Buying, Using and Integrating NetSuite

Buying,

Using and

Integrating

NetSuite

This guide is meant to help business considering

implementing NetSuite.

Regardless of whether you’re a small business

implementing a CRM or EPR for the first time, or a

business who has been using CRM already and is

migrating to NetSuite – this guide is meant to review

the strengths and weaknesses of the NetSuite system.

The Guide is brought to you by Bedrock Data, Inc.

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Here is a rundown of the topics that we’ll be covering in the guide:

1. Ease of Use and System Design: How easy is the system to use for your

company’s users? What are the best features of this system, how do they work and what can they do for your team? This section includes a review of the data model.

2. Customization: Mainly we will look at custom fields and custom objects in

a particular system, as well as layouts. Everyone needs the almighty lead object, but after you’ve successfully implemented the standard system objects, what else can you create to represent your business?

3. Integration and APIs: Does the system have an API and how easy is it to

use? Are there available integrations for the system and will it be easy to incorporate existing product and business data into the system?

4. Automation: Automation refers specifically to lead assignment and

workflow rules. We’ll review these capabilities in each system and focus on ease of use of these features.

5. Pricing and Scalability: We’ll review the pricing and editions that the

system offers, including the flexibility you get and the pros and cons of certain editions the system offers.

6. Mobile: Short review of available mobile applications that exist for the

system, developed by the company themselves or by a third party. Focused on iOS and Android apps only.

7. Overall: Bottom line: how good of a system is this for your business and

should you go through with the purchase of this CRM system?

Want to skip ahead?

No problem! Here are the systems that we’re going to cover:

6 … Ease of Use and System Design

7 … NetSuite (CRM) Data Model

8 … Customization

9 … Integrations and APIs

10 … Automation

11 … Pricing and Scalability

12 … Mobile App Review

13 … Overall Takeaways

NetSuite was one of the pioneering SaaS business systems that really put cloud computing on the map. Before Larry Ellison invested in

Marc Benioff and Salesforce.com’s success, there was NetSuite, which also received Ellison’s backing: the company was founded in 1998 by Ellison and Evan Goldberg, and had an IPO in 2007, which was highly successful.

NetSuite is an entirely cloud-based ERP system. If you’re not familiar with ERP, it’s essentially a CRM with many other features and data objects built in. You can use an ERP like NetSuite to manage product inventory, shipping, accounting, product management, sales (CRM), marketing and more.

If you’re considering NetSuite for your business, be warned: it’s not a simple system, and unless you happen to have a NetSuite expert on staff, you’re looking at consulting fees for implementation help. You can’t just buy NetSuite, setup users and hand it off. NetSuite is extremely customizable, and to take full advantage of NetSuite, getting some assistance customizing it is a must.

The consulting model at NetSuite was clearly evident to us when digging into this system, as easy to find and digest documentation is not NetSuite’s strength.

The first time we started playing with NetSuite, it was difficult for us to find the different areas of the product. For example, the CRM

aspects of the NetSuite product are sort of hidden (“Lists ->

Relationships”), and opportunities aren’t located in the same section as Leads and Contacts (they’re in “Transactions”). You can

change/customize this of course, as you can with essentially all aspects of the system.

NetSuite makes heavy use of user roles, and you can customize these to suit your needs. Users can have multiple roles, and switch between them in the user interface.

Focusing on the CRM aspects of NetSuite, the data model is a bit different than the traditional CRM data models that we see in the other systems in this e-book.

Leads in NetSuite can have 2 separate types: Companies and Individuals. A “company” lead has contacts as child records underneath it. An “individual” lead does not.

B2B Companies: If you’re a B2B, then the first decision that you

want to make is whether to use the “Lead Conversion” feature or not. Lead Conversion will let sales reps “convert” leads into contacts and prospects (companies) once they’re qualified. We consider and recommend Lead Conversion for all B2B companies who want to implement and automate their lead flow. The other option is to simply create Leads as companies, with associated contacts.

B2C Companes: If you’re a B2C, then you will naturally want to

create “individual” leads, which will follow the typical lead stage down your sales funnel.

The (CRM) Data Model

Leads

Prospects

Contact

Opportunities

Customers

B2C Funnel

Leads

Prospects

B2B Funnel

Customers

“Conversion”

B2B companies using

NetSuite can choose

to use Lead

Conversion or not,

based on their sales

automation and

integration needs

.

B2C companies

will want to just

use the individual

lead types in

NetSuite is an extremely customizable system. Check out the “Customization” menu for access (admin required).

Fields: You can certainly add custom fields to NetSuite. In fact, there

are around 7 different types of custom fields that you can create (welcome to the land of ERP). For more information on creating custom fields in NetSuite, check out this blog post on the Bedrock Data blog.

Objects: NetSuite calls custom objects “records” in the system, and

you can certainly create custom record types under “Customizations -> Lists, Records, Fields --> Record Types.”

Forms: NetSuite forms are for entering data into NetSuite. These can

be for different types of records (leads, contacts, promotions, parts, etc…). You can create custom forms to make sure that data is entered correctly into NetSuite.

Scripts: NetSuite allows you to script against the system, using

custom code. You can use these scripts to perform tasks and setup integrations:

NetSuite has a SOAP API, but the WSDL file we found to be

essentially un-usable, so not very helpful unless you want to roll with your own XML.

NetSuite also provides API and integration options through “RESTlets” and SuiteScript (as well as “Suitelets”) explained here:

SuiteScript API and Suitelets: This provides a way to manipulate

the NetSuite user interface (NetSuite Pages), in order to customize your internal NetSuite instance. You can use Suitelets to build custom workflows, build unique custom pages, add UI elements to existing pages and much more.

RESTlets: RESTlets are pieces of JavaScript code that allow you to

interface with the SuiteScript API using REST-ful methods (GET, POST, DELETE, etc…). You can load RESTlets into NetSuite and then deploy them in order for the code to be executed via a URL. If you’re looking for a NetSuite integration, or a straight REST-ful NetSuite API for your own internal use, talk to us!

Integrations and APIs

Workflows: NetSuite Workflows are located under “Customization

-> Scripting -> Workflows.” You can use NetSuite Workflows to

automate certain processes in NetSuite, such as lead assignment to sales reps, sending marketing emails, creating new opportunities, and much more. NetSuite workflows work a lot like workflows in other systems, where you have triggers and actions. The workflow will fire when the conditions are met, and the actions will be

executed thereafter.

Here’s a screenshot of a NetSuite workflow that is assigning a lead to a user based on their geographic location:

Lead Assignment: Like with any other CRM system, automated

lead assignment is an essential part of automation for your sales team. In NetSuite, you can assign leads using Sales Territories, which will assign records based on their geographic region. You can also do this with a Workflow, if you want to use other fields besides state/region to assign leads.

NetSuite’s pricing is not readily available on their website, in fact they have pretty strict rules about not advertising their pricing (they forbid their partners from advertising it also). Luckily, some kind soul added a NetSuite pricing table on Wikipedia – it’s from 2007, so probably

not accurate, but does provide a guide for what you’re looking at (essentially $99/user/month):

So the good news is that NetSuite is fairly cheap for its base pricing, but they make their money on all of the little add-ons in the system that you may need as your company scales over time.

For what you get though and all you can do with NetSuite once it’s implemented and rolled out, NetSuite is a great value. It will scale with however big your growth plans are: you won’t need to switch systems once you have NetSuite implemented.

NetSuite’s iOS mobile app is pretty robust and easy to use. There is a lot of functionality built into the app, which is a great thing for any user. You can add new records (of essentially any record type), edit records (including all related fields, like Addresses, Companies, Marketing Campaigns, etc… on a particular record). You can also view

dashboard reports (KPIs and such) on the mobile app dashboard. Another unique thing about the NetSuite app, is that you can

customize the layout of the data, right from within the app, which is ahead of the curve for business mobile apps, but fits NetSuite’s overall “customize anything and everything” mantra.

The Android app by NetSuite is called “OpenAir” and only appears to support Timesheets and Expense Reports – look for a new version more along the lines of the iPhone app in the near future.

Mobile App

App Store Ratings: iPhone: 2/5 Stars Android: 2/5 Stars

Notes: These iPhone app

reviews appear to be based on an older version of the app. Note that there are many other 3rd _{party Android}

apps that we didn’t test with some higher reviews.

NetSuite isn’t a CRM, it’s an ERP – be clear about that distinction. Many companies use NetSuite for CRM, but also use lots of other features around their ERP as well. If you’re considering NetSuite for your CRM needs, make sure that you can make use of it’s other features as well (finance for instance), before you purchase the system.

NetSuite’s CRM features specifically are adequate, though the UI is a little clunky (there is a new UI release coming out right around the time of this writing, so that will hopefully change). The old UI feels a bit like a web application from 1999.

As I’ve mentioned throughout this guide, NetSuite’s best feature is its flexibility and customization. Just know that this comes with a pretty steep learning curve, which means implementation fees and potential training and consulting for your users – it’s not an easy or intuitive system to understand right out of the box.

Overall, our experience with NetSuite, as well as working with many NetSuite clients over the years have been positive.

The general feeling we get is that sales and marketing reps don’t love using NetSuite, finance, IT and Ops reps love it.

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