What’s So Good About NetSuite? – Here’s Why You Should Be Paying It More Attention

If you’re looking for an integrated software solution to manage all key business processes, NetSuite is certainly worth taking an in-depth look at… it may well be the right choice and possibly the best decision you ever make for you and your business.

By using NetSuite’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, you can manage your inventory, warehouse, supply chain, customer services, e-commerce stores, human resources, and much more. As a unified and flexible software system, NetSuite requires no additional hardware, no exorbitant upfront fees, and no complex installation methods. All you need is a stable internet connection, and you can use the product from your favourite web browser.

Due to its flexibility and wide range of applications, more than 30,000 organisations have been using NetSuite to run their business and enhance performance efficiency. As a result, you too can turn to NetSuite’s native cloud-based system to lower the operating costs of your business and gain a competitive edge.

In this blog article, we’ll introduce you to the world of NetSuite, who it’s best for, what it does and show how we at WEBO Digital can help you get the most out of your current NetSuite service by customising and integrating it with your business ecosystems. That way, we work to automate your business processes, enhance business performance, and drive bottom-line efficiency.

The Basics of An ERP System

ERP is an acronym that stands for enterprise resource planning (ERP). Used by businesses in more than 200 countries, ERP is a system that encompasses all functions you’ll need to run your company. In other words, ERP is a business management software that helps you control and track your company’s key processes, from financials to human resources.

As a company grows, it relies more and more on accounting systems and database applications like MS Excel, MS Access, FoxPro, QuickBooks, etc., which can eventually make day-to-day operations very cumbersome. As a business owner or manager, you can feel like you’re trapped in a juggernaut of ever-changing software systems, databases and spreadsheets, as you keep endlessly juggling your existing and new applications.

At a certain point, the company outgrows the capabilities of these systems. The company needs to change and expand — and its systems should keep up with the developmental growth. Having stand-alone and independent systems that don’t integrate with each other and work off separate databases and records will result in frustratingly complex and costly operations.

An exasperating setback for the company’s growth, right?

Thanks to today’s ERP software for coming to your business’ rescue. Collecting, storing, and organising information for efficient use is crucial for any enterprise — and ERP helps you centralise your business information in one platform by bringing everything into a single system that acts as the ‘source of truth.’ This provides you with incredible leverage to streamline all your business processes from end to end.

Since you get a 360-degree view of your customers, you can provide better service and customer experiences. Your team has the correct information they need when they need it, and they’ll work more efficiently to increase sales and decrease costs. ERP also allows you to generate reports and analyse data the way you need.

Additionally, the modern-day ERP system offers flexible deployment, improved security, and enhanced customisation. But, above all, it will help you innovate in your business processes today and prepare for tomorrow and the future.

What is NetSuite & How Does It Work?

NetSuite is a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from a US-based software giant, Oracle. The software solution is designed for business processes management to deliver end-to-end efficiency and increased productivity.

Having all your data in one system gives you instant access to customers, vendors, inventory, and transaction data. In addition, since NetSuite is highly scalable, it provides you with powerful business intelligence (BI) to manage its core functions. Finally, as a business leader, you get a real-time, comprehensive view of the business, including information on various departments.

Furthermore, the system can link to other communication platforms like CRMs, CMSs, Google Workspaces, and your suppliers’ systems to streamline business operations and automate key functional areas. Data from different modules share a common database — and the information gets updated and shared in real-time.

The Workflow

The core of any business is the financials. At the heart of NetSuite is the general ledger — and everything that encompasses the accounting-related activities of a company. Depending on your business, there are many functionalities that build on that general ledger, which help you increase profitability by cost savings, improved margins, and increased productivity.

NetSuite solution is delivered through a subscription model. The platform is based on a multi-tenant cloud system, meaning all users can run on the same software version and regularly and automatically receive updates.

Keeping with its model of flexibility, you are able to access NetSuite from anywhere through a web browser. As long as you have a secure internet connection, you can access NetSuite from your mobile phone, tablet, or laptop. This functionality empowers decision-makers with the ability to track the performance of their business enterprise from wherever and whenever.

In addition to availability and flexibility, NetSuite offers a broad range of functionalities, and the real-time dashboards provide you with the following:

• Engaging visual reports
• Insights into forecasting
• Profit and cost analysis
• Inventory/warehouse management
• Numerous customisable features

Moreover, the dashboards have drag-and-drop functionality, and all the tools you need to run your business are in one place. So personalising is as easy as dragging and dropping charts, graphs, tables, and other metrics. All other dashboards in NetSuite have the same ease of access and use.

If you need more info on personalising NetSuite and the benefits of customisation, our experienced NetSuite developers and product managers at WEBO Digital would be delighted to help you! Just reach out to us for a friendly chat.

A Brief History of NetSuite

NetSuite is an ever-evolving system, and it’s also an ever-evolving company. To borrow the words of Carl Sagan, “You have to know the past to understand the present.” So here’s a brief overview of the historical developments that’ll help you know where NetSuite is today and where it’s likely to be in the future.

Founded in 1998 as NetLedger, NetSuite initially focused on bookkeeping and accounting. The system quickly grew to support many functionalities and took Software as a Service (SaaS) and Cloud computing to the next level. The company added extensibility to the product’s core by leveraging the internet and making the application accessible to everyone. They also laid the foundation for a unified software solution that’d later replace many disjointed systems that many companies were using back then.

Evan Goldberg, who had previously worked for Oracle, started the company with Larry Ellison. As the company grew, so did the headcount — and they hired Jim McGeever and Zach Nelson as CFO and CEO in early 2000. It was in 2002 that NetLedger became NetSuite.

With strong leadership and rapid growth, the company went public in 2007, and annual revenue climbed from about $1.35 million to nearly $1.35 billion. In 2016, Oracle acquired NetSuite for $12.5 billion, and the company has been growing steadily ever since.

It’s evident that NetSuite is a company with a rich history of expansion and growth — and understanding its historical development helps you get a complete view of the system and know where it’s going. [In addition, NetSuite’s Wikipedia page contains more valuable information, especially for history geeks!

Why is NetSuite Important?

NetSuite is the most-used business management software that can be configured to manage all of your business processes single-handedly. Today, an increasing number of businesses are using NetSuite for ERP, inventory/warehouse management, tracking financials, controlling CRMs, and hosting e-commerce websites.

Thanks to its undeniable reputation in this market space, there have been over 30,000 installations of NetSuite across companies of all sizes. Some of the factors that have influenced the growth of the software solution are discussed below.

Native Business Intelligence

NetSuite provides real-time business intelligence by giving you a complete spectrum of analytic tools to meet your business needs. The software solution is renowned for providing a 360-degree view of customer relationships or end-to-end business processes. That’s why it meets all business needs, from large to small.

Since NetSuite is a global product, it can make transactions in different countries and run a platform that’s available 24×7. In addition, NetSuite OneWorld provides functionalities that help your business manage subsidiaries all around the world.

Moreover, NetSuite is secure, scalable, and up-to-date.

Built-in Flexibility

Compared to other ERP systems available in the market, NetSuite is by far the most flexible — and thereby is highly customisable when it comes to unique configuration requirements. End-users have the liberty of personalising their dashboards and customising the reports, while business analysts, developers, and administrators have more flexibility in creating custom reports, forms, fields, codes, and workflows.

Perfect for Today’s World

Apart from that, NetSuite is designed for the way we work today — it’s mobile, visible, and integrated with social media. So no matter where you are, you can log in and get straight to work using NetSuite right away.

Also, NetSuite has relatively lower IT support and installation costs compared to other on-premise ERP solutions.

Secure & Reliable

NetSuite complies with many strict security standards. It has certifications and tools to help you meet your regulatory and compliance requirements. Oracle NetSuite is externally audited SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 standards and maintains ISO 27001 compliance.

The application/operational security of NetSuite checks and blocks unauthorised access, allowing its customers to use the software conveniently and securely. Additionally, a robust encryption system, role-based access control, and strong password policies make the platform secure and reliable. Besides that, other layers of security are added to it, including multi-factor authentication and IP-based restrictions.

By continuously monitoring and performing audits, NetSuite maintains a high level of security and reliability.

Product Overview

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

• NetSuite’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) offers you a modern and scalable solution to your business by streamlining all processes. In turn, this allows you to continue to focus on what’s important and work on new market opportunities. Also, the cloud ERP solution provides you clear visibility and control of your business, from financials to retail supply management, thereby allowing you to accelerate growth and remain competitive.
• Unlike the other on-premise and user-installed ERPs, NetSuite makes the information available readily from any corner of the world. Also, the limitless customisation lets you play with data in order to turn it into meaningful insights.

Global Business Management (OneWorld)

• NetSuite’s OneWorld is an integrated platform that can easily handle multiple currencies, taxation rules, and reporting structures across multinational subsidiaries. This will help you manage multiple subsidiaries, business units, and domestic and international departments from a single platform.
• Gaining visibility across geographies and ensuring compliance will give you a real-time outlook into your business’s financial and operational performances, all the while standardising core processes and managing risks.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• NetSuite’s CRM delivers a unified view of your prospects, customers, and vendors and provides real-time data to the sales and marketing teams. This, in turn, saves interdepartmental friction, drives sales, and enhances customer experience.
• In today’s business environment, you need to interact with your prospects and customers more often and more effectively. As per B2B Marketing, the average buying decision is made after a prospect has interacted with a company at least seven times! With NetSuite, you’ll be able to seamlessly communicate with your leads and manage quotes, orders, renewals, and support.

Human Capital Management (SuitePeople)

• SuitePeople is a human resource management platform that offers techniques for managing people and payroll more engagingly. As a result, your business will gain complete control over your HR processes: You can then streamline information regarding existing employees, new hires and employee onboarding, performance review, appraisal, payroll, and terminations.
• Apart from that, employees as end-users can request time-off, set goals, access organisational resources, and interact with each other. As a business owner, you can simplify payroll processing, redefine the employee experience, and find one solution to manage your global networks.

NetSuite Professional Services Automation (PSA)

• NetSuite’s PSA is a unified web-based solution that manages the entire bid-to-bill process of your business, including project management, accounting, timesheet and expense management, and data-driven analytics.
• Designed to serve your company’s growing needs, the PSA solution is easy to implement and maintain. With it, you can increase your organisation’s visibility and improve resource utilisation, thereby gaining control over your projects and driving profitability.

Omnichannel Commerce

• With NetSuite’s omnichannel feature, you can unify e-commerce, marketing, and POS — and deliver a consistently personalised brand experience across all channels. So whether you’re a B2C or B2B, you can provide a great shopping and service experience to your customers.
• Besides that, you can centrally manage orders from multiple channels, creating loyal customers who buy more and become brand advocates.

Business Intelligence and Analytics

• NetSuite’s business intelligence and analytics provide you with powerful built-in features that enable your business to discover unknown information and make critical decisions. You can then gain meaningful insights across multiple departments and subsidiaries and make decisions backed by accurate data.
• Pre-built and easily customisable, the real-time dashboards reduce the time needed to consolidate information so that you can measure and boost business performance. The embedded analytics also means you don’t have to rely on IT staff heavily, and you can make independent data-driven decisions.

Manufacturing and Inventory Management

• Suppose you manufacture and assemble goods and need real-time visibility for work orders and assemblies. In that case, NetSuite’s manufacturing and inventory management functionality will help you automate the paper process and improve accuracy.
• NetSuite allows you to manage all aspects of your manufacturing operations, from work order issues to purchase order verification. By forgoing manual processes of user-installed applications, you’ll be ensuring consistency and reducing inaccuracies.

Supply Chain Management

• Supply chain management is a crucial and complex part of your company’s operations. When manufacturing takes place across multiple locations, you need an effective way to communicate with distributors and suppliers. You can streamline these interdepartmental communications by adding custom quotes and a price list to your NetSuite’s supply chain feature.
• NetSuite displays your current and future inventory positions and helps you create and manage vendors, purchase orders, and receipts. You can also generate transfer orders between different subsidiaries’ locations. So no matter where your product is made, you’ll have full access to manufacturing information.

SuiteSuccess

• Good software should be easier to run and implement. To incorporate that tenet into software development, SuiteSuccess was developed. It follows the basic principles of “build, engage, consume, and optimise” and takes a holistic approach to domain knowledge and leading practices.
• With SuiteSuccess, you’ll have increased actionable insights and reduced reporting time and IT support costs.

Core Features of NetSuite

NetSuite offers a range of tools in one platform, enabling your business to maximise operational efficiency. Engineered for medium to large organisations, NetSuite is available as SaaS (Software as a Service), which reduces manual work, duplication of tasks, and costly errors.

Below are some of the core features of NetSuite to understand why this #1 ERP solution plays a pivotal role in accelerating business growth across all industries.

#1 – Automation

NetSuite makes it easy for businesses to automate their repetitive tasks, such as order processing, invoicing, and payroll management. Needless to say, automation reduces human effort and saves time, thereby producing error-free and valuable outcomes.

Data entered by an end-user is available throughout the organisation. For example, when a customer orders an item from an online store, an invoice and shipment details are automatically triggered. This will improve the business efficiency and the customer experience. Also, the company executives can automatically receive reports on cash flow or cost-benefit analysis.

#2 – Integration

Another prominent feature of NetSuite is its integrated platform. As a result, all the critical business, operational, and financial information is located in a single platform, which can be shared across the organisation in real-time.

Unlike the traditional ledger system, each functionality interacts with one another in NetSuite, making it easier for businesses to work together across multiple departments and locations. Besides that, NetSuite’s dashboard allows you to develop business intelligence by turning data into reports and insights — you and your company can make informed decisions based on such data-driven insights.

Through its API, NetSuite provides a world of possibilities in terms of its ability to ‘talk & work’ with other platforms and applications. This means data processed in NetSuite can easily be piped into your shipping software (for example), to trigger stock picking, print shipping labels, and send clients automated status updates on their orders. This information can then be synced to the client records in NetSuite.

#3 – Reporting

Reporting systems are as important as data analysis, especially to the board of directors and major stakeholders. NetSuite’s reporting feature enables companies to generate powerful reports by gathering a wide range of data and spinning them into actionable insights.

With customisable charts, graphs, and reports, you can understand the trends and patterns in your industry — and later work to optimise current operations or develop new plans to improve business results.

#4 – Accounting

At the heart of any business is the financials. In turn, financial management includes planning, organising, and controlling the funds effectively. NetSuite’s ERP accounting software features the ability to store and analyse financial data from all departments, in line with accounts payable, accounts receivable, and general ledger.

The software solution also helps you perform more complex tasks, such as cash management, tax information, revenue recognition, and fixed asset management. NetSuite understands the time value of money and decreases the time to close monthly financial statements.

#5 – Limitless Flexibility

Being the first cloud-delivered ERP solution, with a history of over 20 years, NetSuite comes with limitless flexibility. Moreover, unlike other on-premise software solutions hosted on the web these days, NetSuite doesn’t suffer from slow updates and limited scalability problems.

Since it can meet the business requirements across many industries, NetSuite can be easily customised to accommodate the processes through SuiteCloud apps and tools. So whether you’re a multi-national company with subsidiaries across the globe or a local business store with retail outlets, NetSuite can be moulded to meet your needs.

Implementation and Customisation

How can you implement NetSuite?

Users can be up and running very quickly with NetSuite’s ERP solution when compared to traditional systems. You don’t have to configure devices or install servers. All you need to do is browse the cloud service resources via the web.

NetSuite is implemented through SuiteSuccess methodology that’s engineered to solve industry problems with an agile approach. SuiteSuccess comes with four key pillars, and they’re described below.

Build

Built with RESTlet and Suitelet by creating scripting records, NetSuite provides an overall solution to your business problems. In addition, NetSuite uses SuiteScript, a scripting language built on top of JavaScript, while RESTlet and Suitelet make use of SuiteScript.

Developers can have custom SuiteScript executed on various events like beforeSubmit and afterSubmit. In addition, RESTlet can be used when building APIs that can be used in another application. In contrast, Suitelet is used along with NetSuite server widgets to create native-looking HTML pages.

WEBO Digital has a team of highly experienced NetSuite developers and quality assurance engineers who will work to meet your business requirements — and help custom develop your existing NetSuite ERP platform to work better for you and your business.

Engage

NetSuite consists of leading practices for each industry. With its powerful KPIs, dashboards, and metrics, you have the flexibility to personalise your NetSuite platform from the very beginning.

What makes NetSuite stand out from other ERP systems in the market is its level of engagement and customisation features. From initial sales contact to ongoing support, NetSuite offers great value at each stage of engagement.

Consume

Companies can consume and leverage their capabilities based on their business models. NetSuite’s consumption model drives time to value, yields better ROI, and creates greater user adoption.

That means, with NetSuite’s intelligent staged approach, companies can grow from zero to cloud in 100 days.

Optimise

With continuous engagement, customers can significantly benefit from NetSuite’s optimisation features. Also, they can make the best use of their time by keeping themselves abreast of NetSuite’s updates and releases.

With every new feature release, more value is added to SuiteCloud. Besides, customers are always up-to-date on the latest developments and growth.

Customising NetSuite

With NetSuite’s cloud solution, you can tailor and expand the system’s capabilities to meet your business needs. As a result, you have the flexibility of meeting the shifting business standards, and there’s no risk of version lock as customisation gets carried over with each upgrade.

NetSuite developers at WEBO Digital can help you extend or customise your NetSuite solution to better support your business. Our developers have extensive expertise in NetSuite’s customisation platform, Suiteflex, and we’ve built and implemented many SuiteScripts, RESTlets, and Suitelets across a wide range of industries.

That means we offer robust customisation of the NetSuite ERP to meet your business requirements.

Costs & Benefits of NetSuite

So how much does NetSuite cost?

To answer that question, you must first understand how the license structure works. Your NetSuite licencing is based on three factors.

1. The number of employees in your company (that will need to use NetSuite in some measure)
2. Employees who need full user and self-service licenses
3. Number of legal entities or subsidiaries you have

Based on your answer to these three questions, you will be able to determine a price point. Remember that the base license costs $1,345 per month, with additional costs based on the number of users and modules in use.

That means the pricing varies as per your company’s needs. Also, the ERP configuration, add-on modules, the number of users, and the contract period contribute to the cost.

NetSuite licensing is subscription-based, and it can be renewed annually. If you want to get a range of your NetSuite pricing based on the above factors, you can use Protelo’s NetSuite Cost Calculator.

Some Considerations

While NetSuite ranked as the #1 ERP system for 2021, it still has some aspects that need to be considered when evaluating if it is the right fit for you. The first is, of course, the pricing!

Compared to other ERP systems available in the market, NetSuite is relatively expensive — and with its personalised pricing, the costs will vary for each company. NetSuite’s pricing comes between Odoo and Brightpearl, two other ERP solutions with high demand.

As it’s primarily focused on medium-sized and enterprise-level businesses, small-sized organisations aren’t necessarily the best fit for Oracle NetSuite. Furthermore, with a base price of $1,345 per month, plus an additional $133 per user, NetSuite is likely too pricey for start-ups.

Yet, there’s no doubt that NetSuite is functionally top-notch.

Although NetSuite is the leading ERP system in the marketplace, this product might not be the best choice for you if yours is a small start-up with limited resources. But, even then, there’s no replacement for one unified software that draws insights into operations and runs your entire business single-handedly.

Conclusion

There you have it — a complete guide on NetSuite, its relevance and importance, and the ways of implementing the software solution for your business.

So you’re probably thinking “it all sounds great in theory, but . . . I just want to give NetSuite a try for myself” 

WEBO Digital looks forward to helping you customise your existing NetSuite to get the most out of the ERP solution. By doing so, we want to ensure that your NetSuite aligns with your business requirements and adds value to your overall business growth.

Furthermore, we provide expertise-driven NetSuite development services, and our NetSuite custom development comes with guaranteed support, ensuring that your tailored NetSuite solution remains future proof.

For more info, you can book a discovery chat with us to discuss your NetSuite custom development requirements, as we’d be more than happy to help you!