Crosby Hops is a fifth-generation Oregon family business with roots dating back to 1900. Crosby supplies some of the most famous craft-breweries in America—they are fanatical about producing, sourcing, and processing the best hops on the planet.
Craft breweries have experienced a huge boom in the last 20 years. From 2006 to 2018 the number of breweries in the U.S. grew from 1,460 to over 7,000. As demand increased, there was also a new younger generation of brewers that had taken over the industry. That shift meant that Crosby’s customers now had different expectations.
Crosby Hops knew they needed to transform their business to set themselves up for the future. They also knew that meant delivering best-in-class customer experience for a new generation of customers. To accomplish that, Crosby Hops needed to lay the right foundation to scale and enable data-driven decision-making within their organization.
A Modern Customer Portal and a New ERP Solution
Crosby Hops identified their top goals and challenges to decide on the best course of action. Here’s where they landed…
1. Build a modern customer portal to increase sales.
This newer, younger generation of brewers grew up in the digital age. They expect and value a simple, digital-first customer experience that allows them to view and order product when it is convenient for them. Crosby Hops needed a modern customer portal that had real-time inventory and enabled online and mobile purchases.
2. Develop a new ERP solution to improve customer experience and optimize operations.
Crosby Hops had recently implemented a new ERP system, but data gaps remained and Excel filled the void. The initial implementation had largely been focused on internal and operational processes when Crosby knew that this system also had to enable their customer experience efforts.
Customer-Focused Business Transformation
Aldrich Technology and CSG Pro were brought on board to support this customer-focused business transformation through building Crosby Hops’ modern customer portal and configuring the ERP. The ERP needed to support both the customer portal and the new operational needs that came along with having an ecommerce platform.
Crosby Hops wanted to move quickly and limit project risk, so we opted to use an agile software development process. We worked closely with an integrated team of subject matter experts, Crosby product owners, and other vendors to collaboratively prioritize and deliver high-value features at a regular cadence.
This project was successful because of the high level of engagement of key stakeholders. Crosby’s production, sales, and marketing teams know their business inside and out and set clear goals. This enabled all teams to move forward with purpose and trust.
A Win-Win for Crosby Hops and Their Customers
The ecommerce platform was a win for customer relationships and a win for the business. Crosby Hops met their customers where they were—in doing so, they were also able to modernize their internal operations.
Because of the integration between the portal and ERP, Crosby Hops’ order fulfillment process has been streamlined, reducing the manual work required to manage their order pipeline. In 2019, Crosby Hops had its biggest production year ever.
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