We recently caught up with Andrew Gibson, Managing Director of Lumenec, and asked him to tell us a little about his business, and how Saasu fits in to the mix.
What does Lumenec do and what makes you stand out?
Lumenec manufactures and imports LED lighting products – selling them to businesses throughout Australia. Our customers are predominantly in the retail and hospitality sectors.
We have specialised knowledge in LED controls, particularly DMX and colour control.
Lumenec installation at Mount Tamborine Brewery
Why did you choose Saasu?
I restructured the company about 18 months ago to reduce our overheads, and made the decision to use the cloud for business processes as much as possible. I was keen to do as much as I could from my iPad. At the time I was using MYOB, and a factor holding me back was the need for inventory management and foreign currency support. After looking at a number of options, I came across Saasu, gave it a trial and found it was a great fit for my business.
In what ways has Saasu made an impact on or difference to your business?
Previously, I was finding that a lot of my business processes were dictated either by the software I was using or the fact that it was locked to a desktop and a server. Saasu has freed the business from those constraints allowing me to adapt my business processes around the way I want to conduct my business – that is, a more mobile, responsive and fluid operation.
Do you integrate Saasu to any of your other business systems?
I am involved with another company (Bizlytix) which is developing web software to provide analytics on the Saasu inventory module.
As managing stock is a critical part of my operations, I’m beta testing this software with my Saasu file to give me more detailed information on what is going on with my inventory. It is showing a lot of promise.
What do you love most about Saasu?
The stand out best part of Saasu for me is the ability to work from my iPad when I’m on the road visiting customers. I use third party logistics to get products to customers Australia-wide overnight, so it is great that I can enter a sale directly in Saasu, generate the shipping slip and the invoice at time of entry, no matter where I am – whether pulled over to the side of the road between customers, in an airport somewhere, or at my desk in Brisbane.
I have also found the foreign currency in Saasu to be very good, making many of my USD transactions much easier than with previous software. The automatic bank transaction importing is also a fantastic time saver.
I don’t often need tech support as Saasu is very easy to use, but on those times that I have, I’ve found the support to be fast, responsive, and very helpful. This gives me a lot of confidence in staying with the product into the future.
What’s next for Lumenec and Saasu?
As Lumenec grows and changes, I’m confident that Saasu can keep pace with that growth and change.
While I switched as part of a change, I can’t actually see myself ever going back to a desktop/server based accounting system – even if the company grew substantially bigger.