A Bit of Background – Who and What Is NetSuite?
NetSuite is actually a brand as well as an ERP platform with corporate headquarters in San Mateo, California. Among the products released by NetSuite are those that function in:
NetSuite have taken the lead in cloud based ERPs and have, to date, more than 40.000 companies working with their solutions, and that number is growing by the day here as well as abroad.Financial Management ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) CRM (Customer Relationship Management) E-commerce PSA (Professional Services Automation)
How a Platform like NetSuite Benefits Your Business
Before going into any tips for increasing productivity with NetSuite, it is important to understand what this one platform can do for your company. It is a web-based set of solutions that enable you to manage your business through one remote server on which the platform is located. You can manage your financial affairs, your manufacturing, HR, customer relations and even integrate your own ecommerce solution to the NetSuite platform.
There are integrations that bring your eBay and Amazon storefronts to NetSuite so that you can micromanage everything right from one place and you don’t even need to go into the cost of buying and maintaining a huge mainframe with software to do so! You are simply going to rent space, become a tenant as it were, in the cloud on your chosen NetSuite server. The benefits? They could be listed as ease of use, cost effectiveness and productivity. The key benefit here is productivity and that’s why you should really consider the following tips.
Let’s Play to Make It Pay!
What many businesses are finding to be the very best tip of all is to learn how to use tools like NetSuite Sandbox to play with functionality before going live. Whether you are already using NetSuite or setting it up to go live, you can test all your integrations and functionalities before they go live in your cloud based platform. Whether you use it in conjunction with Salesforce, making it accessible to customers in your ecommerce store or are simply testing functionality within the different role-based levels of access you set up, you can test everything even while the main platform is operational.
Also, when you upgrade, those features go live with the integrations you’ve installed at the very same time. It’s brilliant really, and perhaps the one tool you need to learn when using NetSuite if you expect to scale up as your company grows.
Clearly Define Your ‘Roles’
When setting up the system for the very first time, it is necessary to clearly define your roles within your organization. One of the most awesome features of NetSuite is that is a role based platform in which users can only access those areas you give them permissions for. However, this will take some clear thinking on your part because you may want to limit the information and data each department can access.
As an administrator, you are privy to everything on the system and can set functions and access as needed, but be very careful about who you give this capability to because in the wrong hands, you can have data wiped out at the click of a mouse!
A Solid Schedule of Backing up Data
This brings us to the fact that you need to take the bull by the horns and be responsible for backing up your own data. Yes, you can back it up in the cloud and NetSuite has that functionality and can also be integrated with even stronger backup and security protocols if necessary, but ultimately you are responsible for setting those controls.
Be aware of the fact that the software is located on the main server. The platform and all the software along with the disk space you will be renting is considered to be your piece of real estate in the cloud. You are a tenant there among dozens of others renting that virtual office building in the sky and although your NetSuite server has advanced state-of-the-art security, it is up to you to limit access within your own organization! Another company can’t get into your office, in the cloud, but if you give access to someone in your organization, they can inadvertently wipe out all that data. Back up, back up and back up again. Truer words were never spoken.
Putting These Tips Together
So then, once you understand just how cost effective NetSuite is and what a powerful ERP and CRM it can be, you will understand just how much it can increase your ROI. There is no expensive software or hardware to buy and you virtually rent only that which is needed. It is scalable so you can add or reduce what you are using and you can play with integrations before making them live.
Even a decade ago, NetSuite would have been every business man or woman’s dream. Today it is a reality and one of the most cost effective solutions you’ll find when it comes to managing your business. A cloud based solution which means you can even work from home, in a foreign country or en route if Wi-Fi is available. You won’t find a more productive business platform and once you have these tips down, you’ll wonder why you didn’t move to the cloud years ago. Oh, maybe because it wasn’t there! Aren’t you glad it is now?