30% Less IT Maintenance: How Metcash Replaced Custom Builds with GridMate to Handle Supplier Claims at Scale in Salesforce

The Problem - Custom Solutions That Couldn't Keep Up: Before GridMate, Metcash was handling supplier claims and rebates through custom-built logic inside Salesforce. The problem was not that the custom solutions only worked at a limited scale. As case volumes grew, each new situation required more bespoke development, and the team found themselves in a cycle of building, maintaining, and patching code that was never designed to stretch.

Build vs Buy - When the Cost of Custom Becomes the Problem: The core issue was one that many large Salesforce organisations eventually face. Custom development offers control, but it comes with a maintenance tail that compounds over time. Metcash recognised that continuing to build was not a sustainable answer, and began looking for a pre-built, native solution that could handle their case resolution needs without creating more technical debt.

A Pre-Built, Native Alternative to Custom Development: GridMate was adopted as an out-of-the-box solution from the Salesforce AppExchange. The team used GridMate components from day one, which meant implementation did not introduce the same kind of technical overhead they were trying to move away from.

Grid and Kanban: The Components Doing the Work: The most heavily used features at Metcash are the grid component and Kanban views. The grid gives teams a structured, flexible way to work through supplier claims and rebates directly inside Salesforce, while Kanban provides visibility into case progression and workload across the team. Other components, such as the calendar and map views, are not currently in use, reflecting a deliberate and measured approach to adoption.

Implementation: Straightforward by Design: Because GridMate is a native Salesforce application, it slots into an existing environment without the friction of third-party integrations. There is no complex middleware to configure and no external system to reconcile. For a team of Salesforce developers like Metcash's internal IT team, that native architecture meant moving quickly and confidently from deployment through to configuration, without the setup overhead that typically slows a new tool down.

A Partnership From the Start: From the first conversation, the GridMate engagement was consultative and natural. Rather than leading with a product pitch, the team came in to understand the business needs first and worked out where GridMate could genuinely help. That approach set the tone for everything that followed. Combined with a consistent commitment to the product roadmap and new features, what started as an implementation has developed into a working partnership that continues well beyond go-live.

30% Less Maintenance for IT: By moving away from custom-built logic and onto a pre-built, maintained AppExchange solution, the team reduced Salesforce maintenance by at least 30%. That figure reflects the real cost of the build approach: not just the initial development time, but the ongoing overhead of keeping custom code functional as the business and the platform evolve. GridMate removed that burden directly.

A Growing User Base: When Metcash first contracted GridMate, they had 22 licences. That number has since grown to 37, an increase of 68%. That growth was not the result of a mandated rollout; it reflects teams finding genuine value in the tool and choosing to use it. For an organization of Metcash's scale, that kind of organic adoption is a meaningful signal.

Standardized Processes Across the Business: One of the most tangible shifts has been the standardization of business processes, particularly within the merchandise teams. Where workflows had previously depended on custom-built solutions that varied by case, GridMate gave teams a consistent, shared way of working inside Salesforce. That consistency has a compounding effect: fewer exceptions, less re-training, and a more predictable operating environment.

A Platform That Scales With the Business: For Metcash, the underlying problem was not just that their custom solutions were hard to maintain. It was that they could not scale. Every new case type risked becoming another bespoke build. GridMate resolved that by providing a stable, native foundation that handles growing case volumes without requiring new development. The business case for buying rather than building has been validated clearly, and the platform is in place to support whatever comes next.

For Metcash, the problem was straightforward but persistent: every supplier claim and rebate had to be entered one record at a time, and the manual overhead that created was only growing. It wasn't sustainable, and the team needed a better way to work inside Salesforce.

With GridMate now embedded across claims and rebates workflows, Salesforce has become a more stable and scalable operating environment. The IT team has reclaimed time that was going into maintenance. The merchandise teams have a consistent process to work from. And with adoption still climbing, the platform is only beginning to show what it can do.