Ben Silver has always been fascinated by the idea of reducing his environmental footprint and exploring new ways of transportation. After all, we all need to get around – but cars don’t always cut it, and especially not in urban areas.
Inspired by his travels around the world, where he saw the challenges and opportunities of urban mobility in different contexts, Ben and his business partner Joe created Benzina Zero – a business designed to fundamentally change how people move in Australia. With 18,000+ scooters sold through Joe’s business previous Scooterlife Australia, Benzina Zero is making a difference in how we move, work and play.
However, the company faced a major challenge as it grew rapidly and expanded to new markets. The company’s existing systems and processes were not able to keep up with the increasing demand and complexity of its operations – something all too familiar to businesses on the upswing, and something that Benzina Zero wanted to overcome if they wanted to maintain their trajectory. Struggling with inefficiencies, errors, and delays caused by their old systems that affected their customer satisfaction and profitability, the company realized that it needed a more robust and scalable solution to manage its business and achieve its goals.
Fortunately, Integrations Kings, a leading integrator of ERP solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, were at hand to help them implement a new ERP system that integrated all its functions and data and drove ongoing success for Benzina Zero.
Electric scooters are a growing market around the world, but realizing efficiency, speed and convenience is a tricky game. But that’s exactly what Benzina Zero offers. Founded by Joe D’Ercole with Ben Silver, Benzino is creating alternatives to traditional petrol-powered vehicles, and leading the market with a unique range of electric scooters that boast minimalist designs, removable batteries, and front-loading features.
With commitment to values such as environmental responsibility and stewardship, and a growing range of great vehicles, Benzina Zero has quickly grown in popularity and demand, both in Australia and overseas, and earned contracts with major clients such as Domino’s Pizza. And it’s no surprise: according to Ben, electric scooters are quickly becoming a better solution for transit and transport.
“We’ve done some stats on delivery. For example, if we go from a petrol scooter to an electric one, we actually save 90% of energy cost – and that’s using grid power, and you could do it for less if you had renewables on your roof. Secondly, you actually reduce your servicing cost by two thirds. We calculated that on a scooter that does only 500 km a week for delivery would save around $3,100 a year just in servicing and fuel.”
That’s an attractive proposition that’s generating great business for Benzina Zero. But as their business grew, so did their operational challenges. They had to deal with multiple entities, currencies, tax regimes, and regulations. They had to manage a complex inventory of products, parts, and accessories. Coordinating various suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and dealers, as well as handling an enviable volume of orders, shipments, invoices, and payments put strains on their systems.
They soon realized that their existing systems and processes were not adequate to support their growth and complexity. And everyone involved wanted to avoid burnout and ‘firefighting’.
Enter Integration Kings with a comprehensive, cloud-based solution that would drive some serious change.
Ben and the team recognised that they needed to upgrade their systems and processes – but they needed professional help to do so, first. As Ben explains, “We are relatively complicated, so doing it on our own was going to be too hard. It was difficult.”
“We had accounting stuff to work through, and we are also a complicated business in some ways because of the way we have inventory tracked (e.g. particular serial numbers and multi trackable attributes and stuff like that). If our accounts person went overseas, she had to leave her main computer on, here in Australia, and then mirror it somehow. It was a bit rubbish.”
Fortunately Robert King, founder and cloud systems integration specialist at Integration Kings, was able to see how to tighten things up for Benzina Zero.
As Robert notes, “Benzina Zero’s complexity was down to the fact that they have an Australian entity, an overseas sourcing entity, and then we’ve got an Italian side of the business – and then we had to make sure we thought out thoroughly the long-term strategy of how you scale that in a digital environment, where you’re using the same technology solution in each region or each entity.”
Robert’s background in consulting and accounting has enabled him to work strategically on integration projects in the past, and in particular incorporating the long-term growth plans and ambitions with software stacks for successful implementations. Once he and Ben together understood the challenges Benzina Zero faced, together they could work towards transitioning towards a solution that would last long-term and work with multiple complex environments and jurisdictions.
Ben Silver, Chief Plugger-Inner, Benzina Zero
As Robert adds, “Because we see clients sometimes where entity number one is this stack, entity number two is this stack and then you can’t centralize the admin and you can’t reduce your labor input across the business units. So from a data perspective we purposefully sat down and made sure that wasn’t going to be something that we eventually hit.”
The ambition was to create a solution that could streamline operations for Benzina, automate workflows where possible, simplify their data, and optimize their performance. Added benefits would naturally include accuracy and speed, and valuable insights into the business’s performance and opportunities.
In particular, Ben’s emphasized the need for an effective ordering process, especially given that Benzina Zero’s vehicles are coming out of China, leaders in manufacturing and renewables. It’s also affected how they ship around the world in an effort to maximize container capacity, reduce shipping costs, and reduce environmental impacts as a result. With ambitions to soon drop ship directly to distributors, any efficiencies will be of huge benefit too.
The comprehensive solution right now is built on Cin7 Core (formerly DEAR), a cloud-based inventory management system that handles complex inventory tracking, serial numbers, batch tracking, and multiple currencies for international transactions. Cin7 Core also integrates with accounting packages, e-commerce platforms, shipping portals, and point of sale systems. Benzina also uses Xero for real-time financial data, invoicing, reporting, and tax compliance (except in Italy), and utilizes Dext for accounting task automation, such as logging and storing records like receipts. This software stack works seamlessly with Squarespace, which powers the Benzina Zero website and ecommerce capabilities.
As Rob says, “When you’ve got an Australian entity, an overseas sourcing entity, and then we’ve got an Italian side of the business, you need to make sure that the long-term strategy of how you scale that in a digital environment is going to work. That meant a consistent stack for Benzina Zero, and a better capacity to do all the work that’s needed for Ben and the teams.”
The results so far have been spectacular. Not only have Benzina Zero saved time and money on what they’d have spent if they implemented the solution themselves, they’ve made additional gains by being able to access data from anywhere, via the cloud, and connecting apps directly.
All up, Ben says, implementing Cin7, Xero, and Dext with Integration Kings has saved them having to hire at least one additional staff member, at a minimum of 20 hours per week – amounting to over 1000 hours per year. “Plus it’s saved us about one billion years, if we could even do it ourselves in the first place,” Ben says. “Thinking you can do it all yourselves is a fool’s errand. Who’s got time for this stuff?”
While Benzina Zero has only explored a fraction of the power of their ERP solution, they’re anticipating great things to come as they expand. They’re about to enter the next phase of growth at Benzina Zero, with exciting new deals clinched with Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Australia Post Contractors, dealerships, and even a recent appearance on Sunrise, Australia’s favorite breakfast show whilst filming in Norfolk Island where there are a fleet of Benzina Zero mopeds for eco-tourism.
With the major implementation phase of the project now over, says he’s stoked with the service he’s had from Integration Kings – and with the ongoing nature of the relationship. “It all just works together the way it should. And it’s all about knowing that, if something doesn’t work, someone has your back,” Ben says.
“At the end of the day, it’s all there. That’s the best part. We know it’s right for us. Rob’s put us at ease that the process and the product’s going to be right, and that’s made it easy to make the right decisions. When you see the person who you are paying money to to make systems work and they have systems that are incredibly efficient, it’s actually a good thing.”
Asked what he’d recommend to businesses considering implementing a similar system, Ben is adamant: get it done sooner rather than later. It’ll save pain, time and money, in both the short and the long run. “Get it all done, and don’t just circle back when the business grows.”
I think it just comes back to that very simple principle. If someone said to go, "Who would you go to with this sort of stuff like that?" I’d say, “Well, you go to Rob.”
Co-Founder and Cloud Integration, Integration Kings
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