Perfection Learning’s Path to Perfection: An ecosystem of Oracle NetSuite Integrations driven by Boomi

Perfection Learning Business Goals

NetSuite Magento Integration was a pivotal component of Perfection Learning’s strategy, enabling them to automate numerous manual processes through the establishment of an ecosystem that seamlessly connects NetSuite with various satellite applications using Boomi. Perfection Learning, our client, is headquartered in Logan, Iowa, and has been a pioneer in educational publishing since 1926. Initially focused on school forms, the company later expanded into literature and testing materials.

In 1991, Perfection Form Company rebranded as Perfection Learning Corporation. Today, the company prioritises internal product development and strategic acquisitions. They have developed Perfection Next, an online learning platform designed to enhance students’ reading comprehension and create dynamic classrooms. With a rich history of delivering valuable educational solutions, Perfection Learning remains dedicated to serving the educational needs of students and educators.

Perfection Learning’s primary business goal was to align their operational capabilities with rapid growth. Their vision included establishing a connected application environment while significantly decreasing manual effort. The overarching, long-term objective was achieving complete automation through comprehensive integrations. Acknowledging the diversity of their applications and the unique demands of their business, they were resolute that these integrations be thoughtfully designed to ensure scalability and future-proofing.

Technology Challenges

Perfection Learning used the VAI ERP platform as their primary ERP, which they utilised for maintaining their product catalogue, pricing, and sales invoices. Maintaining their product catalogue came with its own set of complexities due to the type and nature of the products they sold. Their product list included the following categories:

• Solo books
• Bundles of books
• Digital/online e-books (Downloadable)
• Student and teacher kits
• Virtual books (available through an e-learning platform)

They faced challenges in synchronising their products with the e-commerce store built on the Magento platform. Out-of-sync issues significantly impacted their sales, resulting in problems such as incorrect pricing, invalid product images, and descriptions. Similarly, there were issues with the flow of orders from the e-commerce site to the ERP and back-order management systems (Next platform), including data synchronisation and real-time data availability.

Their marketing and sales teams encountered difficulties in tracking and managing the lead-to-customer conversion process due to error-prone, manual data entry processes. The absence of valid and consistent customer data hindered their ability to run successful targeted marketing campaigns and manage customer relationships. They used HubSpot as their CRM platform, and Zoom served as the communication channel for sales and marketing teams to reach out to customers and prospects.

In addition to the lack of seamless integrations between applications, they aimed to migrate their ERP from VAI to Oracle NetSuite for scalability, improved functionality, and enhanced overall efficiency.

Following were the primary goals for Perfection Learning to mitigate the challenges they faced across various departments,

• Migrate from VAI ERP to Oracle NetSuite.
• Synchronise product information and inventory levels between Magento and NetSuite for accurate stock management.
• Automate order processing from Magento to NetSuite to enhance order fulfilment efficiency.
• Maintain consistent and up-to-date customer data in both NetSuite and HubSpot for improved marketing campaigns and CRM.
• Integrate sales data from NetSuite with marketing data in HubSpot to optimise lead nurturing and conversions.
• Accurately record and report expenses in NetSuite to ensure financial transparency.

How NeosAlpha helped

Following are the key Boomi integrations designed and implemented.

• E-commerce Workflow (Oracle NetSuite Magento Integrations)
  1. Product Synchronisation
     • Perfection learning manages their Products in Oracle NetSuite. And their products fall into various categories like, assembly items, kits, items with no bill of materials (BOM) etc
     • Whenever a new product is created or an existing product is modified by a business user in the Oracle NetSuite, Boomi integrations fetch the changes in real-time and synchronise it in Magento
     • Any issues are reported to respective business users via email notifications

• Expense Management (Oracle NetSuite Concur Integrations)
  1. Fully integrated expense management solution was built handling the following key objects.
     • Employee
     • Vendor
     • Purchase Order (PO)
     • Purchase Order Receipt
     • Chart of Account (COA)
     • Payment request confirmation
• Lead Management (Oracle NetSuite HubSpot Integrations)
  1. Lead records were created in the Oracle NetSuite based on the visitors data collected from the HubSpot
  2. Forms that load the qualified leads into HubSpot can be updated, hence the processes were designed to be flexible to understand the HubSpot data and synchronise the same with the NetSuite.

• Sales and Marketing Management (Oracle NetSuite Zoom Integrations)
  1. Phone call records were created in the Oracle NetSuite from the zoom call logs.
  2. Boomi integrations were built to leverage the Zoom’s API capabilities to retrieve the call logs and convert them into Activities → Phone Calls in the NetSuite.

• Order Management (VAI ERP – Next Integration)
  1. Sales Orders were retrieved from the SFTP location as flat files.
  2. Flat files were processed by Boomi integrations into JSON format, grouping it by Order and combining detail lines to be passed as the data value
  3. Order numbers were hashed and synchronised with the NEXT platform by calling the Order Processor API.

• Digital Order Management (Oracle NetSuite – Next Integration)
  1. Sales Orders were picked from the Oracle NetSuite based on specific filtering logic
  2. After processing the sales order into Next platform by invoking its REST APIs, acknowledgement is sent to the corresponding NetSuite record.

After conducting a thorough analysis, our Boomi development team initiated the construction of transitional data pathways connecting Salesforce, Nexudus, and Oracle NetSuite. They introduced a significant solution strategy to prevent the duplication of customer data across multiple systems throughout the migration process, a contribution that received high praise from the client. Following are some of the unique objects specific to Nexudus processed as part of this project,

• Contacts
• Coworker Invoice
• Coworker Invoice Line Items
• Extra Services
• Product
• Coworker Ledger Entry

We also undertook customization efforts on the Nexudus platform to align it with the specific needs of Iconic Offices. Our goal was to ensure a seamless end-user experience, matching the functionality and feel of using Salesforce.

Results

Following are some of quick benefits realised by Perfection Learning through the integrated ecosystem powered by Boomi

• Real-time integration of product was achieved such that business was able to publish new products and update product information incl. prices quickly
• Synchronising external incoming or outgoing call logs from Zoom Phone with NetSuite Phone Call records, helped with a more holistic understanding of customer interactions and communication tracking.
• Through HubSpot NetSuite integration, 360° view of customers and prospects was made available to aid sales and marketing efforts.
• Complete automation of order processing between Magento and their backend ERP