BLENDERBOTTLE
To keep up with skyrocketing sales, BlenderBottle needed a software upgrade. Flexibility in a new solution was a must, one that could grow with the company and address its most complicated product customization needs.
The Company
BlenderBottle Company is a Lehi, UT-based company that designs and manufactures products geared toward active-lifestyle consumers.
When BlenderBottle brand products burst onto the supplement scene back in 2000, they quickly rocketed to global success, populating gyms the world over. Their products are found in more than 57,000 retail locations in the United States alone, and the iconic shaker cup has become the go-to beverage container for both novice and pro athletes alike.
“We’re no ordinary company,” said Grant Peterson, technology operations supervisor at BlenderBottle. “Our forward momentum has been non-stop since the invention of the BlenderBall whisk. We’re relentless in our pursuit of excellence and innovation, and we’re equally committed to the people that our brand touches, from our staff members and distributors to our end consumers. BlenderBottle is all about people, and we live and breathe our mission to create simple solutions to enhance everyday life for athletes of all levels.”
The Challenge
Before making the switch to SalesPad Cavallo®, BlenderBottle was using an ERP system that simply could not handle the company’s rapid growth. The system would lag, freeze, or corrupt data on an almost daily basis, making normal business processes frustrating and time-consuming. BlenderBottle had clearly outgrown its starter system and was ready to upgrade to an order-to-cash management solution that could improve the efficiency of its complicated processes.
BlenderBottle was also in the market for an order-processing system that could tackle the logistics of selling a huge amount of product to thousands of stores nationwide.
The Solution
BlenderBottle had already decided to make the switch to Microsoft Dynamics GP when an employee in the payroll department suggested the company pair it with SalesPad to make Dynamics GP easier to work with. Not only did BlenderBottle find a distribution management software solution that could keep pace with them, it found an order management solution that was powerful and flexible, and provided much-appreciated stability.
“SalesPad is the most reliable of all our software programs,” Peterson said. “Although BlenderBottle also uses several other business applications, not a single order ships from our warehouse without being touched by SalesPad.
“SalesPad is the glue that ties our ordering systems together,” he continued. “It’s fluid, it doesn’t require a lot of maintenance, and it is reliably consistent. Everyone here really enjoys using SalesPad.”
Grant Peterson Technology Operations SupervisorCavallo is the glue that ties our ordering systems together. It’s fluid, it doesn’t require a lot of maintenance, and it is reliably consistent. Everyone here really enjoys using Cavallo.
Customized Orders, Processed Smoothly and Efficiently Every Time
Rebecca Jensen, processing manager at BlenderBottle, remembers a time when she didn’t have SalesPad in her corner. Before making the switch to SalesPad, she used a paper-based order processing system to coordinate the ins and outs of huge standard orders, as well as every custom order.
“We were rapidly outgrowing our archaic, paper-based system,” Jensen said. “There was no real way to track the progress of an order, unless you had the actual paper copy in your hand, and you knew that the order had moved to the next person, bin, or table in the process. Visibility on orders going in and out was very minimal.”
Highly configurable workflows and the Sales Monitor module in particular have made Jensen’s job a lot easier. Now that BlenderBottle is using SalesPad, each order type has its own dedicated workflow, which makes the custom orders just as easy to process as the regular orders, and keeps the whole ecosystem running smoothly.
True visibility into the order fulfillment pipeline was also a game-changer for BlenderBottle. The company could now quickly determine an order’s status and history and identify any bottlenecks at their source, making it easy to increase the volume of orders processed throughout the workday. BlenderBottle was also able to prioritize orders to maximize efficiency—a feat to make anyone dealing with logistics rest a little easier.
BlenderBottle’s commitment to quality requires complicated shipping practices such as same-day shipping, ongoing inventory audits, and compliance with big-box retailers. Adhering to such standards had been a significant challenge because of limitations to warehousing, inventory, and software. With the help of SalesPad and other process improvements, BlenderBottle has been able to meet and exceed their shipping expectations.
Better Business Processes Pairing Web API with Scripting And UDFs
BlenderBottle takes full advantage of SalesPad’s option to add an unlimited number of user defined fields (UDFs). Peterson’s role at BlenderBottle involves working with SalesPad API and collaborating with developers who write scripts to augment the system.
SalesPad API is an add-on plugin that many businesses use to write their own integrations to separate systems. Peterson says that working with the product has been instrumental in improving BlenderBottle’s business processes.
“I really like that SalesPad accommodates more custom fields than GP does,” Peterson said. “We’ve even added custom fields that pull in data from other applications, in order to augment SalesPad and further enhance its ability to meet our needs.”
BlenderBottle uses several other software solutions to keep their company on track, and SalesPad API connects the software to these other systems.
“Without SalesPad, there’d be a lot of frustration,” Jensen added. “Before, it was a nightmare to keep track of everything. Now, if I need something done with an order, I can just look it up in SalesPad. I don’t have to sort through 50 papers to find a customer’s name or something. That’s awesome.”