Oracle : Blue Microphones Turns Up the Volume with NetSuite

Oracle NetSuite Global Business Unit (GBU), the industry's leading provider of cloud financials / ERP, HR and omnichannel commerce software suites, today announced that Blue Microphones (www.bluemic.com), a leading designer and producer of premium microphones and sound recording equipment for audio professionals, musicians and consumers, has gained vital business agility with NetSuite's unified cloud business management system. NetSuite allows Blue Microphones to focus on product innovation, scale into new markets, and challenge larger rivals in the competitive recording industry. To ensure agility for innovation and growth, the company replaced QuickBooks Enterprise with NetSuite to manage its end-to-end business operations including financials, fixed assets, demand planning, inventory management, bill of materials, work orders and assemblies, warehouse management, CRM, HR, and multi-currency transactions in the Canadian dollar and Euro. After a rapid three-month implementation, the company went live on NetSuite in July 2014.

Headquartered in Westlake, Calif., Blue Microphones was founded in 1995 by an American jazz musician and a recording engineer who designed high-quality studio microphones and pioneered the digital USB microphone - microphones that plug directly into a computer. Beginning in 2004, the company saw significant growth thanks to its Snowball, a USB mic built for use with Apple's GarageBand recording software, and continued to develop a range of USB mics made vastly successful by the explosion of user generated content. Since then, Blue Microphones has continued to design and manufacture a full range of studio microphones, the world's #1 USB mic line, and recently launched a lineup of premium headphones.

With 30 to 35 percent annual growth, the company was quickly realizing it needed new functionality its existing system couldn't provide, including: multicurrency transactions; anywhere, anytime access to business data across the globe; integration with marketing and engineering systems for better collaboration; and integration to its shipping software.

'Replacing our entry-level accounting system with a unified cloud-based business management suite has made a huge difference in our business and has us well positioned for our next stage of growth,' said Bart Thielen, CFO and COO of Blue Microphones. 'With NetSuite, we're able to scale the business very quickly and our visibility is tremendously improved. We now have strong financial controls and a solid infrastructure with great agility to respond rapidly to changing market conditions.'

Leveraging the NetSuite SuiteCloud Development Platform, Blue Microphones was able to customize the NetSuite system to meet its business needs and industry specific requirements. The company was also able to integrate the Pacejet Enterprise Shipping Software with NetSuite seamlessly, allowing it to better manage millions of freight quotes and shipments with reduced costs and improved efficiency. Bidirectional EDI interface powered by the NetSuite SuiteCloud Development Platform enables Electronic Data Interchange to 15 different partners including large retailers like Best Buy, Apple and Amazon; which saves Blue Microphones up to 30 to 40 hours a week of manual order entry and invoicing and enables near 100 percent accuracy.

Blue Microphones' IT modernization efforts have also attracted the notice of others. Most recently, the company was awarded the prestigious 2016 Manufacturing Leadership (ML) Award in the 'Enterprise Leadership' category from Frost and Sullivan's ML Council. The awards are given to companies and individuals that have undertaken breakthrough projects in manufacturing as determined by an expert panel of judges. Blue Microphones was recognized for its 'IT Modernization Project,' which allowed the company to rapidly scale, while giving it the agility to adapt to changing market conditions.

As a result of its implementation of NetSuite, Blue Microphones has realized multiple benefits, including:

• Improved IT and operational efficiency. As a pure cloud system, NetSuite spares Blue Microphones from the hassles of managing on-premise software and the hardware required to support it, including patches, upgrades and security. As a result of efficiencies gained, Blue Microphones can attribute avoiding the costs of hiring two full-time employees by converting to NetSuite, an annual savings of $80,000.
• Improved inventory management. Third-party logistics partners in Amsterdam and Hong Kong are now able to access NetSuite through a portal to fulfill orders, improving accuracy and efficiency. Previously, Blue Microphones would scan documents and email them over as PDFs, a labor intensive, error-prone process. Additionally, the company has been able to setup a virtual warehouse for its marketing group, which sequesters key products for product reviews and key influencers like artists and producers.
• Product improvements. Blue Microphones is now capturing customer feedback in the system, which can be shared directly with engineering and overseas manufacturers to improve the products.
• Reduced manual entry. Workflow and scripting has saved up to 15 hours a month of manual entry for the sales department.
• A flexible and powerful development platform. NetSuite's SuiteCloud Development Platform provides flexibility for Blue Microphones to tailor the system and integrate with other third-party solutions to meet its unique business needs and industry-specific requirements.
• Improved asset tracking. A new fixed assets interface saves significant time at both monthly and year-end audits. During the course of a year, the company estimates it is saving about 50 hours total.