Tomatin Distillery Case Study

Situated amongst the idyllic scenery of the rural Scottish Highlands, Tomatin Distillery is an ode to traditional Scottish Culture in the twenty-first century. 

Combining masterful whisky blending and maturation processes unchanged since 1897, with a modern sustainability and customer-focused ethos, Tomatin continues to push boundaries and embark upon a modern ‘new chapter’, whilst still adhering to its core traditional values. 

In support of its contemporary ambitions, 2024 saw Tomatin Distillery embark upon a business-wide systems restructure with a strong emphasis on software integration. 

Legacy ERP system Pegasus Opera was complex and required extensive manual data manipulation to allow Tomatin’s finance team to produce accurate accounting figures. Led by Financial Controller Kitty Davis, the team struggled to keep up with the level of intervention required. The Pegasus Opera ERP system sat in isolation, unattached to the business’ DRAMS cask management and maturation software and KCPOS electronic point of sale system.  

With DRAMS being HMRC-approved and custom-developed for use within the drinks industry, Tomatin was extremely keen to keep this system. Replacing it or absorbing some of the functionality into an ERP system was not an option. 

The same was true of the business’ KCPOS point of sale system, used throughout their retail shops and via the business’ ecommerce site to record online and offline sales in one location. The wider team at Tomatin was reluctant to eradicate this system due to its functionality and team experience of using the platform.  

To combat a lack of connectivity between these systems, large amounts of time were spent on manual data entry and transference. This time-consuming endeavour withdrew from time spent on more strategic, goal-oriented tasks and left the team battling to keep up with the level of administration required to maintain an accurate database. Stock levels were also regularly found to be out of sync, due to the extensive time required to update them across all systems. 

A further complication often arose when working on inter-departmental projects. With only six members of the finance team having access to core data in the ERP system, wider members of the business experienced a clouded view of business statistics. The sales team in particular found it difficult to gauge business performance, with DRAMS and KCPOS figures not matching Pegasus Opera figures due to a time delay in manual reconciliation. 

Monthly reporting was also a major issue throughout the business, with month-end close processes taking up most of the following month, delaying the share of vital forecasting and performance information with senior members of the team. 

A radical solution was required to re-balance company systems and create a sense of connectivity. 

After initially implementing a brand-new NetSuite ERP system for Tomatin in place of Pegasus Opera, Eureka Solutions then worked to create integrations between NetSuite and Tomatin’s wider business systems via integration platform Besyncly. 

Developed by the experts at Eureka Solutions, Besyncly is an intelligent integration platform, designed to transfer data between systems via APIs. Used by businesses throughout the world to integrate ERP, ecommerce, accounting, 3PL, ticketing, fundraising, marketing platforms and more. 

As a first step, an integration was set up from Tomatin’s DRAMS software to NetSuite, allowing the automatic share and update of key inventory, blend and recipe management, bulk stocks, warehousing and bottling data. 

Using Besyncly to integrate KCPOS to NetSuite allowed Tomatin to transfer key data to its ERP system, such as till numbers, stock codes, quantities and stock location, granting Tomatin’s finance team an accurate and up-to-the-minute view of transactions at any given moment.

With this new integration many key pieces of data were synchronised from DRAMS to standard NetSuite fields including invoice numbers, customer data, transaction details, stock locations and much more. 

To boost the functionality of this integration a number of custom fields in NetSuite were set up to receive additional data from DRAMS, including barrelling information, cask data and more, moulding integration requirements to the exact needs of the Tomatin team. 

Finally, to support Tomatin’s retail store function, a further integration was set up between NetSuite and ‘Electronic Point of Sale’ system KCPOS.

Since launching the new inter-connected network of systems at Tomatin, the entire team have been able to enjoy a host of benefits and conveniences: 

• Quicker Month-End Close: End-of-month close procedures were streamlined by the integration of business platforms. Less need to reconcile figures across multiple systems helped Tomatin to achieve a 50% reduction in month-end close times, with reports available to the business two weeks earlier every month.  

• Elimination of Manual Processes: Integrations from KCPOS and DRAMS to NetSuite drastically reduced the amount of manual data entry and transference required across the business on a daily basis. 

• More Time: The finance team were able to focus on more strategic and goal-oriented tasks, with less time spent on manual administration.  

• Accurate Reporting: Financial reporting is now more precise, allowing the finance team to produce accurate reports at any given moment, helping to inform other areas of the business. 

• Shared Insights: Pre-project, only six members of the finance team had access to accurate reporting information. It is now estimated that 75% of the business have access to the same, accurate reporting information. 

Overall, the team now have greater confidence in financial reporting and forecasting, allowing them to make informed decisions to work towards their future ambitions for success and growth.