Founded in 2001, Trace One has evolved from launching the first SaaS based collaborative platform for private label management to powering the world’s largest network for the FMCG industry with more than 20,000 companies worldwide.
« I was impressed by the skills and the knowledge around the solution, the quality that have been delivered during the workshops and the set-up and the reactivity during the user-acceptance test.”
Vincent Lemaine, Finance Director France, TRACE ONE
Inspired by the mad cow crisis, Trace One’s first project in 2001 was to harness the power of digital technology to trace food supplies to large retailers and prevent another health disaster. Even though its first attempt was thwarted, Trace One was able to redirect its R&D to perfect the first collaborative platform for the quality and development management of private label products (PLP). Vincent Lemaine is Trace One’s Financial Director for France.
Retailers are developing and managing more and more complex brand portfolios, whilst contending with forever-changing sector and regulatory standards. Until the Trace One solution came along, the exchange of Excel and Word files between the distributor’s and supplier’s Quality departments was becoming less and less effective. “Our platform enables distributors and their suppliers to increase the speed and reliability of their product co-development processes. The manufacturer and their customer joins forces in project mode to finalise either a recipe, for food products, or a formula, for personal hygiene products, cleaning products or cosmetics. The Trace One platform facilitates the exchange of information between the actors of the value chain throughout the product’s life cycle”.
2006 was a pivotal year in Trace One’s development. “The first five years allowed us to validate the concept of our platform and convince our first business contacts. After that, the performance of our solution was clearly established among the major retailers. Today, Trace One employs 150 people throughout several European countries and the United States”.
Cegid’s accounting and commercial management solutions, used in the early days of the company, quickly reached their limits during Trace One’s international expansion.
“We needed an ERP that was capable of handling 100% of our data exchanges in an international environment. We consulted the main market stakeholders: SAP, Navision and Sage. Sage x3 solution came out on top thanks to the performance of its unparalleled accounting module and its receptiveness to multiple languages, currencies and regulations“.
The system is as easy for manufacturers as it is complex for the back-office to manage. “Our models were subject to manual processing, which could be re-evaluated during the course of the year. The invoicing processes among suppliers created a heavy workload for our teams to manage, especially as implementation gathered speed”.
Trace One therefore needed a specific Sage X3-based application with the ability to handle this complexity. “Deveho integrated a tailor-made solution developed by Sage to manage our customer contracts and, in particular, to invoice them more quickly and simply. They met all our expectations because they not only work in close proximity with Sage, but also have a perfect understanding of the Sage X3 environment.”
The Sage X3 perimeter
“The Sage X3 perimeter at Trace One includes the accounting, management control and sales administration departments, which all use the tailor-made invoicing application. As far as the native features are concerned, Sage X3 meets all of our needs as an international company, particularly the very effective accounting function and the automated generating of reports. Our partnership with Deveho provided us with great precision in managing the project. Being able to depend on such dedicated and specialist resources is a real bonus”.
