E L B A T
Jeri Wambeek's Welcome
F E A T U R E D
A R T I C L E
Whichaddon in America
F O R
CONTENTS
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W E L C O M E
A C C O U N T A N T S
Mr Accountant, here's why you need a good cloud integrator
W H A T
I S
E D I ?
Can EDI help your business?
C H I C A G O
C A S E
S T U D Y
Our work with Best Value Vacs in Naperville, Illionois
W H I C H A D D O N
L I B R A R Y
Upcoming practical ebooksÂ
W O R K
W I T H
U S
Book a free scope call March 2018
WELCOME JERI WAMBEEK CO-FOUNDER OF WHICHADDON
“Which AddOn or App do we need?” that’s essentially the question we answer, the problem we solve, every day for businesses that want to move into the cloud. They contact us from all over the world and this first issue of WhichAddOn Magazine shares the stories and travels to the USA. Welcome to the first issue of the WhichAddOn Magazine! This is the result of a long-time coming dream. At WhichAddOn, we believe that with the right knowledge and support every business can rise to become everything they dream of – connecting staff to each other, to customers and to suppliers in the cloud. The cloud enables connection. We believe our business has the power to change lives. Every day we focus on positively impacting our clients' lives and that in turn enriches and improves our life and our family. However, we believe that we also have the ability to change the world. This magazine is our way of sharing our knowledge and our experiences with the world to empower them to change. Follow us on our travels throughout USA in November 2017, when we completed a whirlwind trip from the east to the north-east and then south-west of America, helping clients, learning about the true power of Amazon and the fast-paced uptake of the cloud throughout America. For the accountants out there, we wanted to share with you a muchloved article we published recently on why you need to connect with a good cloud integrator.
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Life is better in the cloud. On page …, it’s time to get your nerd on as we tackle the technical topic, What is EDI and how does it work. I know the first time I heard the term “EDI” years ago when I was a Solutions Architect at Unleashed Software, I had nothing. Blank. It’s time someone made it easy and to understand so you can take action or comfortably speak with your clients about EDI. Finally, we know that all this technical cloud integration knowledge is no use without understanding how it works in practice. This issue includes the reallife stories of one of our recent clients in the USA, the challenges they faced and most importantly, the solution.
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Until next time, remember, life is better in the cloud.
18
Jeri Wambeek
Come say "Hi"
Meet Jeri at the Accounting Business Expo March 21-22 in Sydney Get your free ticket at accountingbusiness.com.au
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 WhichAddOn In America
WhichAddOn In America BY JERI WAMBEEK Solutions Architect & Trainer
Stop 1: Las Vegas, Nevada
Source: PBR on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pbr/ It was booked back in February 2017. Marlon and I knew that we were going to QuickBooks Connect in San Jose on 15 and 16 November 2017, no matter what it was going to take. Our kids had carers booked 10 months in advance. The flights were confirmed. San Jose, Silicon Valley, here come WhichAddOn.
Our trajectory changed to focus on Amazon, helping product selling businesses with inventory, EDI, retail and ecommerce channels. This was a God-send as we attracted household name clients like Beechworth Honey and New Zealand Natural. You can read their stories over on WhichAddOn.com
It’s quite amazing what transpired over the 10 months from our decision to go the United States for the first time and the day we left. Amazon announced it’s launch in Australia by the end of 2017, which we saw happen in just before Christmas last year. QuickBooks grew in Australia at a fast rate, surpassing 100,000 subscribers reflecting an 89% growth in 12 months.
Marlon and I sat down and to brainstorm how do we make the most of our trip to the United States. Now with me being a massive Professional Bull Riding (PBR) fan, I decided the first stop had to be the PBR World Finals in Las Vegas, Nevada. We had a ball.
This changed our trajectory for 2017. The initial plan was to focus on our core markets of inventory, EDI and retail, focusing on the product, Financials for Office 365, a cloud based Microsoft product that suits all the businesses coming us for help that are too big for the Xero and QuickBooks Online (QBO) ecosystem.
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After a direct flight arriving early morning into Los Angeles, California, we struggled to stay awake in the hotel lobby whilst waiting for our room. We looked like a pair of bobble heads in the lobby lounge trying to stay awake and failing. It’s been a while since we both had travelled so far! Auckland and Suva was the furthest we had travelled to assist clients and complete addon integrations with Xero in New Zealand and Fiji.
Marlon and I at the PBR World Finals, Las Vegas, Nevada After a good nap and a full tummy (easy to do in America we found out!), we set out for Las Vegas on a red-eye flight the next morning. Before heading to the PBR in the afternoon, we Ubered over to the Zappos headquarters in Downtown Las Vegas. It was closed as it was Sunday and there was security everywhere, so filming as planned was difficult, but it was amazing learning about how Zappos grew to be the giant it is today. Zappos, always extremely focused on customer service and determined to revolutionise the online footwear industry, was purchased by Amazon in 2009 for $1.2 billion. Learning about Zappos’ processes through our research before heading onsite was fascinating understanding truly how ingrained buying online is in the United States and has been for so much longer than in Australia. I will be writing more about Amazon over the next few months sharing the success stories of Amazon Sellers and experts around the world.
"Zappos, always extremely focused on customer service and determined to revolutionise the online footwear industry, was purchased by Amazon in 2009 for $1.2 billion."
Zappos Headquarters Lobby Area. Source: Las Vegas Review Journal
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Top: Yosemite National Park, California, Right : Ford Expedition we hired in Fresno, Calfornia to take us to Yosemite. When planning our trip to the United States, we knew we had to go to Yosemite National Park. We are keen hikers - if you are based in the Sydney area and love hiking too - let us know and come hiking with us. After only one night in Las Vegas and watching the amazing show of the PBR World Finals, we flew into Fresno, hired a massive Ford Expedition and travelled north to stay in the quaint little town, Chowchilla. It was quite fascinating to find coin operated newspaper dispensing machines outside the local Mexican restaurant, whilst everyone is buying online at the same time! I don’t think I’ve seen those machine in Australia since I was a child.
Stop 2: Yosemite National Park, California For the American’s reading this, we loved how big everything is! Big cars, big mountains, big highways…. big everything! We have big cars for our family of 7 here in Australia, but they have nothing on American BIG.
Yosemite National Park was a beautiful place and we can’t wait to go back and spend some more "For the American’s reading this, we loved time there now we know how to get there, where how big everything is! Big cars, big everything is and the weather. We weren’t really mountains, big highways…. big everything! sure what it was going to be like in November with We have big cars for our family of 7 here in snow falls closing the major passes over the Australia, but they have nothing on American mountains. Any tips on things to see in the United States when we are over there next, please let us BIG." know.
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"We arrived in Seattle and it was 3 degrees Celcius and raining!"
After two nights in Chowchilla, we head back to Fresno airport and by lunch time were on our way to the home of Amazon, the rainy city, Seattle. We arrived in Seattle and it was 3 degrees Celcius and raining. After being in 25 degrees in the Nevada desert, Las Vegas, just two days before it was a shock to the system. We rugged up and after much needed rest, we headed out to walk Seattle Downtown and explore the array of Amazon buildings scattered throughout the city.
Stop 3: Amazon in Seattle, Washington By far one of the most exciting times in our trip to the United States, was interviewing a series of successful Amazon Sellers and consultants based in Seattle. We have some really exciting videos to share from these interviews in the coming months now that the “hype” of Amazon has died down and the real question of “how do we actually do this Amazon thing” hits home. Amazon won’t die here in Australia. It will succeed, it just takes time to get the products that the consumers need and I can tell you they are actively seeking those suppliers now as we are hearing more and more about it from our clients every day.
Outside Amazon HQ in Downtown Seattle.
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P10 Foods, Bringing the Goods to Atlanta, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina After two nights in Seattle, we are on a plane to Sacramento to see the Golden State Warriors play Philadelphia 76ers. My love is PBR. Marlon’s is basketball. It was a dream come true to go to a NBA game together and it was well worth the whirlwind trip from Seattle to Sacramento to San Jose, to then board an early morning flight to Atlanta, Georgia (practically on the other side of the USA!). 7 hours or so, stopping via Dallas, Texas Airport (now that’s BIG!), we arrived in Atlanta. The Uber driver was telling us on the way to the hotel how fast Atlanta was growing as the business and tech hub of the South West. Almost like Silicon Valley on the west coast. This is apparent even to us outside of America, with Xerocon USA being held in Atlanta this June 2018. About 6 weeks before our November trip was about to start, we were truly blessed to be contacted by a “small” food distributribution business, P10 Foods, based in Atlanta. I will write their entire story up in next month’s issue of this magazine, but the short version is that they had been using Tradegecko and Xero for some time. They contacted us because they wanted help determining what other addons could work with Xero better than Tradegecko. With Tradegecko, they loved the B2B,
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Stop 4: DEAR Inventory Implementation in Atlanta, Georgia but they were unable to successfully track lot (batch) numbers and expiry dates. Their product costings weren’t accurate as a result and the Xero integration wasn’t as solid as they liked. We took the entire team of sales managers, delivery drivers and the owner through our thorough scoping process and tested and demonstrated to them how DEAR Inventory works like Tradegecko but solved their pain points. We also demonstrated how Accelo with it’s help ticket feature and sales pipeline management would help their delivery drivers and customer service team. Finally, we also demonstrated to them, Tookan. It’s a routing or delivery management system that determines the best route for delivery drivers to follow based on the series of deliveries they have on their list to make. They decided to move ahead with DEAR Inventory instead of Tradegecko, and that’s what we were in Atlanta for three days to facilitate. I will share their story in detail for you in the next issue, as well as what we learned from this experience.
Source: QuickBooks Connect, https://quickbooksconnect.com/
Stop 5: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose, California
"The organic growth that every business community goes through when “getting used” to putting the financials in the cloud happens everywhere.."
Our final stop was the original reason for our trip to the United States. The QuickBooks Connect conference in San Jose. It was an eye opening experience to see how proactive and forward thinking the US advisers in our industry were, after hearing for years “don’t worry about the US, they are all still writing cheques by hand”. Yes, cheques (or checks in US terms) are still a big part of the business culture, but once you step away from the Xero view of the US and see how fast the business community is adopting the cloud in the US - it’s a lot faster than we did here in Australia.
First people have to get used to internet banking and then they have fears about having their financials in the cloud and it’s security, then the love the efficiency so much they take the leap of faith of moving to Xero or QBO. Once they have done that, they realise that there are addons or apps to help make their business even more efficient and they start to use those. Or, they were unable to move to Xero or QBO initially without an addon, so they had to jump with both feet in and start with an addon and their chosen accounting system. That’s the typical journey we all have experience.
The organic growth that every business community goes through when “getting used” to putting the financials in the cloud happens everywhere.
In Australia, that journey took years! Addons weren’t big in the conversation until the last 18 months. There were the early adopters, but still it wasn’t “common knowledge” until recent times.
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In Asia and the USA, I have witnessed that journey from desktop to the cloud with addons move much faster than it did here in Australia. What took us 3 years to do in Australia, is happening in the US in just 1 year. The biggest eye-opener for me to this fact was when I walked into a seminar at QBConnect in San Jose on how to select the right app for your client. I think the sessions was called “Taming the Wild West of Apps”. The room seated around 500 people and there were people standing around the walls. Now many of these advisors had only just started using QBO, but they knew already that to be successful with QBO as an advisor they also had to understand the apps. It was at that moment that I realised how much faster QBO and the cloud will move in America. Xerocon in Australia hasn’t even delivered this level of high-quality speaking on these topics to help advisors get on the front foot. They either have to find it themselves or search out for people like us at WhichAddOn to help them make sense of the “Wild West”.
Seattle, Washington
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"What took us 3 years to do in Australia, is happening in the US in just 1 year."
Since our United States trip in November, we have since been back to Chicago, Illinois to help two clients with Cin7 projects. One of those was Best Value Vacs and the other we will share in another issue of the magazine coming up. We also help clients online (lots of early mornings for me!) providing customised training on DEAR Inventory and Cin7, especially around setup, automation and managing the inventory successfully in the fastpaced US ecommerce and retail market. Many more stories to come of WhichAddOn working with clients all over the world, I am certain of that. Until next time, remember, no matter where you are in the world, life is better in the cloud.
MR. ACCOUNTANT, HERE’S WHY YOU NEED TO CONNECT WITH A GOOD CLOUD INTEGRATOR JERI WAMBEEK Mr. Accountant, here’s why you need to connect with a good cloud integrator. CO-FOUNDER OF WHICHADDON At WhichAddOn, we help businesses be more profitable and more efficient using cloud software systems. Technically, we are called cloud integrators. The term “cloud integrator” refers to an expert in cloud software systems who helps a business find the best solution to solve the pain points in the business and implement that system without the headaches. Being a successful cloud integrator is not an easy task. I always say that 70% of what we do is people management – managing the emotions and the natural resistance that arises in the face of change.
Managing a business systems change – no matter how beneficial it is – is a difficult task, but with the right preparation, thoughtful implementation and open communication with experts in the process, you will certainly reduce the pain that inevitably comes with major change.
And we get it. Changing the systems on which you run your business on a day to day basis – whilst running the business – is not a simple task. With our business growing so fast in 2017, it took us over a year to fully implement and use our internal project management and CRM system, Accelo, and using it to its full potential. Think about how hard it is to just change a bad habit you have been trying to kick and replace with a new one. Change is not easy. Managing a business systems change – no matter how beneficial it is – is a difficult task, but with the right preparation, thoughtful implementation and open communication with experts in the process, you will certainly reduce the pain that inevitably comes with major change. Marlon and I will be the first to tell you that being a cloud integrator is not easy. It’s taken years of failures and successes to get to where we are today. We constantly have to take a step back and humble ourselves to see where we can improve.
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When a client is not 100% happy, we don’t grumble any more and complain that they are unreasonable – we stop and ask, “What can we do better now and next time?” Being a successful integrator takes a unique set of skills. Listening. Patience. Experience in real-life business, not just the theory or the hardware. Ability to learn fast (to find the best solutions) and communicate (to share the best solutions). Attention to detail and a love for numbers and data.
Both Marlon and I are accountants by trade and have spent our lives dedicated to improved client’s businesses – to make them more profitable and efficient. In the past, we sold our services to make them more efficient, now the software does a lot of the work once setup correctly and everyone has the right training. If you have clients that want to move into the cloud, now is the time to create a working relationship with a great cloud integrator. We created our CloudNewstart System to help your clients move to the cloud without the headaches.
WHAT A GOOD CLOUD INTEGRATOR WILL DO FOR YOUR CLIENTS Spend the time up front to get to the business processes, workflows, needs and wants Test the business workflows, processes and actual business data in the cloud software available Not just sell you the software that they know, but listen to the intricacies and details of the business and go find the best-fit solution not just the most popular solution Demonstrate the software solution or integrated solutions to the business and all key team members to help them make an informed decision that it’s the right solution Provide a fixed price proposal and flexible payment plan to ensure there are no surprises. Big change requires your investment of time and money – get it right the first time! Provide customised training for all your team members – you need to be trained on your actual workflows, not some generic widget data. Support you by phone, email and onsite if required through the transition period and proactively review the new systems on a regular basis Liaise with you (the accountant) to ensure that the new system is configured correctly for the business and for the financial analysis and reporting you need
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WHAT IS EDI AND HOW DOES IT WORK JERI WAMBEEK Every day I talk to businesses selling products – some small, some large. We CO-FOUNDER OF WHICHADDON specialise in helping businesses find the right cloud software for their business and we are experts in inventory management, ecommerce and manufacturing – so that’s the type of businesses we help. Almost every day I have a introductory scope call with a client, I need to explain to businesses what EDI is. Unless the customer is already selling to the big chain stores, they don’t know what EDI is and even if they do, they are happy to hear it again.
"EDI STANDS FOR ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE" EDI ENABLES:
faster, more efficient and more accurate procurement increased service levels and compliance overall supply chain visibility and efficiency enhanced collaboration with our trade partners
EDI is used by large companies that have multiple stores throughout the country or world. Think Coles & Woolworths (for food and beverage products), Iconic, Myer or David Jones or Nordstrom (for fashion businesses), Bunnings (for manufacturing businesses) or Houzz and Wayfair (for lifestyle products businesses). Even if you want to sell your products to Kmart, Target, Walmart, Whole Foods or Rebel Sports they all use EDI. They might call it different names but it is essentially slightly different versions of the same thing.
HOW DOES EDI WORK Ok, so it’s exchanging data electronically, but how does it work? Think of EDI as it’s own language. Like banks have a way of exchanging data between the banks that they all understand, EDI is like that. The information exchanges are defined and structured in the same way so that the buyer (e.g. Coles) can place a purchase order in their system and it can automatically flow into the supplier’s software as a sales order.
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Furthermore, when you are working with a buyer like Coles, you need to send them an order acknowledgment, confirming if you can fulfill the order that they have asked for and if you can meet their deadline. Then, of course, Coles has a lot of moving parts. You need to the goods they have purchased from you to their Distribution Centres and then they need to distribute everything to their hundreds of supermarkets around the country. They need to know exactly when you are sending their order to them when it’s going to arrive and ensure that it is labeled correctly. This involves you sending them what’s called an Advanced Shipping Notice, printing off the shipping labels they need to Js E uRc Ic W e sAsM f uBlEl yE Kr e c e i v e y o u r o r d e r a t t h e D i s t r i b u t i o n C ER CO e -nFtO r eU.NFDi n a lO l yF, W y oHuI CnHeAeD dDtOoNe l e c t r o n i c a l l y s e n d t h e m an invoice to get paid! It’s a lot of back and forth. If you don’t do it on time – at any stage – you can “get a black mark” against your company name and risk losing your relationship with the customer.
STEP ONE
EDI IN ACTION
Become an Approved Supplier You become an approved supplier of a big chain buyer, like Target. (Yay!… Congratulations!)
STEP TWO
STEP THREE
You need to be using a software system that can connect electronically to Target’s EDI platform. (We use Xero, QuickBooks Online, Cin7 or DEAR Inventory or a mix of two, depending on our clients needs). Depending on the software you use, you might also need an EDI provider, such as B2B Gateway or Crossfire EDI.
Get Accredited by your Buyer’s specialist EDI team You need to have your EDI provider/software, contact the Accreditation/Certification team of your buyer. For example, Target will have a team dedicated to approving new suppliers and their software connections. If it doesn’t work, then Target’s orders won’t get to you and things will go south for your new relationship very quickly. Once you have been accredited after going through quite a rigorous testing process, you can start trading via the EDI with your buyer.
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Use Software that Can Connect via EDI
Depending on the buyer and your EDI provider, EDI testing and accreditation can take from 2 weeks to 5 months. Sometimes the EDI connection doesn’t exist yet and your provider needs to build it working with the buyer’s EDI team. This can take some time. The accreditation process should not be rushed!
STEP FOUR
Receiving Orders From Your Buyer The process of what needs to be exchanged between your buyer and you, the supplier, throughout the process from order to fulfilment to payment, can be different for different buyers, but you can be guaranteed that it will always start with the buyer sending through a Purchase Order outlining what they want to buy from you. We will use Cin7, one of the software systems we use, for these examples. JERI WAMBEEK CI O FO ER CiHl lAeDiD OeNr b e n -C i nU7N, Dt h e O o rFdW e rH Iw th automatically imported into the Sales Orders section as a New Sales Order (if Auto-Import is turned on) or when you know you will be receiving orders from your buyers, you can go into the EDI Dashboard in Cin7 and select Import to import all the new orders instantly. This Purchase Order is often called an 850: Purchase Order.
STEP SIX
STEP FIVE
Order Receipt Acknowledgement is Sent Back to the Buyer Once you have reviewed the new order/s and confirmed (in Cin7) that you have enough stock to fulfill the orders by the deadline provided, Cin7 will automatically generate an Order Acknowledgement receipt and send it back to the Buyer via the EDI system. If you need to change their original order because you can’t fulfill what they want in time, Cin7 will send a Change Acknowledgement.
Prepare the Order for Fulfilment and Send the Advanced Shipping Notice
You prepare the order for shipment and then once ready to ship, well before the Buyer’s deadline, you will need to print the labels to put on your boxes/pallets and then Cin7 will create an Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) to the Buyer via the EDI system.
The ASN tells the buyer all about the order that’s on it’s way. What’s in the box When it’s due to arrive Where it’s going to Where it’s coming from What’s in each box Who sent it The order referernce What Carrier was used The tracking number
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Ship the Order and Send the Invoice
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Chicago case study
Deep Freeze in Chicago Best Value Vacs BY MARLON WAMBEEK General Manager
MARCH 2018 | PAGEÂ 18
The Problem As with any rapid growth, systems start becoming critical and need to be put in place to have a clear understanding of where you came from, and where you are heading as a business. BVV trades over multiple channels, utilising traditional sales channels, driven by sales representatives building wholesale client relationships. As well as more modern sales channels such as Magento (ecommerce), eBay and Amazon. As a team, it was decided that they would utilise an industry-leading solution called Cin7. Cin7 is wellknown industry-wide as the “connected solution”. One of Cin7’s standout features is its ability to connect to so many different solutions and be able to manage your inventory from multiple locations, multiple sales channels all in the one place. BVV has a lot of internal staff that are very savvy with e-commerce platforms, and have a high understanding of warehouse management. The one area they were a little short was in accounting expertise. They decided that they would implement the system internally, working alongside Cin7’s onboarding team. This process which typically takes about 6-10 weeks, ended up dragging to over 8 months! BVV gets a large number of orders online, the connection in 8 months still did not work properly, it did not pull down any orders, and did not update the online store with available stock. As a result, orders were printed from the e-commerce solution and then adjusted out of Cin7 to “account” for dispatched items. As a result, no sales data was recorded for millions in sales. Just the cost. Inventory control was pretty much out the door. Staff were extremely frustrated, and just did the best they could to make the best of a bad situation. To say the system had problems was an understatement. Most of the issues were over the staff heads, and Cin7 staff struggled to connect the dots remotely from New Zealand. The disconnect was both literally online and between individuals.
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Co m in g So on
Co m
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So on
 Inventory, EDI, E-Commerce and Retail Specialists
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E-Commerce
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