5 questions to ask yourself to determine if NetSuite is the right solution for your business.
Today, technology can make or break a business. One of the most critical areas where software enables businesses in a big way is accounting and bookkeeping. Yet, horror stories of software decisions gone wrong are also the most common in the accounting sphere.
As businesses grow and mature, they naturally look for ways to upgrade their accounting system from Excel sheets or entry-level tools like QuickBooks. Sooner or later, they stumbled upon NetSuite–the global ERP leader in accounting and integrated business management.
Perhaps you too came across NetSuite–and are now wondering if it would be a good fit for you.
We hear you. You take your business seriously and wish to consider all aspects in a 360o manner before taking the call. Having acquired years of experience in almost all facets of NetSuite, we are here to help. In this blog, we have distilled our understanding of NetSuite into 5 key questions that you should ask yourself before opting in (or out) of NetSuite.
Ready to begin? Let’s hit the ground running!
#1 Is NetSuite aligned with your goals?
Nothing will impact your decision about NetSuite more than your current and future business goals.
Consider where you are right now and where you see your business in the next five years. Is it currently growing at breakneck speed, thereby making it hard for your existing accounting solution to catch up? Alternatively, do you have any plans to grow exponentially in the near future?
In both these cases, you might want to take NetSuite seriously. When you are gearing up for rapid growth, the last thing you want is to be held back by an inadequate accounting tool. Entry-level accounting solutions rarely match up to the kind of flexibility, scalability, and lightning-fast functionality that rapid growth demands.
A common mistake that many businesses make is to sign up for NetSuite keeping in mind only their short-term needs. This kind of oversight can lead to frustration later if NetSuite turns out to be a misfit for them in the long run. The long-term compatibility of NetSuite with your business is the key to deriving the maximum value and ROI from NetSuite. It depends on a wide range of factors such as–
- Budget: Whether the license and maintenance costs of NetSuite fit well within your accounting/IT budget at present as well as in the years to come.
- Resources: Whether you have and will continue to have various resources (human resources, IT resources, etc.) to maintain the usage of NetSuite in the long run.
- NetSuite Environment: Whether the implementation of various requirements, be it small or big, will impact the NetSuite environment of your business favorably.
Change Management: Whether your business is resilient enough to cope with the changes and transformations that will take place in your NetSuite environment.
#2 How easy will it be to implement NetSuite for your business?
Ease of implementation refers to the time, cost, and resources that will be consumed to implement NetSuite for your business. It will vary significantly based on how simple or complex your NetSuite requirements are.
The typical NetSuite Project happens in various stages–
- Discovery: Understanding your business requirements w.r.t NetSuite and mapping the key process areas.
- Design: Translating the business needs into NetSuite modules, features, configurations, and customizations.
- Development: Migrating all data, configuring NetSuite modules, and developing integrations and custom features.
- Testing: Testing the application at multiple levels from the developer and user perspective to check for errors.
- Training: Training, handholding, and enabling the user to use the application smoothly and get the desired results.
- Deployment: The project goes live and NetSuite is deployed across the organization as well as external entities, if applicable.
- Support: Maintenance and troubleshooting around the year for smooth and seamless user experience and the maximum ROI.
There have been instances where a client organization has come to us with minimal, standardized needs in which case the ease of implementation has been the maximum. NetSuite is implemented a lot faster for such clients as compared to those with a more complex set of needs.
#3 How well does NetSuite fit your budget?
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room!– Will NetSuite burn a hole in your pocket?
Well, no one in their right mind can say that NetSuite is cheap. This is especially true after the first couple of years. That’s when the discounted deal offered at the time of signing expires and the current prices kick in. NetSuite costs can also spiral if there are a lot of customizations or user additions.
Lastly, apart from the software costs, you will usually also need to hire NetSuite specialists like implementation partners, developers, training partners, etc., or join hands with an all-in-one NetSuite partner like BA Software. In either case, there are some added costs involved.
But there’s more to this than meets the eye.
Think about it in this way–what will be the opportunity cost of not opting for NetSuite? How much will you lose in the process due to delays, inefficiencies, errors, missing information, and lost productivity? If NetSuite brings more value in the long run than the costs associated with it, then it’s probably a good idea to go for it.
A NetSuite Project typically comes with the following costs–
- License Fee: This is usually cheaper for the first set of contracts, but note that as and when those contracts expire, prices are going to be hiked to match the current prices at the time of renewal. Hence, keep in mind that your NetSuite license is going to become more and more expensive as the years roll by.
- Implementation Costs: By default, longer implementations consume more time and costs. So whether you are opting for a quick implementation or a longer, full-fledged one, will mean a huge difference in your costs. Implementation costs will also vary based on whether you opt for an all-in-one implementation or decide to implement NetSuite for each legal entity separately.
- Adoption Costs: There are costs associated with making NetSuite acceptable, usable, and valuable to your current and future users, and those costs are clubbed under adoption costs. Again, these costs will vary depending on how many users need to use NetSuite and what kind of exposure they already have to the software.
When you are evaluating costs, don’t forget to consider the benefits you will get in return as well. A good way to validate if investing in NetSuite is worth it for your business is to see if its benefits outweigh the costs by providing better business insights and fostering seamless and timely decision-making.
#4 Are you ready to commit to the process?
Here’s some straight talk–the process of switching to NetSuite is time-consuming. It requires you to be available during all the crucial stages of the transition. The transition cannot go as planned without you going all in. Any NetSuite Project is a two-way street very much like a marriage, with resources and commitment required to flow seamlessly from both ends–i.e., the client (you, in this case) and your NetSuite Partner. Make sure you are ready for that kind of commitment.
Once the migration and implementation are completed, which could range anywhere from 2-6 months, there will be a training phase as well. Even after the training, it will probably take some time for you and your team to get the hang of things before you start seeing the results.
Hence, if you decide to opt for NetSuite, make sure that you time it right. Check your and your team’s availability and make adjustments to your regular schedule if need be. In the end, your NetSuite success will depend a lot more on you than on anyone else!
#5 What is so good about NetSuite?
So far, we have been asking questions that largely concern your business and its alignment with NetSuite. In the last question, we urge you to open up your mind to the new world of possibilities that NetSuite brings for its users!
In other words, what is so great about NetSuite?
Well, a lot of things, to be honest. But here are the top 5 things that come to our mind.
- Higher efficiency: Frankly, the amount of time, money, and resources that remain locked up in manual, decentralized business processes is astounding. Adopting NetSuite can unlock all that for a lifetime. Automation of business processes and dramatically reducing the time to decide has a compounding effect on the efficiency of your business that only gets better as the years go by.
- Greater visibility: NetSuite centralizes all the data of your organization and brings it to your fingertips. Why is this important? You need to be able to access data and insights on the fly to make your processes and outcomes more visible and auditable. With NetSuite, you gain pixel-perfect visibility across departments, processes, users, locations, and products/services.
- Growth enabler: Looking to grow? The bad news is that your wings will be clipped if your operations are scattered, manual, and unproductive. The good news is that NetSuite can help. With NetSuite, you can scale at the pace of the industry because its best-in-class automation and integrations make sure that you never have to look back. Growth is often accompanied by a rise in complexity, and nothing handles business complexity better than NetSuite.
- Improved collaboration: NetSuite saves you the trouble of fragmented communication by bringing all your stakeholders onto a single platform and creating seamless communication pathways between them. This is especially beneficial if there are a large number of external users that interact with your organization daily and need to collaborate effectively for better outcomes.
- Multilingual solutions: Lastly, if your operations extend beyond geographical and language boundaries, NetSuite can make life easier for you with its multilingual approach. All your users can benefit from using the application in their preferred language and making the most of it in the process.
Is Netsuite right for you? Schedule a one-o-one call today with us!
There you have it–the 5 key questions to ask yourself about NetSuite before making the switch. If you have any questions or comments about this article or wish to explore how we can help you with your NetSuite requirements, get in touch with us.
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