Collective commitment to outstanding performance
Highlights of the collaboration:
For many families and individuals, their pet is an integral member of the household, who deserves the best food, grooming and accessories. Beeztees caters for that demand with a wide range of special, unique, own-label products. Products to suit all the emotions, fun activities and happy occasions that people share with their pets. Nearly all pet shops and garden centres in the Netherlands and Belgium sell Beeztees products, making the brand one the most successful pet accessory suppliers in the country.
Delivering added value
“There’s a Beeztees product for every happy occasion you share with your pet. That special, added value is what we want to offer consumers. With attractive, own-label, quality products that suit the moment. We have a lot of contact with consumers, to find out just what it is they’re looking for, so we can keep developing products that meet their needs. Close to the customer, with own-label products that offer added value.”
IT as a business facilitator
“IT can also be used to add value. That’s why we opted for a SAP-based backend very early on. It enables us to offer our sales outlets drop-shipment, for example, and to respond to their demands for omnichannel support. Another advantage is that, following the recent acquisition of a German company, we were able to integrate their systems with our own quickly and easily. In my view that’s the crux of it: an IT environment that facilitates your business and grows with you.”
The power of the partnership with Databalance
“We have a really good partnership with Databalance, because they have a full view of our business context, they are personally engaged, and they know our company inside out. We have short lines of communication and are able to respond quickly. We have a conscious policy of building partnerships with specialists. We don’t get involved in system management ourselves; we rely on Databalance and have confidence in their knowledge and experience. I’m particularly pleased with the stability and continuity they provide. Everything works, everything is under control. That’s the power of the long-term partnership we’ve built up.”
Business context is key
Understanding the customer’s business context is vital for building a robust partnership, like our partnership with Beeztees. We discuss all levels of that context so that we understand the strategic, tactical and operational circumstances, and what Beeztees requires in order to achieve and maintain success.
With all our customers, we establish sophisticated governance arrangements to provide contextual information and enable adaptation to new developments and opportunities. As Job and Guusje van Riel rightly say, “IT is a business facilitator.” The IT should be aligned with the business, not the other way around. The business context comes first. Only once we have a clear picture of that context can we design, build and operate a suitable bespoke managed IT solution. That in turn enables us to move forward together and build a long-term partnership that helps us both to grow and achieve success together.
Bespoke private cloud
Using Beeztees’ business context as the starting point, a bespoke private cloud was designed, taking account of everyone that Beeztees interacts with at the backend, and making appropriate provisions. By a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, Beeztees has grown from seventy people to two hundred. Use of cloud workstations makes it easy to scale up and extend systems to accommodate such growth.
With a product range that includes more than nine thousand items, which are sourced from many different manufacturers and require distribution to the appropriate outlets in multiple countries, Beeztees’ decision to use supporting ERP software has been highly significant. Back in 2010, the company opted for a SAP-based backend to support its customised business processes. In a competitive market, the logistical chain is a hygiene factor. The setup means that Beeztees can focus firmly on its products and their added value, while relying on their Databalance private cloud for the performance, availability and security of their SAP solution. Voor de performance, beschikbaarheid én security van SAP vertrouwen ze op de private cloud van Databalance.
“We’re very pleased with the availability and performance of the systems. It’s also reassuring to know that, if the worst ever does happen, a robust disaster recovery plan is in place.” – Job van Riel, CEO Beeztees
Remarkable foresight
Beeztees decided early on to fully outsource its IT, believing that IT was bound to become ever more complex over time. In an exhibition of remarkable foresight, Beeztees realised its original outsourcing programme between 2006 and 2010. Well over a decade ago, in other words. Since then, a great deal has changed, and a great deal more is set to change. We’re grateful for the confidence that Beeztees has shown in us, and proud to have contributed to their success with our knowledge and experience.
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