Depatie Improves Budgeting and Forecasting

Depatie Fluid Power Improves Forecasting With NetSuite Planning and Budgeting

For over 60 years, Depatie Fluid Power has distributed hoses and fittings, seals, valves and more in Michigan, Indiana and beyond. Bolstered by recent acquisitions, Depatie has five locations serving the aerospace, medical, oil and gas, industrial, and services fields. Depatie replaced an outdated system with NetSuite to build a foundation for strategic decision-making and long-term growth.

Company

Depatie Fluid Power

Location

Portage, Mich.

Industry

Wholesale Distribution

EMPLOYEES

100-250

SYSTEMS REPLACED

Excel, Adaptive Insights

NETSUITE PRODUCTS IMPLEMENTED

NetSuite OneWorld
NetSuite SuiteCommerce
Warehouse Management System
Planning & Budgeting

“NetSuite’s planning and budgeting tools are great for driving our business forward.” Ryan Thomas, General Manager, Depatie Fluid Power Company

Depatie Plans Ahead

Happy customers, high demand: Depatie has grown to serve over 2,000 customers and manage thousands of SKUs in inventory, including tens of thousands of O-rings alone. That growth was fueled by four acquisitions and expansion into fabrication and assembly. Depatie has also begun to offer technical and engineering assistance, as well as custom hydraulic units.

System constraints stifle growth: Previous planning and budgeting was limited to yearly forecasts, and Depatie couldn’t look at expenses nor create budgets in segmented ways, such as by department. Depatie needed a single system with which to run scenarios and conduct long-term budgeting. It also sought to use real-time data to respond quickly to short-term financial challenges.

Pumping out stronger data: Depatie consolidated and automated the processes for running short- and long-term reports for its many products and individual parts with NetSuite. Teams can now access real-time sales data to compare results with forecasts, and “what if” scenarios provide insight used for hiring and resource allocation. When businesses began shutting down in 2020, for example, Depatie was able to easily apply various scenarios to its planned FY20 budget, alongside current actuals. That way, management could see where the company was headed in the next month, quarter and rest of the year.

Bolstering budgets: In the coming months, Depatie intends to make company-wide and departmental budgets that will improve expense management by allowing the team to standardise its spending processes for the department heads. These budgets also differ from previous ones in that they easily connect to the ERP and align with real-time data. Leadership also plans to analyse sales data to make better sales plans and get more accurate forecasts.

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