How Life-Space Group overhauled its ERP system to turbocharge growth
How NetSuite provider Annexa helped this leading health and wellness company optimise its backend system amidst rising demand.
Since it was established in 2006, Life-Space Group has emerged as a major player in the rapidly growing wellness category.
Its portfolio includes leading healthcare brands, such as Life-Space, the number one probiotics brand in Australia, which recently became the exclusive official health supplement partner of the Australian Open, and Pentavite, a children’s multivitamin brand that has been operating in Australia for over 50 years.
The company also has its own Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) licensed manufacturing facility in Victoria, Australia, where it produces complementary medicines and foods for sale on a global scale.
In a category that has traditionally been plagued by misinformation, Life-Space Group sets itself apart through its commitment to developing high-quality, specialist formulations based on scientific research and educating consumers about the benefits of its products.
We are passionate about bringing premium and innovative holistic health products to the consumerEric Chen, CEO, Life-Space
Following the rapid rise in consumer demand for wellness products during Covid-19, however, Life-Space Group realised it needed to overhaul its backend system to take its business to the next level.
That’s when the company turned to Annexa, a NetSuite ERP provider known for its technical expertise and system integration capabilities.
Disjointed backend causing headaches
Life-Space Group had already implemented an ERP system before partnering with Annexa. At that time, NetSuite was managing its core business functions, from finance, supply chain, manufacturing and operations through to reporting and data analysis.
“We have a huge quality component to what we do. We’re a TGA-licensed facility,” Asher Norman, head of manufacturing at Life-Space Group, said.
“We’re required to go through all our testing, all of our checking of materials as they come through. So we use NetSuite in those steps.”
But the company wasn’t experiencing the maximum benefits of the software due to significant inefficiencies within its configuration and business processes.
These issues were compounded by knowledge gaps due to a lack of documentation and the departure of subject matter experts (SMEs) from the business.
As a result, Life-Space Group had poor visibility across its supply chain, making managing inventory difficult. It also used manual processes for certain tasks, which naturally increased the risk of errors as well as business costs.
Life-Space Group’s customers occasionally experienced the flow-on effects in the form of stock outages and delayed deliveries, so it was clear something needed to change.
a vision to innovate, automate and optimise
Life-Space Group knew it needed a partner with the technical expertise to optimise its ERP system for continued growth and international expansion, and it selected Annexa to provide all ongoing NetSuite support and services.
“They’re very knowledgeable, not only from the NetSuite side of things, but more particularly from the business vertical as well,” said Paul Siu, B&T manager at Life-Space Group.
The key objectives of the partnership were to refine Life-Space Group’s accounting practices, automate its supply chain processes by implementing the NetSuite Demand Planning solution and integrating third-party QR code developments, and optimise the Procure-to-Pay process by establishing better governance around approvals.
Another important goal was to increase supply chain traceability from the point of manufacture to the end consumer, which would allow Life-Space Group to guarantee product authenticity and reduce the overall counterfeit market.
“It’s moving us closer to a fully automated system, which is where we want to get to,” Norman said about the new system.
This was critical given the company’s plans for international expansion following its launch on major Chinese third-party marketplaces, including Alibaba’s Tmall and Taobao platforms.
taking a collaborative approach
With a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve, Life-Space Group and Annexa got to work on executing the changes.
Annexa assembled a team tailored to Life-Space Group’s needs, including functional SMEs, technical consultants and a dedicated solution lead, and aligned itself to Life-Space Group’s way of working.
This deep collaboration was critical to providing Life-Space Group with robust solutions and empowering its staff to own their solutions well into the future so Annexa could work on more complex new initiatives.
For example, following the initial ERP project, Life-Space Group tapped Annexa to enhance its product traceability capabilities via an integration between NetSuite and CNN, an anti-counterfeit, anti-SUR (sales in unauthorised region) solution, and integrate e-commerce natively into its NetSuite solution.
Whereas Life-Space Group previously struggled with a lack of technical expertise within the business, Annexa’s customer-centric approach ensured the execution process ran smoothly.
“My experience with Annexa is a really professional and responsive partner – they provide us a lot of support,” Chen said.
FEWER ERRORS, FASTER DELIVERY TIMES
Working with Annexa has been a game-changer for Life-Space Group. The company now has the tools and automated processes to operate more efficiently and deliver a better customer experience.
Greater inventory visibility has led to a reduction in errors and faster delivery times, while the elimination of external spreadsheets for demand planning and inventory costing has helped the company avoid stock outages and drive sales growth.
From a data perspective, access to real-time information has given the whole management team a “single source of truth,” according to Chen.
“We all operate from the same interface,” Norman added. “Everybody knows what the rest of the team are doing when we look at sales, when we look at orders that need to be picked. So when a pallet arrives at our warehouse, it’s entered into NetSuite, and our other site can see that it has actually arrived.”
The positive impact of these changes can be seen in the company’s continued domestic and international expansion in recent years, as well as its investment in major marketing initiatives.
In addition to its partnership with the Australian Open, a major milestone, Life-Space Group has also signed a three-year partnership with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to fund a world-leading probiotics research project.
COMMITTED TO CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Like many businesses, Life-Space Group realised that it wasn’t getting the most out of its backend system, and it needed a more tailored platform to support the company’s future expansion.
By working with Annexa, Life-Space Group was able to enhance its inventory visibility, gain access to real-time data and automate certain processes for greater operational efficiency. This enabled the company to improve its customer experience and drive growth both in Australia and overseas.
NetSuite has really, growth-wise, helped us get to a different stage of the business…if it was in a manual state trying to manage all the different aspects of the business, we certainly wouldn’t have grown at the rate that we haveAsher Norman, Head of Manufacturing, Life-Space
Of course, optimising an ERP system is not a “one and done” endeavour, and Life-Space Group continues to work with Annexa to adapt and improve its business processes.
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