP Business ByDesign with their web shop and partners worldwide.
“SMEs are driven by passion,” adds Stéphanie. “That’s one of the reasons we love to work with them. We’re happy to guide you in applying best practices and get your business to the next level and facilitate growth. At delaware we believe in a long-term approach. We’re looking forward to seeing how The Pots Company will blossom in the years ahead.”
