How NetSuite best practices deliver a better, faster implementation

Here’s one for you: How many business owners look forward to an ERP upgrade or implementation?

You know the answer, of course, because it is precisely NONE. ERP is hard. Doing ERP well is really hard. It’s also risky, demanding, complex and downright scary. And all of that is exactly why NetSuite has developed the SuiteSuccess best practice methodology for a rapid, problem-free (I’ll come back to this) and high-performance ERP implementation, every time.

The challenges involved in implementing an ERP solution are well known. After all, ERP affects every part of your business, it generally takes a long time for appropriate configuration and alignment of business processes, and all the while you must also maintain ‘business as usual’ using your existing systems and processes. And with ‘go live’ comes a whole new bag of issues, as your people must now accustomise themselves to new ways of working.

So, what is NetSuite’s SuiteSuccess, and how does it address these omnipresent ERP challenges?

Primarily, this is an implementation methodology that draws on proven experience in delivering systems for companies around the world. With these leading practices as a foundation, it means implementations are broadly standardised, which results in a far faster delivery.

Now, you may have had an alarm bell going off on reading the above sentence, and that is fair enough. It is a reality of business today that in many instances, even companies in the exact same vertical can have vastly different processes for doing even the basics, like supply chain management, finance, or operations. This happens for multiple reasons, some of which are good, and some of which are, well, the result of the force of having to make compromises owing to a mishmash of legacy systems.

The thing is, when you are at the point of upgrading to a new ERP solution, you are quite likely looking to bypass that mishmash (often described as a bowl of spaghetti, for good reason) and get things done more efficiently. That’s why Business Analysts often get involved on the front end of the implementation, examining, re-engineering and optimising processes. You really don’t want to implement your shiny new ERP, then bend and buckle proven and standardised ways of doing things so it matches the processes of the systems it replaces.

What that boils down to is precisely what it sounds like. With the SuiteSuccess methodology, your NetSuite implementation is largely standardised. With standardisation comes repeatability, predictability and those best practices baked directly into the software and the configuration.

Note that this doesn’t preclude any customisation. But it does mean a very strong focus on avoiding customization unless absolutely necessary.

As seasoned providers of ERP solutions, we know that for some businesses, how you do something is an integral part of your value proposition, perhaps beating out competitors who do the same thing. In other words, in these cases, the process is part of generating value and competitive advantage. In these instances, customisation makes perfect sense (in fact, it is plain necessary).

But for a good number of other businesses, perhaps yours, there’s no advantage in customisation, particularly as it applies to standard modules within your ERP – for example, General Ledger, Accounts Payable, and so on.

This is where SuiteSuccess really hits the mark. Instead of reinventing the wheel for every implementation by starting with a blank slate, SuiteSuccess draws on more than 3000 hours of implementation experience coalesced into a framework resting on documented leading practices.

By starting with a preconfigured system tailored to your industry, you get a business-ready system far faster, and at a greatly reduced cost. That, of course, means reduced overhead in terms of the time and effort required from your company and people, reduced risk of misconfiguration or thorny customisations, and faster time to value.

Just how does SuiteSuccess work, in practice? We take a phased approach.

• The first step, Establish, is all about making sure you have complete visibility into your financials. This means eliminating spreadsheets and manual processes that are often associated with human error as well as incorporating real-time metrics and reporting. From our experience in the sector, we know just how difficult it is to operate without this visibility. Moving a business to a real-time platform so all departments are operating from a unified base is critical. Additionally, Multi-subsidiary management helps multiple locations and subsidiaries streamline operations and gain real-time consolidation at the local, regional and headquarter levels within a single system. This helps you develop standard business processes and deploy them across divisions and subsidiaries at the click of a button; all while meeting critical compliance requirements and gaining better performance data.

• At the Elevate step, we help bring transparency and consolidation to your processes. This may include integrating cash flow and budget management, streamlined procurement and support for projects all ensuring better cost control through improved visibility and planning capabilities.

• From there, at the Expand step, you are freed from the constraints of legacy systems and are ready to tackle more complex requirements including integration expansion, project management organisations, global operations and book management, and advanced compliance requirements. Global compliance functionality helps mitigate risk for companies operating with multiple entities while continued unification of business data improves financial transparency and helps eliminate revenue leakage.

• Once financial operations are optimised, you’re looking to take your business to the next level. In the Accelerate & Dominate phases, you can focus on improving things like customer experience and identifying new areas of profitability. With integrated marketing, self-service modules and eCommerce capabilities, you have a 360-degree view of your customers and can develop new business models based on comprehensive data.

• The Evolution phase is a way to grow and expand one step at a time.

The big question is always, ‘how long will it take’. The answer is difficult, because you may as well ask ‘how long is a piece of string’, as every implementation is different. However, with NetSuite packaging nearly two decades of experience from thousands of deployments into SuiteSuccess, we know it delivers rapid business value. Rapid? In most cases, we can get you from zero to cloud in 100 days or less.

Learn more about SuiteSuccess here, and give us a call to discuss if SuiteSuccess is suitable for your business.