Audaxium Blog

If you’re thinking of implementing a new business system you’re probably wondering just who is going to do all the work to get it going.  No matter the system, it’s never a trivial task to implement new things.  Given the varied nature of the work here are some things to consider before you get down to business.

Find a Generalist

NetSuite is a little different than the traditional application. If you’re reading this blog you’ll know that it can touch many different parts of your business.  And for this reason you should be looking for a person in your organization who has experience with these different pieces and can bring them together.

Don’t make the mistake of giving the project to a person who is an expert in only one field.  Turning NetSuite over to an IT expert, or Sales, or Marketing, and especially accounting will mean problems down the road.  There’s too many ways that the system can be tweaked to favour one group over the other.

Obviously the person will need to come from some department but should have a decent understanding of  each part of the flowchart that takes a customer from lead to cash to support.  For Example

• Lead Gen
• Marketing, Web and Email
• Sales Process
• Order Processing
• Items (your product lineup)
• Accounting
• Technical Support

Technical Skills

In my opinion your project leader needs to have a basic understanding of how databases work and best practises on how information should be organised.  There’s no need to be a Javascript programmer or database specialist.  Of course these things don’t hurt but those skills will not be used in the capacity of implementation manager.

Team Building

Make sure you get a person to lead your project who can get others involved, and, at the same time, balance the competing needs of different departments.  Sometimes you need kind words and understanding, other times you need a big stick and some mediation skills. Your project lead will also have to manage NetSuite people, an implementation partner if you choose one, and other team mates with specific roles.

Project Management

Implementing NetSuite for most companies isn’t going to take forever like it does with other systems.  But you will have to manage the initial 1-4 month project and the first year of changes with some attention.  You won’t need to over do it on the project management side but it helps to simply be organized and make a plan.

Training

It’s very important that you have someone internally that can teach your employees how to get the most out of NetSuite.  There is online training available from NetSuite that covers the basics, and, your implementation partner, like Audaxium, can provide initial and follow on training, but you’ll want a great communicator in house to maximise your investment.

Passion

It would be nice if your project leader gets kind of excited starting with a clean slate like NetSuite and shaping it to improve your bottom line.  Even when the going gets tough it’s still a fun project.

Conclusion

If you are considering implementing a system make sure you have someone internally who can provide most, if not all, of these attributes.  If you don’t have a person you can certainly bring in a contractor, like us, to help but the only way that that is going to provide long term value is if we can build a product champion within your organization.  We’re always here to help but at the end of the day you own it.

Coming up… a post on what other skills and roles the project team needs to be successful.