Elevenate makes ski wear by skiers, for skiers. The brand was founded in 2010 in the Swedish ski resort of Åre. Despite having a small team of just 10 people, Elevenate sells its clothing through around 100 retailers worldwide as well as through its own e-commerce. “I don’t want to spend time thinking about system management or order flows. It takes time away from our core business. When our systems communicate efficiently with each other, I’m very happy. And now they do!” says Victor Salen, E-commerce Manager at Elevenate.
The collaboration between Elevenate and Codeunit began in 2024, when Elevenate was preparing to switch its e-commerce platform to Centra. At the time, the company had been experiencing challenges with its hard-coded integration between its ERP system, Business Central, and its e-commerce platform for quite some time. When looking for a partner that could provide a more flexible integration solution tailored to its needs, Elevenate was referred to Codeunit by its Business Central partner, Fellowmind.
Looking for a more flexible integration
“Before we got in touch with Codeunit, we had a hard-coded integration that caused problems whenever there were new updates to the e-commerce platform and so on. Whenever new needs arose, we had to rebuild the integration, and there were constantly additional consulting costs whenever something needed to be changed or updated. Even something as simple as adding a new field to an order meant that the integration had to be adjusted,” says Victor.
A platform that grows with the business
Elevenate has no in-house developers, and Victor does not come from a technical background. This places high demands on the technical solutions behind the company’s e-commerce operations, as Elevenate wants to avoid becoming dependent on costly consultants. Victor was looking for an integration platform where all systems communicate seamlessly with each other, without him or his colleagues having to spend time troubleshooting where things have gone wrong.
“We’re a small company that sells clothing, and as far as I can see, we don’t really have any particularly unique requirements. But we still needed a solution tailored to our business. Codeunit had built a platform that was already being used by other customers. They told us they could connect us on a plug-and-play basis, which meant we would benefit from all future updates and they would be responsible for ensuring that we always have the latest version live. For a small company like ours, it’s extremely valuable not to have to take responsibility for that ourselves,” Victor explains.
Full visibility through Codeunit’s portal
When Elevenate went live with Centra in 2024, it also went live on Codeunit’s OmniConnect integration platform. Centra is an e-commerce platform specialized in retail and fashion, and all of Elevenate’s B2C orders are managed through the system. Elevenate’s B2B platform is also built on Centra, where its retailers place their orders. As a result, all order data flows through Codeunit’s solution into Business Central.
“I really appreciate having access to Codeunit’s portal. Sometimes issues arise that our customer service team can’t find an explanation for in either Centra or the ERP system. When that happens, it’s always easy to use the portal to see what has gone wrong with an order. It could be something as simple as a customer entering their phone number in the address field, which prevents the order from being sent as it should,” says Victor.
Smoother returns and more accurate inventory levels
Elevenate has a large warehouse in Sweden and another in the US for distribution to the American market. The company has been using the Ongoing warehouse management system for many years. Here, too, Elevenate had a hard-coded integration that created limitations for the business and required a great deal of manual work. Following the migration to Centra, Elevenate began a new project with Codeunit to move the integration between Ongoing and Business Central to OmniConnect.
“Codeunit has made our returns process much smoother. Previously, when a return arrived at the warehouse, there was a manual process to make sure the item was entered back into the system, returned to inventory and made available on the website again. We want to avoid those kinds of tasks as much as possible, and Codeunit’s integration has really helped us automate the flow. We also feel that inventory levels now sync much better between the systems,” says Victor.
More time for the core business
Elevenate wants to spend its time on activities that strengthen the brand and help sell more clothing. Not on figuring out what has gone wrong between different systems. Victor says the systems now work exactly as you would expect them to, regardless of season or traffic volume and throughout system updates. The time this saves can instead be spent building even stronger customer relationships. Elevenate can focus on making its website the best possible showcase for the brand and on its core business: selling ski wear.
“I think working with Codeunit has been a really good experience, both through our direct contact with the people there and through the support function. Since I don’t have a particularly technical background, it’s great to be able to discuss these kinds of solutions with someone and simply ask questions. I explain what we need and ask what’s possible, and I get good answers from Codeunit. Often, they’ve already implemented similar solutions for other customers. Now I’m happy that we don’t have to be in touch with Codeunit, because that means everything is working exactly as it should,” Victor concludes with a laugh.
