Too often, organizations accept marginal value from their NetSuite instance. The initial implementation begins as a basic project and limited adoption follows. Expertise is lacking, functionality isn’t implemented, and the project becomes an expensive reminder that change is hard. This common scenario means many companies have NetSuite, but continue to miss out on robust financial management, and are not achieving the ROI for a costly ERP system. So, how can you get more from NetSuite?
Learn from your implementation experience. To truly upgrade your NetSuite environment, treat your optimization project as the serious undertaking it is, and start realizing true value out of NetSuite.
Your first step to optimizing your NetSuite environment is partnering with an expert who can help you identify, prioritize, and implement impactful, lasting change.
Also read: A Beginner’s Guide to NetSuite Optimization: Pain Points, Use Cases, and a Roadmap
For a decade, the Services team at Charted has been a premier NetSuite-only Alliance partner. Our certified team of experts has guided companies in optimizing their NetSuite environment, alongside providing ongoing NetSuite support, and clearing the path for finance teams with financial automation solutions. With extensive technical NetSuite know-how and industry specialization in software, biotech, and manufacturing and distribution, Charted consultants help companies leverage NetSuite’s full capabilities and align their financial processes to evolving business needs.
“Charted has helped us through extensive updates, implementing mass changes and updates at a pace much quicker than we could have achieved on our own. We’re currently utilizing about 4 hours per month. If we didn’t have Charted support, we would be spending twice as many hours internally. We’ll still be utilizing Charted support and might even need to increase our support hours.” – Brandon King, Financial Controller, Service Compression
Read the case study here.
An optimization project overview
Charted employs a proven optimization process for NetSuite, one that starts and finishes with client goals. Starting off with important questions like:
- What needs to be fixed?
- How can manual tasks be automated and processes streamlined?
- Where can risk be reduced?
Ensuring these questions have been solved for is also a key mark of project success, measured in greater financial accuracy, efficiency, and productivity.
The scope and duration of an optimization project with Charted experts can vary, but most span 90 days. Here’s a breakdown of a typical project:
Meet the team
For a high-quality NetSuite optimization project, it’s essential to have the right people together at the onset. Depending on project type, client company size, and industry, this might include the CFO, controller, or finance department head(s) and members of the department that the project targets, like accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR), inventory managers, and others.
The Charted team will include a project sponsor who provides direction and motivation, resolves roadblocks, and promotes change, a senior solutions architect to handle NetSuite design, and a functional consultant to build process tools. A project manager will keep the entire project on time and within budget.
Define the project scope, methodology, and governance
With team members identified, project goals and scope can then be defined. Optimization project examples include process refinement (like AP, AR, or inventory management), an in-depth system health check, an acquisition integration, or deploying a new functionality. A budget is earmarked and communicated, and a timeline is agreed upon.
The project manager sets weekly 30-minute meetings to discuss updates, project milestones, and accomplishments. Roadblocks, issues, and risks are addressed, and the budget is continuously reviewed.
Analysis and documentation
Next, Charted consultants begin a thorough analysis of all the current steps surrounding the project target. The team will ask plenty of questions about the systems used and processes followed. They start with the big picture: what would you like to improve? And eventually drill down into the minutiae like who buys printer paper, and what is the process for getting that done? In an AP process improvement project, for example, consultants will ask about the details:
- What supplies do you purchase, and from who?
- Who has to approve purchases, and how is approval given?
- Do you keep an inventory?
- How is that inventory tracked?
- How do you onboard new vendors?
- How do you pay vendors?
- How do you track payments?
- What systems do you use, and who manages them? (Sharepoint, Box, Quickbooks, Bill.com, Coupa…)
Conclusion
It can seem like a lot of work to get an optimization project up and running, but in order for the full value of NetSuite to be realized, a project of this nature has to be undertaken with a high level of care and attention to detail.
In part two, we’ll discuss execution, go-live, and achieving a high degree of ROI.
