NetDigital

 

NetDigital Security is an importer and wholesale distributor of electronic security products. Headquartered in Adelaide, NetDigital specialises in CCTV surveillance, access control, intercom systems, A/V equipment, alarm systems and computer networking. NetDigital stocks more than 15,000 electronic security products from leading suppliers such as Bosh, Aiphone, Ramset and Ronix.

Around ten years ago NetDigital determined that it had outgrown its business accounting system, QuickBooks Pro. To properly manage the anticipated future growth of the company while addressing key business functions such as accounts, purchasing, sales, importing and inventory and warehousing management, NetDigital conducted a search for a suitable ERP solution. After evaluating a number of systems the company decided on Jiwa.

 

   

As well as for being able to effectively automate and integrate a number of core business processes, NetDigital selected Jiwa for its ability to meet complex price calculation requirements. With hundreds of regular customers, many thousands of products and dozens of suppliers, NetDigital wanted to put an end to the highly labour-intensive task of manually working out everything to do with pricing – from quantity price breaks through to contract pricing, specials and discounts.

“Robust and flexible customer pricing functionality was a top priority for us when we were comparing our options in the ERP systems market”, Danny Willgoose, Managing Director at NetDigital Security recalls. “It soon became clear that Jiwa had what it took to streamline the whole process, dramatically reducing the time and effort it previously took to create pricing formulas that work effectively both for us and for our customers. It’s the flexibility of Jiwa that enables us to tailor our pricing in a virtually unlimited number of ways, taking into account whatever criteria we want to enter. Given the huge number of products we have in our inventory, this is a big plus for NetDigital.”

It is also because of the vastness of NetDigital’s brand and product range that the company values Jiwa’s inventory search capabilities. While less robust business management systems can be sluggish when it comes to search, Jiwa enables instant access to comprehensive stock, pricing and sales information. Importantly, Jiwa enables NetDigital to quickly respond to customers’ product enquiries.

Danny says, “Jiwa has the capacity to handle large volumes and that’s exactly what our company requires. We can carry out searches by product, customer, supplier or by whatever other criteria we enter into it and get the result straight away. Whether we’re responding to a customer’s phone enquiry or simply keeping tabs on our inventory, Jiwa’s ability to come through for us every time is greatly beneficial both from a customer service and an internal operations standpoint.”

In 2015 NetDigital expanded with the establishment of a Melbourne office. By opening a second branch the company nearly doubled in size, both by headcount and by the volume of business being transacted. No company can experience expansion and growth of that type without complications arising, however one thing Danny did not have to concern himself with too much with was the ability of his ERP solution to cope with the extra demands being placed on it.

“Jiwa is promoted as a system that can adapt to the changing needs of a growing business and that’s certainly been our experience at NetDigital”, he said. “Both before and after we expanded into Victoria, Jiwa has seamlessly evolved with us, underpinning our growth and helping us lay the groundwork for any future expansion.”

   

Some time ago NetDigital migrated from the on-premise version of Jiwa to the cloud version of the system. A cloud-based ERP environment tends to be the preferred choice for business’s with multiple locations, scalability requirements and a need for fast access to information. The decision to run Jiwa in the cloud fitted in with NetDigital’s Melbourne expansion. “With Jiwa in the cloud there’s the best in connectivity between our Adelaide head office and our Melbourne branch”, said Danny. “Each office has its own warehouse and it’s important for our staff to keep on top of inventory in both locations. As products come in and move out everything is logged into Jiwa and changes are immediately visible to anyone who needs to know.”

Confidence in a technology vendor’s products and people tend to increase or diminish over time. While a company’s favourable reputation takes time to build it can take as little as one false move to send that reputation south. With regards to Jiwa, Danny says “NetDigital has been with Jiwa for many years and over that time we’ve developed a lot of confidence in both the product and the people behind it. Jiwa has consistently delivered a very stable, flexible and powerful ERP solution and there’s no doubt we’re going to stick with it for a long time to come.”