What is NetSuite ERP and How Can It Help Your Organization?

If you are considering implementing an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) suite or migrating to a new one, you almost certainly have heard of NetSuite. It is one of the market's most powerful and flexible solutions today. But if you are unfamiliar with the platform, fear not! In this guide, we will tell you everything you need to know about Oracle's NetSuite so you can determine whether it's right for your organization.

What is Netsuite ERP?

NetSuite is the number 1 cloud-based ERP and business management platform with more than 30,000 business users worldwide across various industries. The platform offers a suite of tools and interfaces that help businesses streamline their business operations, inventory, accounting, customer data, finances, and more, all in one place. In addition, NetSuite makes the tedious tasks of managing spreadsheets obsolete by giving you improved control, visibility and agility. 

Google's Larry Ellison co-founded NetSuite in the late 1990's (at the time, the company was called NetLedger) as a tool that could help streamline and connect all components involved in running a business. In 2016, Oracle acquired NetSuite for 9.3 billion dollars, and it has been rapidly growing and improving ever since. 

One of the benefits of using Netsuite ERP is that it is entirely flexible and customizable to meet your specific business needs. Restructure the interface and create custom functions, forms, and more so it best suits your organization.

Want to learn more about NetSuite's specific products, features, and benefits? We go through each of these in the following sections.

What Products are a Part of NetSuite

NetSuite offers various products designed to target a different component of your business, from finance to operations to customer and employee relations.  

Financial Management

Manage your general ledger, track accounts, and submit invoices all in one place. The financial management tool also allows you to easily create financial reports—including real-time currency conversion.

Planning and Budgeting

Create company budgets and forecasts at the click of a button. The planning and budgeting feature simplifies the statistical and analytic work involved in thinking ahead by leveraging statistical models that run on the backend. 

NetSuite Billing

SuiteBilling allows you to manage invoicing and billing in one place without the added complexity. It supports almost every billing model you can think of, including usage-based, subscription, transaction, and more.

Global Business Management

The Global Business Management product allows you to manage your multinational organization in one interface. In addition, this tool takes into account currency conversion, tax laws, reporting requirements, and more to make it easier to work with your overseas entities.

Inventory Management

NetSuite allows commerce businesses to manage and track inventory in real time. It manages cycle counts, alerts you when stock is running low, and more. 

Order Management

Track and manage the entire life of an order—from the moment it's placed to the time it's delivered and even returned with NetSuite's order management tool.

Procurement

With the Procurement product, you can manage vendor relationships, collect quotes, monitor spending, automate purchase orders, and more. 

Warehouse Management System

Track your inventory in even more detail with the NetSuite Warehouse Management System (WMS). This product can run on your mobile device and can help you manage everything from order picking to return authorization.

Manufacturing

If you build your own products, the manufacturing tools can help you improve quality, reduce costs and get products in your customers' hands quicker. Plan and schedule production resources, manage supplies and parts, and more. 

Demand Planning

Plan for seasonality and shifts in customer demands with the NetSuite Demand Planning function. 

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

Manage customer data with ease in one place. Manage leads, quotes, and sales and use advanced analytics to forecast future sales and track historical behavior.

SuiteCommerce

Create omnichannel shopping experiences by connecting all transactions and visits across various channels and locations. Now customer and payment information can seamlessly be passed from one experience to another. This product also includes various extensions that allow you to customize it for your business. 

Payroll

Automate most of your payroll operations by calculating earnings, dedications, taxes, PTO, bonuses, overtime, and more. 

HR

NetSuite offers an HR system that allows you to manage employee information, conduct new-hire onboarding, manage time-off-request, facilitate performance reviews and so much more. 

PSA (Professional Services Automation)

With NetSuite's professional service automation, service companies can manage projects and resources, billing, and time and expenses in one place. 

Analytics

Finally, NetSuite allows users to create custom reports and dashboards leveraging all data within the platform. This can help company leaders and stakeholders see trends, performance and projections in whichever way suits them. 

Benefits of Netsuite

NetSuite ERP can help you easily manage and monitor all aspects of your business. But the benefits of the platform don't end there. Some other highlights are listed below:

Store all your information in the cloud

The days of on-premise data management are behind us. Say goodbye to the headache of server management and upkeep and the risk that all of your data can be lost. NetSuite has a dedicated team that works around the clock to ensure your data is safe, secure, and accessible for your team.

Integrate with your favorite tools

NetSuite comes with various native integrations, so you can easily work it into your tech stack.

Develop your own applications

NetSuite supports JavaScript application programming so platform administrators can build new applications and processes to better suit your needs.

Automate your internal processes

With NetSuite's automation functionality, you can automate otherwise monotonous or time-consuming processes. 

Monitor performance

See all areas of your business come together with state-of-the-art data visualization and performance analytics. 

How Much Does NetSuite Cost?

As you can see, the benefits that NetSuite can offer your company are almost endless. However, if it piques your interest, you may be wondering how much NetSuite ERP costs to use. As with most ERPs, the price of NetSuite differs vastly based on your specific organization and its unique set of needs and requirements.

According to this study by Business News Daily, typical pricing starts around a $999 per month licensing fee plus a $99 per-user fee. However, most small businesses spend around $3,000 per month to use the platform. Expect this cost to rise if you plan to use more features—for instance, if you intend to use the ERP and CRM, you can expect your monthly cost to be closer to $15,000. 

Advantages of Switching to NetSuite ERP

If you are considering implementing NetSuite as your next ERP, it's one of the best options available on the market. NetSuite's tools are robust, flexible and customizable. Compared to other ERPs, NetSuite takes the lead on the number of features and the overall functionality. As a result, anything you could possibly want in an ERP can be a reality with NetSuite. 

While its vast library of features certainly gives it its luster, some other advantages are that it updates in real-time and can work seamlessly with other functions and departments. Additionally, NetSuite provides exceptional customer service with 24/7 real-time support. They provide access to a library of FAQs. Still, They are happy to connect you with a helpful and friendly representative at any time. 

Disadvantages of Switching to NetSuite

While NetSuite offers you just about every capability under the sun, this comes with some drawbacks. For starters, NetSuite is quite a bit more expensive than alternative ERPs because you are paying for its added functionality. However, if you are a smaller organization, you may not need all of the bells and whistles that justify the price tag. 

Similarly, with all of the functionality and features, implementing and using the platform can be unnecessarily complex for businesses that only need a basic ERP. 

Who is NetSuite Best for?

For all the reasons listed above, NetSuite makes sense for any medium to large-size organization with various departments and moving parts to manage and stay on top of. Generally speaking, if you use various software applications, are wasting unnecessary data entry and management resources, or are using on-premise software applications, it is worth considering making the switch. 

How to Implement NetSuite 

Given all of its unique features, capabilities and integrations, you may be wondering what it takes to actually implement NetSuite into your tech stack. Migrating from one ERP to another is no easy feat, especially when NetSuite is involved. Fortunately, Entartes can manage the integration for you and your organization.

We have years of experience getting new clients onboarded with NetSuite and can help your organization do the same. We can integrate NetSuite with all of your existing software and tools, migrate your data from your old ERP to NetSuite, and can help your team get onboarded. In addition, we work with you and your team every step of the way to make sure the software and the implementation are aligned with your unique business needs. 

If you're thinking about making the switch to NetSuite, contact us to learn more about the implementation process and get a quote.