For Alden Renewables, a tale of two migration experiences
About Alden Renewables
Alden Renewables is a Texas-based provider of sustainable solutions for edible oil wastes. When Anthony Fernandes joined in October 2022, he knew an ERP migration would be necessary to support fast growth. What he didn’t know was that one of his software vendors would be a dream to work with… and another, well, wouldn’t.
The Challenge & Solution
Challenge
Business continuity during an ERP migration
If you spend more than a few minutes scrolling through LinkedIn, you’ll inevitably come across a reference to “flying an airplane while building the engine.” It’s a cliche at this point, but that doesn’t make it any less accurate of a description — because for CFOs, that’s exactly what it feels like to migrate ERPs.
It’s not like you can press pause on the business while you’re migrating. No matter what happens, you have to keep paying the bills. No wonder ERP migration projects are measured in terms of months of duration and thousands of consultant hours.
This was the challenge facing Anthony Fernandes, the new Group Controller of Alden Renewables, as he embarked upon a migration from QuickBooks to Netsuite. The complicating factor for Anthony was that two key financial functions relied on third-party providers: expenses and accounts payable. They would have to have special attention during the migration to ensure no loss in continuity.
He started with his expenses software. Two weeks later, he was able to cut it over — but only after countless phone calls with a support rep who didn’t seem to understand either system. “When I call your support, I expect you to know the answers to my question,” said Anthony. “But she was just reading off a script.”
Next up: His migration with Stampli. If his expenses software was that bad, he feared, then accounts payable could only be worse.
Solution
Solution: 2 weeks for them, 20 minutes for us
“I remember my phone call with Lucia, my Stampli rep,” said Anthony. “I remember telling her about how bad the experience with my expenses software was. And I remember being skeptical when she told me that it would be 20 or 30 minutes tops.”
“Well, she was right. It was that quick, and it worked fantastic. Lucia knew Stampli, walked me through the configuration over the phone.”
Stampli’s secret lies in its ERP integration philosophy: Stampli builds its integrations in-house to support the full range of native functionality for more than 70 ERPs, including Netsuite. The primary benefit of this philosophy is that a new Stampli implementation doesn’t require any rework to the ERP or change to the existing AP processes. But the secondary benefit is what Alden Renewables experienced: You can migrate your ERPs without disrupting the flow of invoices.
Other software vendors see an ERP migration as an opportunity for project-based implementation, building customized APIs, or professional services fees. But Stampli has a simple migration playbook that keeps the ERP the source of truth — even when the ERP is swapped.
“Lucia was well-versed with Netsuite,” said Anthony. “She knew exactly where to go and what to pull and what information or what connections that needed to be done.”
(This may have been a surprise to Anthony, but it’s not a surprise to us. Stampli deliberately hires its customer success staff out of accounting teams primarily for their experience with both AP and ERPs. Lucia joined Stampli with a background in accounting and real-world experience with Netsuite, and is one of a number of seasoned reps on our dedicated Netsuite team.)
“I have been in conversations with my ex-colleagues that reported and worked with me in the past,” sums up Anthony, “and I’ve been urging them to take advantage of Stampli for its automation and for the great customer support that they provide.”
Hear it from the customer
Without Stampli, I’d have to hire two more people to handle all our invoices. I’d say Stampli displaces $150K to $200K in labor expenses annually, while providing more accuracy and reducing human error.
Bottom Line
Stampli’s AI is a 25x multiplier
“My current AP person came on as a specialist who spent 90% of her time doing AP work. And without Stampli’s AI, as our volume grew, I would have needed to have five full time Accounts Payable team members,” Anthony says. “But with Stampli’s AI, I have just this one person doing AP, and doing it in just 20% of her time. That’s a 25X boost in efficiency — AND this person spends the remainder of her time on much more strategic activities.”
“A flawless integration with Netsuite.”
Anthony has high praise for many aspects of our Netsuite integration, but one thing that stands out for him: Stampli keeps Netsuite as the source of truth. “Stampli forces you to make your core updates in Netsuite, which means you are fixing things at the source instead of Band-aiding things.”
“The PO system is fantastic.”
Stampli’s PO system lets customers pull in the line-level detail of the PO from the source of truth — in Alden’s case, Netsuite. Stampli also takes it a step further by importing the received quantities, so you can view any billed vs. received discrepancies as you’re coding the PO. “Now we can link up bills that come in directly within the PO view. The amount of time that saves everyone from trying to figure out which bill belongs to which PO… it just makes everything much, much better.”
The CEO/President’s perspective
Anthony says that Alden’s CEO/President is one of Stampli’s biggest internal fans, and was one of the biggest enthusiasts of our PO system. In addition to the simplicity of the system from the approval point-of-view, this enthusiasm is also born out of efficiency: “Without Stampli, I’d have to hire two more people to handle all our invoices. I’d say Stampli displaces $150K to $200K in labor expenses annually, while providing more accuracy and reducing human error.”
How Alden Renewables Stepped It Up
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