When buying group, NetPlus Alliance, wanted to improve the depth and breadth of their rebate offerings, they turned to Enable for help. Since then, they have improved accuracy and efficiency and can now be more creative in their negotiation. Enable’s cloud-based solution has even given them peace of mind, as they don’t have to worry about potential data loss from spreadsheets and individual’s computers. Today, they’re able to negotiate better and deeper deals and allow their supplier partners to go to market the way that it's most beneficial to them.

NetPlus Alliance has evolved from a distribution business into a buying group for distributors and manufacturers of industrial and construction supplies. They help achieve above market growth and profitability through negotiated programs such as rebates. For distributors, benefits include lower buy-in, better freight and payment terms, as well as other exclusive NetPlus pricing advantages. They aggregate the buying power of hundreds of distributors to be able to secure the very best program that they can that improves the bottom line of their members.

We spoke to Kerry Atlas, VP of Operations and Finance to see how they were managing rebates previously and how processes have been impacted since using Enable.

Enable provides rebate expansion opportunities

Kerry explains, “I came from the grocery industry where we were on the receiving side of the rebates so, we were focused on buying products. I didn't realize that there were so many different ways that those suppliers wanted to go to business. Therefore, I recognized when I joined NetPlus, that without a rebate specific software, it was difficult to be able to expand the depth and breadth of our rebate offerings. Now we're able to allow our supplier partners to go to market the way that it's most beneficial to them.”

How has Enable impacted processes?

Kerry says, “I can think of two significant ways that our processes have improved. From a negotiation perspective, as I mentioned before, we're able to expand the depth and the breadth of our programs. This allows us to be more creative in our negotiation, returning more back to our distributors because we're not leaving anything on the table. That was a huge benefit to NetPlus.” Kerry explains that there have been benefits on the finance side as well.

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We consider Enable’s support team our friends  

Kerry explains, “The Enable team has helped us significantly through the onboarding process. We have a great rapport with our customer success team between Matt, Corey, Lukasz and Tom. We honestly consider them our friends across the pond. They’ve helped us solve any problems, which are few and far between. I've also found that your development team is fantastic in suggesting changes to accommodate our business.”

Why should others consider Enable?

Kerry laughs, “Well to be truthful, I don’t really want to answer this question because I think Enable gives us a competitive advantage! Buying groups are really in the business of helping other businesses succeed and that's fantastic. However, we do have our competitive folks out there. If this is one thing that I could keep under my vest I would, but to be honest with you if you're a buying group in another industry, I would highly recommend it. Enable does expand the possibility of being able to negotiate better and deeper deals. It's something that I think is a necessity, especially from a financing perspective. You want to make sure that your information isn't held in a spreadsheet. Enable is a cloud-based solution, which means you're not at risk of losing something on a server and that has really brought me some peace of mind.”