A Guide on How NetSuite’s ERP Software Works
This webinar is the first of a two-part series. In this first part of the series, we’ll go over what you need to know about the NetSuite platform, including an overview of the different features, along with a quick demo showcasing user dashboard configurations for specific roles and industries. We’ll also cover some of the things to watch out for during a NetSuite implementation.
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NetSuite Walkthrough - The Right Tools For Every User Type
For your ERP solution to be as efficient as possible, a company needs to select the right ERP solution providing the right type of tool for every user. The user, for example, will require a UI built based on their needs with a dashboard that shows them the information they require. Your users will also need to be able to consume that information on many types of different devices, such as an iPhone, a tablet, or a computer. On the other hand, you’ll want to have the ability to configure business rules, build tables, and efficiently add fields to support your company's business processes.
Whether you have an internal developer team or not, they'll be glad to know that NetSuite integrates with the most common developer tools to provide you with the power to customize your instance. When it comes to the NetSuite administrator, having the tools to manage the security and the users will significantly improve the control that you have over access to the information within your enterprise and avoid employees creating transactions they should not have the ability to create.
As a CIO, you’ll get peace of mind knowing that your data is safe within the system and that any change done to any record within NetSuite can be tracked to the user that made it. For your partner, such as GURUSSolutions, SuiteCloud allows us to extend the capabilities of NetSuite and develop new applications for our customers.
To summarize, your user will be able to consume their data on any device they want. Your business analyst will be able to extend the feature of your NetSuite by creating workflows or adding extra tables to the database. Your developer would have a direct link with your NetSuite instance to customize it. Your administrator will have peace of mind knowing that they’re not version locked because of some customization and that they’ll be able to pass to the next release just as easily as the last one. And your CIO will be happy to know that your system is compliant and that it has a 99.99% uptime. And for us, your partners, we'll just keep providing you with applications to extend the features of NetSuite.
NetSuite Platform Benefits
NetSuite’s dashboard provides you with several features that make it a flexible, powerful, and complete platform. For your operation, the benefit of a modern ERP comes with all the security, scalability, and performance that you need. Not only does NetSuite come with a foundation to run your operation, it comes built-in with tools to either integrate to other systems, customize your instance, report on any data you may have within your instance, create workflows with a visual tool, and download bundles or other configurations from other people. These features from NetSuite allow your company to go global ― multi-country, multi-subsidiary, multi-currency ― you'll be able to manage your business however big it is. The actual cloud setup allows for reliable access from anywhere through a web browser, whether on a phone or a computer. No more printed piles of paper for each transaction, with a capability to manage your digital assets within NetSuite. Finally, collaborate and manage your employees using SuiteSocial, the human capital management add-on for NetSuite.
NetSuite’s Modules
Now, to make sense of all the modules NetSuite offers. NetSuite was initially built for five different verticals:
- Financial
- Retail and distribution
- Manufacturing
- Services
- Software
At GURUS, we know that all companies are different. We understand that a financial company will not use the same requirements as a manufacturing company or a software company. That's why at the beginning of every project, our NetSuite implementation consultants will sit with you to establish which modules are needed to better modulize your company in a NetSuite instance. Based on your enterprise, you'll need a different set of modules, and based on the set of modules, we’ll need to interview various stakeholders. For example, for financials, the CEO, CFO, and CIO are most likely the people we would be interviewing to mobilize your business better. For retail and distribution, we’d interview the CEO, for manufacturing the CEO, for services, it would likely be the VP of professional services, and for software, another different mix of stakeholders.
NetSuite Dashboard Walkthrough
During the following parts of the webinar, one of our cloud developers goes over the different roles within NetSuite, including CEO, CFO, controller, and purchasing and inventory manager. We’ll be looking at a NetSuite SuiteSuccess instance for the warehouse and distribution vertical and be logged in under some of the different NetSuite roles. We'll also be reviewing roles for warehouse operations and the controller role. It’s important to remember that NetSuite roles are configurable and that we can control which permissions are applied to which roles and which NetSuite dashboards are also configured for specific roles in SuiteSuccess. We have 13 pre-configured roles for the warehouse and distribution vertical but will only be reviewing three of these roles during the webinar.
During the NetSuite walkthrough, you’ll discover:
- Quickly adding or accessing a menu to easily create new records
- The help center, which is a self-service portal to find release notes, user guides, or just articles related to something you’re searching for. For instance, if you wanted to see the accounting preferences and how to configure those, you could just search “accounting'', find the article related to accounting preferences, and then NetSuite will lead you through the other related articles to find what you’re looking for
- Bookmarks list, which is configurable by the end-user
- Lists of centers that list out categories of different links in the system
- NetSuite’s dashboard titles for easy access links to reports
- NetSuite dashboard customization. For instance, changing the order of the portlets on the dashboard and how they appear, customizing dashboard trend graphs and tables
- Slicing and dicing data
- Looking at transaction records and how to inquire about the status of an invoice to see the relevant date and customer
- Getting a global view of where your inventory is and how to complete a purchase order
Key takeaways from the webinar:
- NetSuite is made for self-service by the end-user
- You can set your own preferences within NetSuite. For example, change how lists, reports, or tables appear on your NetSuite dashboard
- While NetSuite comes with standard reports, you can customize these, as well as add new features created by a partner like GURUS
- It’s easy to find what you need to, in multiple ways, in NetSuite
NetSuite Implementation
We end the seminar with a review of the NetSuite implementation process. The first thing we'll do is go through a scope and planning phase with you. Throughout that assessment, we'll be defining your company’s business requirements to mobilize your business in NetSuite. After the assessment, you’ll be presented with a preliminary solution, estimate a business requirement, document a project plan for the project’s scope and timeline, and a work breakdown structure determining who does what throughout the project. Once the assessment phase is over, we'll be doing some working sessions with your employees. That allows us to train your employees, as well as learn from your company's business processes. Following the working session, GURUS will start doing the data migration, as well as the customization or integration that can be done in parallel.
Throughout the customization, integration, and data migration, we'll be providing you with an action and risk log, a data migration plan, and a weekly status report from our project manager, along with a detailed requirement design document for any customization in your system. After that comes the testing of your NetSuite implementation and the training of your staff. We do that using some diverse test plans, as well as some user acceptance testing. Once we've completed our pre-go-live checklist, we'll go ahead and deploy units with implementations for go-live. This is not the end of the relationship with GURUS, as we'll continue to support you all the way to your first month and close, and then we'll assign an account manager for any subsequent initiatives.
How to Successfully Implement NetSuite
At GURUS, we have a unique process, which has been built over 14 years of knowledge and experience. This shows through the documentation and methodology used throughout the NetSuite implementation. To be flexible, we'll also provide you with a strategic phased approach. This will enable you to get control over what's implemented first, based on your priorities or timeline. Additionally, we have our own workshop methodology ― an ERP implementation without an idea of the extra weight added onto your team can be risky. Establish with us a strategy to balance that workload using our sherpa methodology. At GURUS, we have the expertise and skillset needed for a successful ERP implementation. Cloud computing allows both us and our customers to work from anywhere at any time. Clients from all over the world, with requirements from every industry. Transparency is another important factor in a successful implementation. With GURUS as your partner, you’ll get status reports throughout the implementation. That's going to allow you to keep track of the budget, the scope, and the timeline of the project.
With GURUS, you’ll be able to leverage SuiteSuccess industry-specific solutions. Take advantage of the SuiteSuccess solutions for pre-built workflows based on role-based leading practices for your industry. With SuiteSuccess, every instance comes with over 300 reports, dashboards, and other business intelligence tools from day one. This means that you’ll have a faster go-live because you won’t have to do those configurations and customizations, which means lower implementation costs for the same reason. It also gives you the opportunity to align your business with the leading practices in your industry.
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