Accounting Seed Helps NetPlus Alliance Thrive

The town of Lockport, NY, is full of tributes to the glory days of the industrial revolution. Located downtown, right on Canal Street, the office of NetPlus Alliance sits right next to a system of locks belonging to the Erie Canal. They cut right through the heart of town. It reminds the passersby of a blue-collar lifestyle. NetPlus Alliance pays homage to that blue-collar mentality and has been connected in some ways to this community for five generations. Originally starting out as a machine shop in 1885, the company has evolved from providing industrial supplies for the radiator division of General Motors to the premium industrial buying group they are today.

Innovation Starts at the Top

NetPlus Alliance, established in 2002 by Dan Judge, is a buying group for industrial and contractor supplies distributors. A buying group is a collection of businesses that come together and decide to purchase materials from a select group of manufacturers. They leverage the combined purchases of their distributor members to negotiate improved pricing, rebates, and terms with 180 product and service suppliers. Dan believed in creating a buying group that wasn’t costly or complicated. NetPlus looks out for small-to-medium-sized businesses by giving them the opportunity to network and build relationships with manufacturers.

NetPlus works very closely with its manufacturing partners and gives them access to new distribution channels, providing for their distributor members access to rebates and exclusive programs, and other incentivized pricing opportunities. They currently have 400 distributor members and 180 manufacturer partners focused primarily on the safety, industrial, construction, and fastener channels.

NetPlus Alliance and Accounting Seed

Jennifer Judge Murphy, current president of NetPlus Alliance, took over the company from her dad in 2013. She knows all about innovation, having seen her family’s company change over the years. As a result, Jennifer appreciates an innovative, flexible accounting solution, like Accounting Seed.

“Business owners today need to develop innovative processes to maximize efficiency and cut costs. Salesforce and Accounting Seed enable our team to embrace and manage the sales process, giving us the ability to explore and evaluate new opportunities for growth,” she says.

Jennifer’s job is to make certain that her members’ businesses are thriving. She relies on Accounting Seed to make her team as efficient as possible to benefit her customers. Accounting Seed’s real-time financial dashboard allows Jennifer to make impactful decisions more efficiently by allowing her to pull up vital financial data, instantly. 

Combine Customer and Financial Data for the Win

Kerry Atlas, VP of Finance and Operations at NetPlus Alliance, led the implementation of Accounting Seed back in 2015. Before Accounting Seed, their accounting package wasn’t integrated into their CRM, causing many problems within the company. Originally, they were having difficulties trying to figure out how to stratify their supplier customers. Also, it was hard to take all of their engagement data and marry it with their financial data, when their financial package was outside of Salesforce. This changed when Accounting Seed went live. “We’ve created so many efficiencies, we’ve been able to harness the power of the data inside Salesforce. We’re able to bring that information alive and share it with our customers to benefit all of us. We’re so much more process-oriented using Accounting Seed,” Kerry says.

NetPlus empowered their sales and support teams with the information they need to better serve their clients. In fact, they decreased the time they used to spend researching and analyzing two different systems by up to fifty percent.

“Accounting Seed gives us the ability to grow by giving us information towards our strategic plan. We understand the value of a partner or a customer now with the power of Accounting Seed and the CRM, we’re able to determine the best way to move forward in their business,” Kerry goes on to say.

Accounting Seed Helps Determine ROI

NetPlus Alliance figures out who their best suppliers are with the engagement data collected from Salesforce, generating a return on investment (ROI) estimate. This brings forth who they’re best customers are by identifying the strongest opportunities. The native connection between Accounting Seed and Salesforce has made data extremely powerful for NetPlus Alliance. They’re able to connect custom objects in Salesforce housing critical business data and then align that data with their finances through the power of Accounting Seed.

Kerry believes switching to Accounting Seed was the best financial decision she’s ever made for NetPlus Alliance. “Truthfully, the decision to bring in Accounting Seed was the best decision I’ve made since I’ve been VP of Finance here at NetPlus,” Kerry states. Our platform really allows her to dive into the data and financial return behind their members’ rebate programs, application fees, and membership dues.

NetPlus Alliance’s monthly financial close process has been reduced from four-days to one by utilizing our packaged financial reports and our seamless data extraction from Salesforce reports.

Customer Data and Financial Information Powers Business Development

Zach Brado, Director of Business Development, utilizes Accounting Seed for relationship management. He’s able to check up on his client’s financial data through the platform. “Being able to go to the financial tab and being able to pull up that financial data right away has been tremendous for the growth of the company,” Zach states.

Zach believes the financial reporting abilities of Accounting Seed are the biggest benefit of the platform.

“The connection between Accounting Seed and Salesforce really provides real-time data when trying to make important decisions in the business. The biggest thing it produces is reports that allow us to merge customer data and sales information. That is very critical when working with our clients, because, yes, we want info on the customer and we want to look back at historical purchases. So being able to provide reporting that merges financial data and customer data is extremely important and beneficial in my job.”

The Flexibility and Innovation of Accounting Seed Works for Anyone

The way NetPlus Alliance has been able to grow since the adoption of our platform is a great example of how flexible Accounting Seed is. Businesses of all sorts are not only utilizing Accounting Seed, they’re thriving as they continue to mold the application to their business processes. As we’ve seen with many customers, Accounting Seed has the flexibility to create a solution that reflects the companies’ unique internal processes in order for them to flourish.

A native Salesforce accounting app, Accounting Seed, provides a full 360-degree view of your business’ performance to help you and your team make the best decisions possible. Not on Salesforce? Our software can be customized to work with any system you have through a reliable connection.

Schedule a free demo today to explore how Accounting Seed helps you manage finances your way.