Saddleback Leather

With an origin story that begins in a Mexican bullfight, Saddleback Leather promises that their products are bound to endure countless adventures well past your lifetime. It’s no surprise that a company that produces such a level of quality would be non-compromising when it comes to how they run their business, and their tech stack.

The Problem

For a time, the team at Saddleback Leather used an ERP solution that did not align with their business needs. Add an outdated website on a limited platform with unstable, custom connectors and the inability to easily update, and they knew this wasn’t going to work with their plans to scale. Hoping to gain the high-end appearance and back-end customization they were missing, they built a test store on BigCommerce. All to find BigCommerce alone wasn’t going to solve their problems.

“Our old ERP and Webstore required a lot of extra coding and really slowed down our site’s load speed. By switching we are able to use pre-developed plug-ins and it requires a lot less work on our end.”

They wanted to continue growing their online business but were held back by the lack of transparent data in their current system. Unfortunately, their current ERP solution couldn’t provide actionable insights or reports about their business. On top of that, they were paying hidden or surprise fees any time they wanted to run queries, reports, and data exports. Tired of the bait and switch, it was time to find a new solution.

The Solution

When searching for a new ERP, Saddleback Leather knew they wanted something durable, customizable, and not tied down to hardware. Having an ERP in the cloud was important to be able to get data fast, from anywhere.

The team discovered Acumatica, an ERP in the cloud that offers:
• World-class ERP in the cloud
• Costs less than the competitors with no extra fees
• Unlimited user count model; doesn’t charge per seat
• Build custom dashboards, queries, reports, and Excel exports

“We are a lot happier with the cost of Acumatica versus their competitors. Acumatica is a very process driven ERP and makes sure you complete all the necessary steps you need to. We are still early in use and will continue to grow our in-house knowledge of the system.”

While Acumatica fit the bill in terms of an ERP solution they were looking for, the decision was made easier by the fact that they could work with ONE partner for all components of their business. Kensium Solutions, an Acumatica Gold Partner, built a connector product to integrate the all of their platforms together into one seamless tech stack. This enabled Saddleback Leather to fully re-platform to BigCommerce and Acumatica ERP.

The initial implementation phase was condensed to 90 days to beat the clock before their old ERP was going to go offline. Kensium helped Saddleback Leather the entire way. They configured the connector, tested the integration, and trained the team on Acumatica (GL, AP, AR, Sales, Inventory, and PO). They imported customer, vendor, product, and sales data into the new ERP. Then, they launched the new BigCommerce site and continued to support them with patches, updates, and tweaks to optimize performance.

By recommendation, they brought ShipStation on as part of their new tech stack to help them automate and efficiently handle their shipping and fulfillment. With the help of their dedicated ShipStation account manager, Saddleback set up automation rules to apply various UPS services for different fulfillment scenarios. This greatly reduced the time they used to have to spend doing manual assignments.

“Kensium has been great to work with. Their ability to support both BigCommerce, Acumatica, and the connector between those two and Acumatica and ShipStation has allowed us to rely on one resource when we run into issues we can’t resolve ourselves.”

The Results

Thanks to Kensium, Saddleback Leather was able to get their website integrated with Acumatica ERP, BigCommerce, and ShipStation to create a single ecommerce
management platform. “Kensium Solutions’ ability to seamlessly connect BigCommerce, Acumatica ERP, and ShipStation has allowed us to rely on one resource when we run into issues we can’t resolve ourselves,” Shawn says. “We did this project in a very quick timeline.”

Acumatica was the ultimate solution for an affordable ERP with no hidden fees and provided visibility into the data they needed. BigCommerce gave them a strong, flexible website with consistent data. ShipStation provided a streamlined shipping platform to sync, manage, and ship their orders. Together, Saddleback stitched together the perfect combination of platforms that rivals the longevity of one of their famed 100-year warranty leather products.