This article was written by Sana Commerce.
After making a few new acquisitions, Murray River Organics arrived at a crossroad. They had a brand-new ERP, and brand-new clients that were used to buying online. The only catch? Their new SAP system and the old sales portal weren’t compatible.
New ERP, New Sales Portal
Murray River Organics is a proud Australian producer, marketer, manufacturer and seller of certified organic, natural and better-for-you food products. With ~12.500 acres of farmland in the Australian Sunraysia district, they made their name with sultanas and raisins. After a few new acquisitions last year, the company not only added to their stable of products (introducing a wide range of organic produce as well as conventional good-for-you products), but also to their systems.
“After the merger, we had three different ERP systems, one of them being SAP,” says Georgie Scicluna, Systems Manager at Murray River Organics. “SAP was the best choice for us, and looked to provide us with a full business system.”
Another system Murray River Organics gained through the merger was an online sales portal — and lots of clients who were accustomed to using it. However, there were some serious issues standing in the way of simply continuing to use the same system, as Scicluna explains. “We couldn’t manage it ourselves. Any changes had to be done by a third party. And the look and feel wasn’t up to scratch. It wasn’t going to suit our brand.”
In addition, the new solution had to be easy to manage and easy on the eyes, plus it had to be implemented fast — preferably yesterday. “I was told, we need to get a portal and get it quick,” says Scicluna. “Make it happen.”
The Right Timeline
Scicluna, who is responsible for all systems at Murray River Organics and has an extensive background in IT, teamed up with the company’s SAP representative to find a solution that would meet their requirements.
“I wanted something that could be developed quickly, but would still let us easily manage it ourselves,” says Scicluna.
“We looked at some options,” she remembers. “One of those was Sana Commerce.” And it turned out to be what Murray River Organics was looking for in their new e-commerce solution.
“In fact, the first web store was designed in three days.”
A Consumer-Proof Web Store
Getting the look and feel right was a massive priority for Murray River Organics. Not only because they needed to present a strong front to newly acquired wholesale customers, but because they had yet another new business venture in mind: direct-to-consumer sales.
“One of the things that made the Sana Commerce solution appealing was the amount of time we could get it done in,” recalls Scicluna. “But there was also the ongoing ability to move with our business.” An established name in wholesale organic foods, Murray River Organics was ready to reach beyond retail. That feat is easier said than done for a B2B company.
A traditional online sales portal for B2B wasn’t going to cut it for modern consumers. Not only because they’re not interested in buying in bulk, but because they have sky-high expectations when it comes to usability and design — expectations that are anything but stagnant.
“These days, consumers are very tech savvy. They’re up to date on the latest developments. And their trends move very quickly. What we wanted with our B2C web store was to be able to move with them.”
The Sana Solution
Sana Commerce proved to be the solution that ticked all the boxes for Murray River Organics.
Swift Implementation
The seamless integration with SAP Business One made it the right choice for their new ERP system. However, it wasn’t just a case of making smart use of SAP Business One functionality: Sana’s productized integration also meant an efficient rollout.
“It had to be done very quickly,” says Scicluna. “We had only just implemented SAP ourselves, and were still learning to work with the system. It was all being integrated at the same time.” Murray River Organics went live with SAP Business One on January 1, 2017 — and launched their B2B web store just three months later.
Straightforward In-House Management
There was another benefit of Sana’s standardized SAP Business One integration – easy-to-learn application management.
“With the Sana site, there was a bit of a learning process. But there’s the Sana University online training center, and plenty of tutorial videos. The Sana team was also helpful with any questions I had or assistance I needed.”
It is safe to say that the training has paid off. Scicluna is now single-handedly managing the web store, both for B2B and B2C saying “We’ve made a lot more changes to the site over time — continual improvements. That’s the beauty of the Sana solution: if something needs doing, we can just go in and do it ourselves. I don’t depend on a third party. I can just activate and deactivate things as necessary.”
Perfect Positioning, Minimal Bureaucracy
While Scicluna is the main Murray River Organics employee managing the site through the admin panel, the entire sales team contributes to the way the web store works. This is not done through the typical messy, cumbersome decision-making processes, of application development.
“It’s because of the SAP integration,” explains Scicluna. “Everything just works. If we don’t want a product to be shown in the portal, we click a button in SAP. I don’t have to manage that — it happens automatically.” This lets sales and product specialists help shape the customer experience by managing product relationships, for instance, and suggesting featured products at checkout.
The latter does require a bit of help from Scicluna. “That’s just a matter of me putting some product IDs in a particular field, though.”
A New Web Store: the Results
Imagining a whole new ERP system, with new product, new clients and a very tight timeline was difficult. It’s not the easiest situation in which to successfully launch your first e-commerce portal — and yet Murray River Organics pulled it off.
Georgie Scicluna will be sharing insights into the process and the results thus far at Biz.ONE. Join the session at 11:10 a.m., Tuesday, October 24, 2017 for an in-depth exploration of e-commerce done right.
Georgie Scicluna
Operations & Systems Manager
Murray River Organics