Slingshot Sports Surfs Ahead with DSG

Slingshot Sports is one of the leading kiteboard and wakeboard manufacturers in the world. As a young company growing up in the age of SaaS applications, when they needed an eCommerce and ERP system, they selected the basic NetSuite edition to meet this need. This decision made good business sense since, like many small companies, they run without dedicated IT staff and wanted to keep infrastructure costs low but have the flexibility to grow and add new functionality as needed.

However, the functionality of NetSuite’s basic system imposed a couple of key limitations on Slingshot’s all important web-presence. For example, the look and feel of the website lacked the dynamism, content and communication options that Slingshot’s web and social networking-savvy customers wanted. Additionally, the business planning limitations of NetSuite forced Slingshot’s finance and management teams to rely on spreadsheets and this was error-prone and time-consuming.

As Jim Kimball, Slingshot’s CFO commented “We knew that we’d made the right decision to go with NetSuite as the cornerstone of our website and financial business solution but we didn’t have the time or experience to really figure out how we could get the best out of it”. DSG was called in to help with Slingshot’s NetSuite implementation.  DSG did not implement the solution but working closely with Slingshot Sports management team, DSG used their DSG Revitalize and Value Maximizer approaches to tackle three key areas of Slingshot’s business:

• Website – Slingshot was keen to keep their website in the NetSuite environment but were also keen to offer an exciting web-experience to their consumers.  That meant supporting features such as streaming webcam feeds of river conditions and multi-media blogs and video snippets as well as eCommerce features such as landing pages for specific offers e.g. kite and board kits.
  
  
• Sling-a-Tron – this is a unique idea to channel business back to Slingshot’s key dealers while maintaining high customer service levels. Dealer’s have the opportunity to capture Slingshot Sling-a-Tron web offerings for a 24 hour period. If the dealer has the inventory to meet an order, they elect to do so, fulfill the order and then receive a Slingshot dealer credit.
  
  
• Reporting – DSG recommended that Slingshot move away from their NetSuite and spreadsheet based approach to business planning and use Adaptive Planning to meet all their financial planning needs including budget vs. forecast vs. actuals reporting. Not only did this provide much richer functionality, it also saved significant time in extracting or rekeying information into spreadsheets and fixing the inevitable data quality problems that go with this approach.

These three issues were tackled as separate projects, a key aspect of DSG’s Value Maximizer philosophy which is based on delivering measurable value for each incremental improvement. Each of these phases was completed on-time and no phase took more than 8 weeks to go from planning to production.

After an implementation project lasting only 3 elapsed months, Alan Arvin of DSG looked back on the project and said “This was one of the our most rewarding NetSuite projects. Slingshot was great to work with and we’re really proud of how our team was able to use NetSuite’s functionality to produce an end-to-end eCommerce and ERP that, because its all NetSuite based, is fully supported by NetSuite. Using Adaptive Planning was really the icing on the cake – a great solution that provides Slingshot’s management team with feedback and planning support at the end of every financial period”.

While Slingshot Sports may still be a young and small company, with 60% of their business coming from international markets, the prospect of future growth and the ability of NetSuite to scale to meet this growth is an important long-term benefit. “Slingshot Sports has a loyal and passionate following in two of the fastest growing sports in the world. With these business solutions in place, we can focus on our core product design and development and be confident that DSG, Adaptive Planning and NetSuite can handle whatever business requirements we throw at them” said Jim Kimball.

About Slingshot Sports
Since 1981 Tony Logosz and his brother Jeff have dedicated themselves to the performance and design of quality water sports equipment. Years of hard work and innovation, spawned by Tony’s ability to think in original ways, is what fuels them today. In 1999, after numerous innovations in windsurfing, wakeboarding and other major sports, both set forth to found Slingshot. Since then Slingshot has grown to be a global brand which caters to top kiteboarders and wakeboarders all over the world. For more information on Slingshot Sports, please visit: www.slingshotsports.com.

About DSG
Customers seek out Demand Solutions Group to help them improve business efficiency, accelerate growth, and capitalize on new opportunities. DSG tailors industry-leading, on-demand software applications to deliver rapid business value through subscription-based services that ensure the highest levels of business support. DSG works with clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies and 95 percent of their clients return for follow-on engagements. To learn more about DSG’s on-demand services, please visit: www.demandsolutionsgroup.com.

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