Hairball Case Study

Business Challenge

Hairball excels as a leading integration partner for NetSuite and Celigo, focusing on streamlining business systems for e-commerce companies within NetSuite.

As e-commerce companies selling through Shopify and Amazon expand and begin to sell through other retailers, they must start using EDI to trade with these new partners. Selecting the wrong EDI platform can severely obstruct supply chain-dependent businesses by:

• Throttling partner onboarding cycles to up to 3 months
• Choking transactional visibility and error resolution
• Imposing unrelenting vendor dependencies and fees
• Delaying issue resolution due to multiple-day response times
• Causing EDI complexity through intricate technical requirements

Solution

By integrating Orderful’s modern EDI within familiar NetSuite and Celigo stacks, Hairball empowered clients to:

• Slash new partner integration down to 4 weeks
• Resolve interchange issues via self-service
• Gain end-to-end control and supply chain visibility
• Obtain a fixed monthly fee for EDI
• Receive superior customer service

Results

Jointly with Orderful, Hairball delivered rapid transformations, including:

Untangling the EDI Hairball for Supply Chain-Reliant eCommerce Brands

As cloud-based systems rapidly permeate modern enterprises, seamlessly tying together business apps emerges as an escalating challenge. Dubbed the “Cloud Hairball,” this integration mess throttles efficiency and obstructs organizations from capitalizing on real-time data insights required to compete and serve accelerating customer demand.

Hairball was formed to untangle such digital knots, strangling growth for NetSuite product businesses. As a premier NetSuite and Celigo integration specialist, Hairball aims to connect systems into cohesive workflows and future-proof the adaptability and extensibility of those links to accommodate scaling requirements.

However, clunky EDI solutions posed a severe barrier for clients transacting the entire supply chain. Most EDI software requires customers to have extensive technical knowledge. Orderful eliminates that need, further decreasing complexity. Ensuring accurate data mapping between EDI formats and internal systems can also introduce operational challenges and discrepancies.

Lengthy partner onboarding timelines spanning months hindered responsiveness to sales opportunities, while lack of visibility into interchange prevented issue resolution. Hairball set out to modernize EDI capabilities for these expanding product enterprises to round out integrated technology stacks powering frictionless omni-channel commerce.

Strategic Alignment on Modernized EDI

As Hairball worked with expanding product brands, they faced significant pain points around outdated EDI platforms, severely limiting supply chain agility, coordination, and transparency. Retailers expanding through digital channels to major e-commerce marketplaces felt choking constraints, attempting to onboard new partners quickly.

Hairball CEO Diego Terra recalled the constant battle, noting, “The process of adding new trading partners was arduous, often stretching over months.” Outdated solutions with sluggish response times compelled clients to seek more streamlined, cloud-based alternatives aligned to digital business environments.

Legacy EDI systems were out of step with cloud platforms. And Hairball needed an integration solution matching their exclusive NetSuite focus. As they searched for options to introduce scalable EDI without perpetuating client complications, Orderful’s flexible integration-centric approach immediately aligned with Hairball’s requirements.

Hairball specializes in empowering eCommerce brands to scale their retail distribution footprint. As Shopify and Amazon merchants reach an inflection point, ready to supply leading brick-and-mortar players like Target, antiquated partner onboarding processes, and opaque EDI platforms severely inhibit their growth potential. Lack of visibility and unresponsive vendor support at crucial transaction volumes only compound complications impeding their ambition.

Hairball felt shared values emerge around empowering customer success through flexible, product-focused partnerships rather than locking clients into lengthy contracts. The natural symbiosis around technology strategy and customer-centric priorities made Orderful the perfect choice to round out Hairball’s offerings.

Streamlined Integration Process

With years of experience specializing in tackling intricate NetSuite and Celigo customizations woven with ERP-centric business process expertise, Hairball was keenly equipped to embed Orderful’s platform. By directly integrating Orderful’s API-based translation engine within Celigo data flows, Hairball could incorporate scalable EDI capabilities without disrupting continuity.

Orderful's API platform allowed much faster onboarding than old-school managed services. As Terra put it: "We had to modernize – otherwise, supply chain agility gets throttled, and EDI projects drag on for months." This accelerated integration speed enables more centralized, simplified EDI management.

Centralizing EDI management through Orderful on the customer end introduces a simplified way to control external supply chain connectivity that blends with existing environments, enhancing inventory management. Instead of an isolated bolt-on approach, clients gain intuitive visibility and oversight into this capability fed through familiar tools.

Integrating directly into NetSuite and Celigo stacks enabled Hairball to stitch systems into seamless workflows. Orderful’s EDI module effectively dissolves into the background, serving business needs automatically rather than requiring manual intermediation or platform-to-platform reconciliation.

Unified Solution Strengthens Client Relationships

With Orderful’s modernized EDI platform now integrated into their technology stack, Hairball equips clients with tools matched to the scaling requirements of a digital-first omnichannel model necessary for growth and competitive advantage. Selling direct-to-consumer and expanding into new markets depends on the flexibility to onboard partners rapidly and tightly orchestrate data flows across systems to enable decision-making using real-time data insights.

Clients reap interchange functionality by fully outsourcing yet retaining visibility over supply chain operations – all without required specialized knowledge. Streamlined integration to Orderful allows channeling attention exclusively toward higher-value business priorities rather than wrestling with technical complexities.

As Terra summarized:

“Our clients are thrilled with our integration. They really can't believe that they have visibility to see what is going on with EDI.”

With an end-to-end solution spanning the breadth of system interoperability needs for scaling product companies, Hairball strengthens its positioning as a turnkey integration specialist able to grow in step with customers. Orderful supercharges capacity to support clients through future phases, equipping them with agile supply chains rather than requiring an alternative partner to be identified if needs shift.

Results Validate Strategic Commitment

By completing the integration work that embedded Orderful’s EDI engine across standard stacks, Hairball has enabled clients to remain focused on business growth rather than technical infrastructure. Hairball has simplified core supply chain connectivity by fully integrating Orderful's EDI platform into client technology stacks. Clients can concentrate on business expansion rather than wrestling with complexities. Additionally, Orderful's cloud-based architecture instantly scales to support peaks in order volumes without service disruptions or reliance on vendor assistance.

Quantifiable improvements around trading partner onboarding speed, visibility, and issue resolution reinforce strategic soundness. But equally necessary, the maturation of Hairball’s offerings symbolizes deepening relationship bonds with customers. As Terra explained:

“It has changed the company. It isn't the only thing, but now our customers see us as their integration and automation partner for the full journey.”

Validating client confidence, Hairball has continued expanding accounts under management. In one example, specialty food producer HU Kitchen shared:

“Thank you for your diligent efforts over the last eight months and for being our technologies and automation advocates through our implementation; it has been a great pleasure.”

Hairball plans to continue broadening Orderful’s applicability and driving continuous improvement, incorporating added connectors to ERPs beyond NetSuite. Terra concluded:

“Right now, we want to be the go-to partner to integrate EDI into NetSuite. That's the goal.”

Scaling eCommerce Growth By Unraveling the EDI Bottleneck

As online sales and multi-channel distribution become more common, it's crucial to enable structural agility while effectively connecting the different data sources. The complexity of this task is growing. Older systems find it hard to keep up with the high demand for integration, the variety of new platforms, and the rapid changes modern systems undergo.

Together, Hairball and Orderful embed scalable EDI capabilities into cloud platforms. This empowers product businesses to achieve end-to-end visibility and responsiveness across their supply chain. Trading partner onboarding and transactions align instantly with business needs instead of technical workarounds. This boosts operational agility.

The success of this partnership is a testament to the value generated when two purpose-built solutions converge around a unified customer-centric vision. As Hairball untangles the mess, strangling growth for product companies and mitigating supply chain disruptions from tangled integration points, Orderful resolves the EDI knot jamming in supply chain resilience and coordination.

Hairball and Orderful reinforce the connections at the intersection of systems and supply chains and create frictionless supply chain planning for clients to deliver on-demand customer experiences globally.

Hairball

Hairball (hairball.io) is the leading destination for eCommerce integration and optimization within NetSuite. Specializing in custom implementations, seamless connectivity across systems, and frictionless returns flows, Hairball untangles software hairballs.

With extensive technical expertise across platforms like NetSuite and Celigo, combined with deep experience in Health and Beauty, Apparel, and Food and Beverage, Hairball creates cohesive digital ecosystems tailored to client growth goals. Founded by NetSuite veteran Diego Terra, who initiated SuiteCommerce, Hairball brings a profound industry perspective to identify targeted opportunities for automation and agility acceleration. Committed to customer success through transformational business outcomes, Hairball helps brands unlock their full potential.