About Triple T

Triple T Hospitality Group owns and operates the Tommy’s Tavern + Tap and Tio Taco + Tequila restaurant and bar concepts. They opened their first restaurant in 2015 in Sea Bright, New Jersey, and have since grown to approximately 2,500 employees with 17 locations in New Jersey, New York, and Delaware.

Challenges to success

Having experienced significant growth in the past 10 years, the company realized they needed to find an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that could help optimize their inventory and financial processes and scale more efficiently as they grew. At this point, the company was using a restaurant-focused ERP solution that had been an improvement to their former manual processes, but still lacked crucial capabilities and integrations needed for their inventory, purchasing, accounting, and payroll systems. 

“We knew that if we could control our cost of goods, that would be key to driving our bottom line,” said CFO Chris Dietz. However, while Triple T was satisfied with the solution they were using to manage inventory and purchasing, there was no way to integrate that system with their ERP, and they received very little support from the ERP company.  

“There was so much legwork needed to get everything set up correctly – to get our purchasing done accurately, to get our inventory done accurately, and to get all of our managers trained on that system,” Dietz said. “We were even getting ready to hire somebody full-time just to do the manual upload of [the inventory platform’s] processes into our accounting system.”

Dietz knew that in order to continue growing at their current rate, Triple T needed an ERP solution with the ability to support accounting for numerous restaurant locations and integrate with their other systems and their bank. After considering their options, they decided to switch to NetSuite. Dietz also wanted more implementation support than his team had gotten with their previous solution in order to make the process quicker and more efficient. 

Triple T had previously worked with CohnReznick for audit and accounting support, and due to their positive experiences with those teams, Dietz decided to engage CohnReznick’s Digital practice to support their NetSuite implementation. 

“Everything else that we had done with you guys was top notch,” Dietz said. “So when it came to choosing CohnReznick as our support partner, I thought there was really no reason to look anywhere else.”

Actions taken

CohnReznick’s Digital team worked closely with Dietz to quickly identify three main needs for their NetSuite implementation. They needed a smooth integration with the inventory solution, more efficient capabilities for their accounting and finance operations, and most importantly, a reliable connection with their bank to automatically import and manage data from a large number of separate accounts.   

Working on an exacting timeline, the team worked to transition Triple T’s existing data to the new solution, designing integrations for their other systems to streamline their processes and improve the quality of their data. The team also created custom workflows to automate many of Triple T’s existing processes, identifying and building new efficiencies as they worked, and training Dietz and his team to make sure they could take full advantage of NetSuite’s capabilities.
(Continue reading for a list of specific NetSuite components optimized.)

While he knew the CohnReznick team would help guide the implementation, Dietz said he was pleasantly surprised by the hands-on, collaborative support the team provided throughout the process. 

“I didn't really realize the scope of what CohnReznick was going to do,” Dietz said. “Everyone on the team really cared about the project, and they took the time to get to know our business and our processes. Everyone cared that [the NetSuite system] was getting built out correctly as well, which really would maximize success in the long run for us.”

Seeing results

In the short time since it was implemented, Triple T has already seen benefits from their new NetSuite ERP solution. The integration between the inventory platform and NetSuite has made their accounts payable process much smoother, reducing their previous timeline by two days. They’ve seen reduced timelines in their cost reporting and inventory reporting processes as well. 

The automated data flow from their bank accounts has reduced the time and labor they previously needed to manually transfer data, minimized opportunities for error during transfer, and made their data more accessible. This has ultimately given their team more time to fully analyze their data to make more informed decisions.

The path forward

In addition to giving them more time and resources to focus on growth, Triple T’s NetSuite ERP has also positioned them to continue scaling their systems as they expand. The company currently has plans to open five new locations in the surrounding area. They also have plans to continue exploring ways to optimize their workflows and integrations with NetSuite, and Dietz plans to continue working with CohnReznick whenever they need support in the future. 

“At this point, we’ve done valuations with CohnReznick, they do our audit work, our tax work, and our ongoing support with NetSuite,” Dietz said. “They’ve really been a great partner every step of the way for anything we've ever needed.”

NetSuite support overview