It is no news that NetSuite ERP is a highly adopted cloud solution globally. Close to 36000 businesses worldwide are presently benefiting by way of streamlined processes as we read this blog. This also goes to say that NetSuite ERP is practically growing with these businesses. It is important for your enterprise solution to quickly respond to business opportunities through perfectly coordinated processes that are guided by industry best practices. Therefore, managing and supporting your NetSuite ERP with time is as important as the initial implementation.
Once up and running, businesses can manage their NetSuite ERP with their in-house IT team, or they may approach a NetSuite Solution provider to support them with their NetSuite managed services. In the latter case, the onus of managing the entire NetSuite ERP infrastructure is upon the partner. This leaves the company to focus on business and growth, rather than managing the technology. The status quo with your NetSuite ERP will be disturbed under a few business situations. You may be encountering operational challenges such as lower project profitability, supply chain disruptions, instability in cross-functional processes, and so on. If not challenges, maybe your organization is at major business altering milestones like newer geographies, merger or acquisition, IPO, or the like. Either way, as the business evolves, there would be only a rise in the need to streamline operations, exercise controls, and extend capabilities. And it is at this point that you may find your business in need of an expert NetSuite support services provider.
NetSuite support services can be termed as the range of services offered to minimize the gap between an organization’s optimal solution and the actual solution. Support services are defined, and time-bound.
NetSuite support services may comprise a range of services like production support, optimization, integration, customization, and development. The best NetSuite support service providers will ideally be following an ITIL-based methodology.
Deployment of ERP is the start of the transition phase for the users and business at large. Post-implementation support is key to fostering further adoption by users and avoiding relapses in technology orientation.
System Adjustments: NetSuite post-implementation support is a prerequisite for nurturing smooth adoption, by way of analyzing feedback and making system adjustments based on the same.
Development & Training: There could be requirements for additional development and configuration at this point. User training is a considerable part of this post-implementation support.
Fixing Bugs/Customer Requests: Services like online or ticket-based case submissions, with non-critical and critical access, are key here. Tickets could be raised for user queries, incorrectness in forms, adding new fields to the form, or even adding new functionalities, all altogether. This support would also include bug-based concerns, which are largely handled at the NetSuite implementation partner level, or occasionally may include connecting with the OEM on the customer’s behalf to address the matter. Either way, a good NetSuite implementation partner would be equipped to serve such requests as part of their NetSuite production support services.
Optimization services are basically to make the most out of your NetSuite platform. A well-planned NetSuite health check with a good NetSuite implementation partner is the starting point to optimizing your NetSuite.
The NetSuite health check involves business process and configuration review, identifying improper and stale configurations, manual intervention points, unused features, and other issues that are coming in the way of 100% utilization of your ERP. An ERP health check effort must be followed up with optimization services to respond to all the gaps and concerns that were identified in the NetSuite health check.
These services include modifying setups and configurations and managing custom workflow, scripts, and data. NetSuite optimization services also involve improving dashboards, reports, and processes, enabling advanced features in modules, and designing ideal training paths, and process modifications.
NetSuite integration is one area where you need the right kind of expertise. It is common for businesses to use on-premise applications, either in-house-built or third-party cloud software for certain processes. Usually, these solutions are tailor-made to the company’s unique process and may have been in use for a considerable time. In such cases, migrating to the same mapped process in NetSuite ERP is generally transitionary over time. Till such time, companies would look at integrating such external applications into NetSuite ERP to maintain a single source of truth.
Although NetSuite comes with inbuilt integration tools, however enabling them needs functional as well as technical expertise. An ideal NetSuite solution provider will study your ecosystem and advise you on an implementation roadmap, involving integrating the cloud or on-premise stand-alone applications.
NetSuite Integration with External Logistics System: Integration for data transfer including sales orders, purchase orders, customer lists, vendor lists, items lists, sales invoices, and vendor bills from an in-house built third-party logistics application to NetSuite for data consolidation.
NetSuite Integration with Warehouse Management System: A two-way integration to fetch purchase orders from NetSuite to a noted warehouse management system and in turn receive Goods Received Note from the warehouse management system to NetSuite.
NetSuite Integration with 3PL Parties: Integration of third-party logistics partner’s order management booking system with NetSuite for transferring Purchase orders via SFTP.
NetSuite Integration with External Demand Planning System: A two-way integration involving sending customer master, item master, vendor master, and sales transactions to an AI-enabled third-party application for demand planning through API integration. In turn, the demand plan based on the above-mentioned information is sent back to NetSuite.
Oracle NetSuite ERP is designed based on industry best practices and it typically would meet the requirements as it is. However, customers may like to mold their NetSuite instance to be in sync with their business’s specific requirements. Such requirements are attended to through NetSuite customization services. Development, on the other hand, pertains to technical work like report development. For instance, a requirement of building validity in the forms like address being made mandatory. NetSuite is designed on a unified data model. This same code built throughout the entire system makes customizing and development of add-ons, easier and more secure.
Workflow Customization: SuiteFlow is used to design workflows to your business’s needs, like automating approvals, transactions, or records. Complex workflows with multiple stages and actions can also be implemented, post which the stages are tracked in NetSuite’s workflow log.
User Interface & Data Relationships: Personalizing UI to make mission-critical business applications, user-friendly. Using custom records, database tables can be added, which would interact with objects like customers or records for explaining relationships.
Process Configuration: The company and process can be personalized and configured with Suite Builder based on the requirements.
List, Record & Field Customization: List customizations include commonly offered customizations like list, record type, transaction type, transaction line fields, and item fields. Custom records are customizable building blocks that help in creating custom fields and connecting them to other NetSuite records and transactions.