BACKUP DIRECT SELECTS NETSUITE SOLUTION

"The application integration made the difference, knowing that it covered all areas of the business. NetSuite really is one application that we're working from."

— Brett Raynes, Director
Backup Direct

The Results:
Backup Direct, an IT outsourcing service focused on the data backup needs of small and mid-sized businesses, deployed NetSuite in 2004 to manage its rapidly-growing operations.

NetSuite has allowed Backup Direct to grow without adding numerous administrative staff or compromising its own operational integrity. Using role-based permissions, Backup Direct's NetSuite users can gain access to the right data and functionality to support a myriad of customer requests and needs every day. "We couldn't just have one person in charge of support and another in charge of billing. We had to support multi-function, multi-capable staff," says Brett Raynes, company director.

Backup Direct's customers now receive top-flight service from professionals who have access to everything they need to know about a customer, no matter the situation. "Whether you call the support line or customer service or sales, that person is able to see all relevant information about them — and most importantly, tell them, 'yes, your backups are continuing as normal."

The Challenges:
Backup Direct enables UK businesses to easily archive and restore enterprise data online, without the need for complicated in-house technology. The company needed a similar approach to keep its expanding accounts organised and under control, hoping to avoid costly overhead. "When we started up, we were using QuickBooks for accounting and Outlook for contact management, but that was only good for when we really were a startup," Raynes says. "It was not that we hit a brick wall, but I've run businesses before and I saw that systems were going to be critical to whether we were going to be able to scale the business profitably or not."

To help manage a nationwide, mission-critical service for business clients, many different people had to be able to help any kind of customer in any way at any time. "We have to be able to work from multiple locations, and be multi-purpose," Raynes says.

Integrity was of paramount importance given the company's own offering. "As a backup company, we're constantly preaching the value of business data and how important it was to have it all backed up, so we also wanted to go with what we knew would work, and know that key areas of our business data would be protected."

The Solution:
With the aid of NetSuite Solution Provider BlueBridge One, Backup Direct worked NetSuite into the fabric of its company so that business operations proceeded as smoothly as the company's signature data storage and recovery service. "We didn't just see NetSuite and say 'let's go for it,' but the application integration made the difference, knowing that it covered all areas of the business. NetSuite really is one application that we're working from."

Backup Direct uses NetSuite to manage sales and prospecting information, as well as customer enquiries and technical support. Surveys and e-mail marketing are coming online and helping the company find new business expansion and improvement opportunities as well. "We wanted to make sure that we were extremely efficient with customer interactions, and we wanted a sales, billing, and support process we could rely on," Raynes says.

"Because of what we've got, we know we can increase our presence anywhere in the country, including using people working from home doing telesales work," he says. "We continue to see a route to grow the business whilst controlling overhead, and making our costs as far as possible variable costs."