iSync founder Peter Booysen
Editor’s note: iSync Solutions offers complete ERP, PLM, and B2B software solutions for apparel, footwear, and gear companies across the globe. Today, we introduce a series of Q & A articles with founder Peter Booysen about the firm and how it solves business problems for its clients.
Q: Let’s start with a little background on Sync – what can you tell us about how and when you started, and about your mission?
Peter Booysen: We started in South Africa 19 years ago, and we’ve been growing 35 percent a year since we started. Unlike other companies in our space, we’re not backed by venture capital, so we are less pressurized to hit sales targets and can and do focus on having deep relationships with our customers – and our products are heavily influenced by those relationships.
We could never have developed our systems without the inspirations of those companies, and the problems they’re trying to solve.
Q: Tell us about some of those.
Peter Booysen: When I first moved to the U.S., from South Africa nine years ago, I got introduced to Paul Naude, he had just started Vissla, maybe he was six months into it. They were quite different than most starting brands, in that they had a room full of experts, highly experienced executives who had a very specific philosophy of getting a brand back to the core market.
Q: What were you able to offer them?
Peter Booysen: They had two main goals: sustainability and selling on a digital platform. At that time, B2B wasn’t really digital – it was all catalogs and look books. Paul insisted on going online with a digital platform to connect his reps and retail buyers.
There weren’t many B2B platforms at the time, and they wanted to create a space not just where you can see their product, but where you can know their story.
Sync B2B Sales allows brands to boost sales, improve inventory visibility and grow their brand. Courtesy of iSync.
We created a relationship around that challenge that had as a starting point our software and their mission, and the software really evolved due to our close relationship with them. We’re now seven major versions into it, with more to come.
Q: What other business issues did Sync address?
Peter Booysen: Vissla was looking for a new enterprise system to support their international growth and distribution. They needed a system that could streamline all their business processes and provide a common platform for all users, as well as delivering consolidated dashboard reporting for senior management across the group.
And they needed a system that catered to the intricacies of the apparel industry while integrating with third-party tools.
So we implemented our core modules and did seamless integrations with QuickBooks, Shopify, Amazon, Vend, UPS, USPS, FedEx, Shipstation, Rosenthal, EDI, and their Canadian 3PL.
Q: They’re happy with it?
Peter Booysen: We believe they are, in Paul Naude’s own words:
“We selected Sync based on their highly efficient, finely tuned system that is apparel-industry specific. Sync has provided the platform we require to grow our brands in the global arena.”
Click here to learn more about Sync and how it helps apparel companies manage and grow business.
