Premier 1 Supplies is an online and catalogue vendor of livestock management supplies. From feed to fencing, from shepherding to shearing, this multigeneration family business serves customers with barnyard animals, largescale herds, and everything in between. The company is also at the forefront of technology, having recently undergone its second ERP implementation.
Business Situation
In 2018, Premier 1 determined that it had outgrown its on premises ERP, and that it was holding back continued growth. Its staffing and service requirements were excessive, especially given the company’s rural Iowa location. A cloudbased ERP could be maintained remotely, allowing for resource redeployment. After careful consideration, Acumatica was selected.
The company knew from experience that any ERP needed a shipping software companion from the beginning and simultaneously selected 3G Pacejet Shipping. This pairing could continue to evolve with the business and keep up with its rapidly growing e-commerce sales, particularly with the strength of its recently introduced, next-generation integration built and maintained by Acumatica.
While the company has long had a history of annual growth, a global pandemic spurred new interest in backyard poultry and small farmsteads – the business boomed in 2020! The previous system’s limitations never would have been able to support so much growth so quickly. However, 3G Pacejet allowed the maximum daily throughput to triple. At that level of volume, using automation to save even 1-3 seconds per shipment added up quickly. Premier 1 also didn’t need to add headcount at nearly the same rate it would have previously to accommodate growth.
Our Solution
Premier 1’s philosophy is one of absolute honesty and leading by example. It only sells products its team members trust enough to use themselves, and continually updates offerings accordingly. This is less and less common today, due in part to the difficulty of managing a constant stream of changing SKUs. Once again, 3G Pacejet Shipping and Acumatica proved up to the task, making it easy to add up to 100 SKUs each year, retire old ones, and ensure accurate customer orders. Perhaps most importantly, the results from the 3G Pacejet- Acumatica combination were repeatable and sustainable. No longer was there a question of whether adding one more shipment would break the entire system. In fact, this level of reliability indirectly contributed to additional growth.
The Outcome
Being early adopters of technology has served Premier 1 well. The company set up its first website over 25 years ago, using it to drive catalogue orders. That strategy has now flipped, as today the catalogue primarily exists to drive online purchases. Successful transitions like this require not only foresight, but the right backend infrastructure. Acumatica, for example, can take in and process catalogue orders generated offline. And 3G Pacejet Shipping connects directly to Premier 1’s e-commerce site, via its RESTful API, providing accurate, immediate parcel shipping quotes. Adapting to change is rarely easy, but the results are often rewarding. From its initial transition to e-commerce, to upgrading its ERP and shipping software, Premier 1 Supplies has long embraced change and used it as a growth catalyst. Just as the company strives to be an innovator in livestock management supplies, it places equal emphasis on being a leader in delivering those supplies to customers day after day, year after year.
The less I’m thinking about my software, and whether it’ll get me through the day, the more I can concentrate on other things, like how to expand our operations, bring new products to market, and earn more of our customers’ business. That’s where real growth comes from.