Audaxium Blog

The other day I was having a nice discussion with a new NetSuite customer about best practices when implementing NetSuite.  We covered a wide range of topics but the one that I’ll cover today is training.  I’ve got a few simple words of advice on how to ensure that your NetSuite experience is a great one.

Training for NetSuite is available from a number of sources.  Each one has it’s place and should be used appropriately.  I would encourage you to work with your NetSuite implementation partner to ensure that you have all the bases covered.  Cutting costs by cutting training will surely cost you more in the long run.

Online Training

NetSuite has some decent online training available via the customer support center, formerly known as NetSuite University, now called Suite Training. There are 17 online videos some of which are almost 30 minutes in length.  In total there’s about 4 hours of video.  

Most of the content there is good and well produced.  It’s also very general in nature.  Normally, when introducing new users to the system, I will direct them to 3 or 4 video that pertain to their role in order to get them familiarized with the system.

Because the content is fairly broad it’s important not to use those videos as the only training resource for either yourself or new NetSuite users.

Also available via NetSuite Central are some documents on particular topic. They are also worth a read if you are new to being a NetSuite Admin.  They are:

• KPI Scorecards for Business Intelligence
• Customer Returns Management
• Getting and Giving Credit With Gift Certificates
• Keyword Marketing Campaigns
• Forecasting for Success

Give those a read if you are just setting out.

Customer WebCasts

Also available via NetSuite Central are some previously recorded webcasts done by the NetSuite Training Department.  The content varies widely and you’ll find some useful ideas and tips inside.  These presentations are longer than the basic videos above and you’ll find yourself hovering over the fast forward button, but they are very useful.  You’ll find such topics as:

• Commission Management 
• Forecasting – Predicting Your Sales Future 
• Data Mining: Mastering Reporting and Saved Searches in NetSuite 
• NetSuite Productivity Tips 
• Productivity Tools for Sales Reps – Make Selling Easier 
• Involve Your Customers: Using Self-Service to Optimize Customer Relationships 
• The Ultimate Marketing Tool: Closed Loop Marketing Campaigns 
• Webstore Customization: Using Site Templates to Enhance your Website

As a NetSuite admin make sure to check these out, grab a beer and sit down and watch them.  You’ll also want to direct specific users, such as sales and marketing to go watch some of them as well.

Scheduled Online Courses

Now that you’ve gone over the basics you may want to attend some of the Administration courses that NetSuite puts on on a regular basis.  You can learn more about some of these NetSuite training options here.

These courses are longer and can last the entire day.  They also have a price but can be useful in rounding out your training plan and can give you an opportunity to ask questions.  There are not a ton of different courses, as you’ll see but they are the commonly requested ones.

So what’s left?

The training above will probably serve you well as a NetSuite system administrator.  By the time you get done the above training and you have been given a chance to mess with your demo or sandbox account you’ll be using the help file or the NetSuite user group to get most of your questions answered.  

However, both you and your users have missed out in two key areas.  First, I have found, the end users will benefit from customized training done in the context of your specific NetSuite instance, and their jobs.  Secondly, the admin has missed out on someone providing advice on why to do certain things in NetSuite as opposed to how to do things.

Custom Training

Once everyone is up to speed with the basics I suggest that you, the NetSuite Admin, or someone like us in partnership with you, sit down and plan out training for your end users that shows them specifically how and why to do certain tasks in NetSuite to get their jobs done.

You can deliver this training on-site or over the web, my suggestion is to do it face to face, in order to look over peoples shoulders and help them through.

This training should target a specific group of users at your company and be focused on their tasks, and, it should also provide an overview of how their work impacts the work of those in other departments.  With an integrated system like NetSuite this is particularly important.

When it comes to your own knowledge ensure that you have a resource who will be able to explain what the ramifications are of configuration decisions within your own instance.  You don’t want to learn the hard way, just do it right the first time. Often times a partner, like Audaxium, can help with this custom training.  You can also get help from NetSuite Professional Services for a fee.

If you’re interested in learning more about this please let me know!

What’s New?

Lastly, I encourage everyone to check out the what’s new training, again via the customer portal, on an ongoing basis.  It’s important to keep up with the new functions being launched. There are a lot of them and you want to take advantage of them just as soon as possible.

Planning

The final word on this topic is PLAN!  Ensure that, as you are launching NetSuite, that you have a training plan for yourself and different user groups.  Make sure that you make full use of the resources out there to maximize your NetSuite productivity.

Keep your plan task focused.  By showing users how to get their tasks done in NetSuite you’ll have much better results than by demonstrating features and buttons.  Pay particular attention to how to view information related to their tasks in NetSuite, searching and reporting is just as important as the work itself.