cieTrade helps iSustain Recycling maximize business performance
Learn how iSustain increased their operational efficiency and improved financial accuracy by leveraging cieTrade’s workflow features and integrated accounting tools.
Company
As sustainability strategists, iSustain provides businesses with comprehensive sustainability solutions on a national scale. Their goal is to help businesses reduce waste management expenses and lessen their environmental impact through creative recycling.
Headquarters
Soddy Daisy, TN
Industry
Plastics Recycling, Trading
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As a waste management company working across the energy, waste, recycling, water and carbon management sectors, iSustain has helped drive sustainability as well as manage and reduce carbon footprints by bringing their clients customized recycling programs since 2014. Prior to using cieTrade, iSustain used Excel spreadsheets and QuickBooks to run their operation; however, their team struggled to keep up as the business grew and expanded. Without an industry-specific software in place, challenges quickly began to arise, prompting their team to connect with cieTrade as a solution.
Finding the right software for growth
With their extensive experience in the recycling industry, the team at iSustain was familiar with the various software solutions available on the market. In fact, Mark Huber, VP of Business Development, had previously implemented one of these alternatives at another company— only to find it lacking many of the specialized features they needed. “Trying to make that software work for us was a total disaster,” Huber recalls. “That’s why we initially ran iSustain on spreadsheets; but as business took off, it quickly became clear that spreadsheets weren’t a sustainable solution.” Being a small start-up at the time, iSustain required a platform that could support their business growth while improving operational efficiency and providing the tools their team needed to effectively meet customer demands.
Managing transactions with greater efficiency
Before implementing cieTrade, the team at iSustain spent hours— sometimes even days— manually organizing sales and purchase order details, creating operational bottlenecks and increasing the risk of errors. With cieTrade in place, they not only streamlined their workflow but also boosted transaction volume with greater accuracy and control. According to Huber, cieTrade enabled iSustain to scale their operations without a significant increase in overhead. Previously, each team member managed around 130 orders per month, but with cieTrade’s order management tools, that number has surged to over 200 per person— allowing them to process approximately 1,000 orders per month.
Streamlining documentation and reducing manual work
Manually generating orders, receiving reports, bills of lading and other critical documents for customers and suppliers was a time-consuming burden for the iSustain team, requiring over 15 hours per week and increasing the risk of inconsistencies. Without proper software in place, ensuring accuracy and professionalism in their supply-chain paperwork was a constant challenge. Implementing cieTrade transformed this process, allowing the team to produce custom-branded, highly accurate documents instantly in just a few clicks. As a result, iSustain reduced their document generation time from more than 15 hours per week to just 10 minutes— dramatically improving efficiency and customer response time.
“When you’re trying to run an entire business manually, there’s not much difference between a scratch pad and Excel, and that can cause a whole host of problems and inefficiencies.”
Improving financial accuracy and control
Relying on spreadsheets made it increasingly difficult for iSustain to accurately manage payables and receivables, causing missed invoices and duplicate payments to become a persistent challenge. According to their team, traditional accounting platforms alone lacked a functional system of checks and balances, increasing the risk of critical financial oversights such as overpaying a vendor, forgetting to invoice a customer or struggling to reconcile charges. Seeking a more robust solution, iSustain turned to cieTrade, whose seamless integration with QuickBooks provided the accuracy, automation and oversight they needed. With cieTrade’s seamless settlement process and built-in accounting tools, they were able to maintain accurate financial records and ensure that every transaction was properly tracked— improving financial control and saving approximately $42,000 in costly accounting errors.
The need for a true cloud-based platform
When evaluating software solutions, iSustain didn’t actively consider other alternatives— largely because there weren’t many true cloud-based options available at the time. While some providers claimed to offer cloud solutions, these were often just cloud-hosted versions of traditional on-premise systems, which didn’t provide the flexibility and accessibility iSustain needed. With a remote team spread across the U.S., operating on a non-cloud platform simply wasn’t an option. According to Huber, if cieTrade had only offered an on-premise system, they likely would have kept searching. Instead, cieTrade’s fully cloud-based platform stood out as the right choice, allowing their team to collaborate from anywhere while ensuring real-time access to critical business data.
“Working with cieTrade has been fantastic. As one of the first cloud platforms on the market, it’s helped scale our business and keep our team connected from anywhere. Their support team has always been very responsive and communicative, helping us leverage the platform in the best way possible.”
Over the course of their nearly 10-year partnership, cieTrade has played a pivotal role in transforming iSustain’s operations. By streamlining workflows, eliminating manual processes, and reducing costly errors, the platform has enabled the team to operate with greater efficiency and accuracy. Implementing a specialized, cloud-based system has enhanced order management, automated the generation of specialized shipping and billing documents and improved the traceability of financial transactions. As a result, iSustain has been able to increase order volumes, improve customer response times and achieve significant cost savings— all while ensuring their team stays connected with instant, real-time access to critical business information from anywhere. As iSustain continues to grow and diversify its service offerings, cieTrade remains a trusted partner, evolving alongside them to support their expanding needs.
Company
As sustainability strategists, iSustain provides businesses with comprehensive sustainability solutions on a national scale. Their goal is to help businesses reduce waste management expenses and lessen their environmental impact through creative recycling.
Headquarters
Soddy Daisy, TN
Industry
Plastics Recycling, Trading
Share Story
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