FASTENation®, Inc., is a performance-driven, woman-owned fastener company with offices in Clifton, N.J. and Charleston, S.C. Founded in 1997 by Jayne and David Petak, the organization provides a broad range of fasteners and converting services to more than 50 countries around the world.
The company markets fasteners from 3M™, Glue Dots International, Adhesive Applications and Velcro USA Inc., and also manufactures a complete line of table skirting clips, CD/DVD hubs and cable management systems. FASTENation also offers converting services (i.e., cutting, rotary die cutting, slitting, assembling and packaging) for all of the fasteners that it sells.
“We’re very focused on the value-added component of taking products, putting them together, and creating something else out of the raw materials that we buy,” says David Petak, EVP. “Our customer requests teach us a lot and challenge us, and that ‘customer-driven innovation’ is the fun part of the business.”
FASTENation has been operating from its current 18,000-square-foot location for the last 18 years. The 33-employee company serves customers in aerospace, medical, industrial, signage and other industries that use electronics. The growing company was running on a selection of disparate, siloed software systems (e.g., Sage Accpac for ERP, QuickBooks for accounting and QuoteWerks as a quoting system) and needed a more unified, consistent approach.
“We were struggling with four or five pieces of software that were held together with duct tape and bubble gum,” says Petak. “The systems talked to each other in foreign languages, and not very well.” The disjointed systems didn’t provide timely, comprehensive reporting, which meant the company’s leadership had to wait until tax time to get an accurate picture of FASTENation’s financial status.
In 2017, FASTENation embarked on an ERP implementation project with Infor, but soon realized that the ERP was not going to meet their needs. “They weren’t able to customize their software for the way we ran our business and how we handle our shipping (i.e., using a pick-pack-ship approach),” says Petak, who evaluated solutions like Acumatica and NetSuite and concluded that the latter would best meet the company’s needs.
Petak knew of several other companies that were already using NetSuite and went in search of an outside implementation partner that could help FASTENation both implement and optimize NetSuite.
FASTENation found exactly what it was looking for in ScaleNorth, a NetSuite partner that went a step further by presenting not only their own capabilities, but also the functionalities of the ERP itself and how it could be configured for FASTENation’s processes. “ScaleNorth is really what sold us on NetSuite’s capabilities,” says Petak, who really liked the fact that he wouldn’t have to “turn the company upside down” to get NetSuite put in place and operational.
“ScaleNorth got a grasp on our business and what we wanted to do,” Petak explains. Comparing them to the head of Infor’s implementation team, he says Dean Carazza, CPA (Project Lead) and the ScaleNorth team were “180 degrees different” and truly facilitated a smooth transition to the new system.
“They really made the transition much easier; I give them a lot of credit,” says Petak. “We have a really good friendship and business relationship, which is super important. Dean and his team truly understand our goals.”
With NetSuite in place, FASTENation now has access to a full suite of enterprise tools under a single umbrella. Comparing this to the company’s previous, disjointed software approach, Petak says it’s like night and day. For example, one of the company’s largest customers (a national industrial distributor) would submit anywhere from 12-20 weekly orders, each of which included up to 100 different line items.
All of those invoices had to be manually inputted into a system. This was resource intensive, error prone and time consuming. Now, thanks to the NetSuite-SPS Commerce integration that ScaleNorth configured, the ERP automatically pulls in the orders. “We have a pricing structure set up in the customer profile along with prices and quantity,” Petak says. “It's just a huge time saver for us.”
NetSuite’s shipping integration with UPS and FedEx is another major time saver for the company, whose system automatically sends the information back to SPS Commerce. “We do an item fulfillment and it turns into an advanced shipping notice (ASN) for SPS commerce,” says Petak. “That’s a time saver that also pretty much eliminates human error.”
Getting a 360-degree view of your company’s financials across multiple systems and spreadsheets is no easy feat. With NetSuite, Petak doesn’t have to wait for tax time to roll around to see how the company performed over the last year; it’s all right at his fingertips whenever he needs it.
“Seeing our profitability is as simple as clicking a button,” says Petak. “I know what makes our business tick, where we're making money and where we're not making money. NetSuite takes a lot of guesswork out of wondering if something is a profitable job (or not).” The ERP also serves an unidentified need by giving FASTENation’s General Manager/Head of Purchasing so much visibility that he can now make even smarter decisions that save the company money and increase its profit margins.
ScaleNorth also integrated FASTENation’s Big Commerce storefront with NetSuite; created an automation that charges customers’ credit cards when orders are fulfilled; and helped the company maintain inventory counts with over 99% accuracy. The company’s inventory turns have also sped up—yet another “win” that positively impacts its bottom line.
“We’ve changed a number of our reorder points, so we're not sitting with excess inventory,” says Petak, who estimates that 85%-90% of the company’s products include adhesives that have specific shelf lives—yet another reason why frequent inventory turns are so important. Petak says FASTENation also has improved inventory visibility overall, and more accurate insights on incoming orders, lead times and potential delays.
Reflecting on FASTENation’s positive experience working with ScaleNorth to implement NetSuite, Petak says he most enjoys having customized reports that help him keep a finger on the pulse of his company. This is something that the firm’s previous system didn’t provide. He also likes being able to call on ScaleNorth for help optimizing NetSuite, fixing issues and getting more out of the FASTENation’s ERP investment.
“Dean's the guy that knows how to get it fixed, Anastasia is extremely responsive and Cris is an Excel wizard; she really did a great job for us,” says Petak, who has already referred ScaleNorth to two other business owners who are ready to upgrade their own tech stacks. “Implementing a major piece of software like this is always an undertaking, but the process was well worth it.”
To learn more about ScaleNorth’s NetSuite managed services program, contact us today.
