Suuchi Inc. officials have long felt their GRID software solution is the new standard for supply chain operations — one that solves the gaps left behind by legacy technology stacks.
The creation of Suuchi Ramesh, the New Jersey entrepreneur extraordinaire who successfully launched Suuchi Inc. in 2016, the Suuchi GRID is described as a multiproduct modular platform that combines the best of product lifecycle management and enterprise resource planning, with intuitive collaboration, project management and procurement functionality across.
Simply put, the Suuchi GRID helps manage complex supply chains in the digital world by bringing together design, sourcing, production, vendors, customers and remote workforces.
On Monday, officials at the Suuchi GRID announced additional functionality on two of the software’s approximately two dozen products — delivery schedule management and inventory planning. (Click here for more.)
It’s the latest update from Ramesh, who manages a worldwide team of nearly 50 from her corporate headquarters in Carlstadt.
ROI-NJ spoke with Ramesh about the GRID, how it will help those with supply chain issues — and where her company is headed. Here’s a look at the conversation, edited for space and clarity.
ROI-NJ: Talk about the GRID; how does it best improve the supply chain of companies?
Suuchi Ramesh: It reduces operating expenses, and it improves gross margins. It’s about improving the bottom line.
ROI: How so?
SR: It can convert manual tasks into digital operations — that’s the lowest-hanging fruit. So, if you have 10 people, it can convert 20% of their time to digital operations. That’s the time of two people. You could either redirect that to streamlining the size of the team or redirect the time of the team to more strategic tasks. So, you’re reducing operating expenses by streamlining people’s time.
The second is improving gross margins by reducing cost to goods sold. How do we do that? With better communication with vendors, better bid management. So, you’re removing vendors that are not giving you the best costs and are late or have poor quality issues.
ROI: What was the impetus for the software?
SR: As the CEO and founder of Suuchi Inc. and part of our amazing C-level leadership team, we all have experience in supply chain tech and operations and supply chain data. What we saw were the problems companies faced when they scaled from $10 million to $100 million and then $1 billion-plus.
They were at the cusp of huge growth, but they struggled with supply chain upgrades. They were going from Excel spreadsheets to a scatterplot of point solutions — something for product management, something for PO management, something for shipping, something for warehousing. And they weren’t ready for SAP or Oracle.
There wasn’t a multiproduct platform that could provide a single source of truth across the supply chain, either by connecting with the legacy tech stack and/or being the system of record. That’s what the GRID is.
ROI: What is the sweet spot for companies you service?
SR: Generally, between $100 million up to $1 billion. So, the lower and upper middle market in terms of size.
ROI: What sectors do you do most of your business in?
SR: Cosmetics and beauty — that’s our No. 1 market. Fashion — apparel, shoes, bags — is No. 2. And that’s both on the brand retail side, but also manufacturers in that space.
ROI: Where would you go next?
SR: Other industries include food and beverage, electronics and other direct-to-consumer industries, such as pets and home goods. And we’re pretty big in the aggregator space. There’s been a lot of investment in brand aggregators that gobble up a lot of direct-to-consumer brands.
ROI: While you are looking to assist middle-market companies, it sounds as if your solutions could work with top-level companies, too?
SR: The goal is to help companies get to $1 billion and beyond. We may get these companies at $100 million or $200 million or $500 million — and we want to get them to $1 billion while they are scaling with us. There’s no reason they couldn’t stay with us.
