Audaxium Blog

Audaxium is always on the look out for great applications.  Especially those that are easy to implement, intelligent, and can add a lot of value to an organization. We also like hosted applications.

With this in mind, when we saw Prospect Insight, Pardot’s email marketing and automation application, we were very impressed.  The application is great, and the team at Pardot is very friendly and helpful, a great combination.

If you’re a NetSuite user, and you’d like to automate your email campaigns, improve reporting in the marketing department, and capture better lead information from your website, then we encourage you to contact us and check out a demo. We know you’ll be impressed.

Every year, probably since the dawn of time, people have been using the relatively arbitrary start date of a new year to think about the future.

Now I don’t typically make resolutions, as I think the’re best done through out the year, but now’s as good a time as any to think about things. Here are some questions that I think you should ask yourself, and the answers just might cause you to take action and contact us.

How much do you spend on employee productivity?

This question is a bit tricky, but a white board, or a paper and pen, along with 10 minutes of your valuable time should give you a ballpark.  You might know exactly how much you spend on marketing, or even exactly how much you spent on employee training, but how much did you spend on all productivity related items. This includes IT related purchases that are supposed to make people better at their jobs.  Now, how much of that was on the periphery? How much was spent on the tools they use most often?  I won’t beat you over the head with the logical conclusion.

How predictable is your business?

Can you know in advance if you are going to hit your targets?  What data points can you use for planning?  Do you have an accurate forecast from your reps?  Do you have a system in place to track that data and make it not a complete PITA for those that work for you?

Do you have unused power at your fingertips?

During the past year I’ve heard “We’re not using the system to it’s fullest.  We just don’t have time to improve.”  C’mon.  2010 is the year to make the list of things that you know you should be doing and tick them off the list.  Need help?  Ask.

How clean is your database?

Do you have someone who is officially, not “should be”, in charge of how clean your customer data is? When was the last time you looked at data that calculates how clean?  When are you going to implement a clean up/refresh plan?  Pro Tip – If you can get your customers to clean it up for you it’s a lot easier.  This is very easy to do in NetSuite… Ask me how.

How intelligent is your marketing?

Do you use rules to segment your leads?  What about customers?  Do you employ drip marketing to nurture contacts and valued clients.  Do you add value to your recipients lives while blasting them with email?  We can fix that…

So… with 2010 upon us, lets do all those things we thought we’d been doing in this space age year.

The team at Audaxium would like to wish everyone a very happy holidays.

This past year has seen us help many NetSuite users, become more productive, launch web stores, and improve customer satisfaction.  In the new year we’ll continue doing that and have a few more exciting announcements.

May you have a great 2010.

There are a lot of NetSuite customers out there.

There are a lot of NetSuite customers out there who are using NetSuite’s support tools to keep their customers happy.

But how many of you are measuring just how well your support reps are doing at increasing customer satisfaction? After all, that is the goal isn’t it?

It’s perfectly possible to use a NetSuite custom record, a couple of saved searches, a form, and, optionally, a script to automate things, to track and report on satisfaction.  Once a case is closed, the system can send out an email to the customer contact asking for their feedback. The customer clicks, fills in a simple form, and they’re done.

If you don’t know how to set this up, give us a call and we can walk you through it, or set it up for you.  If you do know how to do this, then just go set it up!

Consider tracking the rep who is assigned to the case, the customer, the contact who created it and the product or other main category you use to manage cases.

Also allow your customer to put in some comments and you’ll now have a great way to see how your support team is doing and hand out some pats on the back, cupcakes, or cold hard cash for those reps that exceed at keeping customers happy.

If you’re an existing NetSuite user, you’ll know, because of the notification on your dashboard, that NetSuite 2009.2 is just around the corner.  If you’re new to NetSuite, 2009.2 is obviously the second release of 2009. Each year NetSuite is rolling out 2 releases, the .1 version seems to contain more major enhancement, and the .2 release some of the less sexy, but still worthwhile improvements.

To find your sneak peek documents, simply click the help button, and type Sneak Peek into the search tool.  But since it’s out there in the wild already, you can also link directly to it here.

While this version didn’t knock my socks off at first glance, there’s a few things in here that I think demonstrate how NetSuite is improving the product to better align with how businesses work, rather than rolling out flashy, but useless functionality.

Here’s a few of the things I think will make existing customers smile.

Attachment Support for Online Case Forms

Previously you could use a case form on your website that would create a case directly inside the system, but you couldn’t attach a file.  This lead some customers to create their own forms which would then send an email to NetSuite that included the attachment. NetSuite has a 5 mb file attachment limit on this method so some customers then would use a YouSendIt form as well.

Now you don’t have to worry, and can have customers attach files directly, saving a few extra steps for the support reps.

Trend Graph Support for all Dashboards

Previously you couldn’t add a “Trend Graph” to other tabs.  Now you can.  Yay!  It’ll make those other tabs that much more useful, especially when you want to keep your Home dashboard nice and light, and move certain information to the other tabs.

Additional Custom Search portlets

Today you can have one “Custom Search” on a dashboard.  Now you can have 3.  The work around was to use report snapshots but this will give end users that much more flexibility in dashboard setup.  It’s small but I love this enhancement.

CSV Import – Select Custom Form Option

“In previous releases, the user’s preferred form for an imported record was automatically used for validation and to display the set of fields available for import.”  Man was this ever annoying.  Now I’ll be able to select another form that doesn’t have restrictions when importing.  There’s nothing like importing 5000 records and then having it fail because your preferred form didn’t like what you did!

CSV Import – Purchase Order, Vendor Bill & Vendor Bill Payment Support

For those out there who didn’t want to code up complicated web services apps to import POs this could be huge.  If you’re a reseller and you’ve been hand keying in Purchase orders this will be one thing you’ll want to test ASAP.

Lead Qualification and Conversion

It’s been rather busy here at Audaxium but just as soon as were eager to look at the new Lead Qualification and conversion rules in depth.  NetSuite will now help with the capturing of critical information on the lead record, and attaching it to existing prospects, opportunities etc.  Don’t let your sales team keep processing leads the same way, check out these enhancements and see what they can do for you.

To turn on this part of this feature you’ll have to go to “Setup, Company, Enable Features”.  Then you’ll see a “Lead Conversion Mapping” setup in the sales section where you can define what information gets copied over to Contacts, Opportunities, and Tasks.

You’ll also see a “Convert” button on a lead.  If it’s an “Individual” you’ll be able to hit the convert button, and create a contact, company, opportunity, and task at the same time.  Neat.  I know a lot of companies create leads as companies only, and not individuals.  They’ll have to ponder this now.

Absolute Item Pricing per Customer

We all do it.  We tell a special customer that they can buy product X for a specific price.  But what happens when that doesn’t conform to one of your price levels?  Previously you’d have to remember every time you created a Sales Order. But now you’ll be able to set a custom price level right on the customer record.

Just make sure, when you are updating prices, that you have a search that shows you all those customers with custom price levels!

Period Close Process Enhancements

In 2009.2 you’ll be able to lock, check and update, then close periods.  And there will be a better audit trail on who has closed and opened periods.  Previously a period was either open or closed, and if an adjustment needed to be made, you couldn’t tell who opened the period. (Although you could tell who made the change to the transaction of course)

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It seems like a decent release for NetSuite.  If you’re a NetSuite user, head over to Beta and check it out. If you want to get a demo of NetSuite and it’s new functions, just let us know!

Garbage in, Garbage out!  I hear this comment almost every other day.  And it’s not me saying it, it’s the customer.

Then why oh why are most companies in such a state of disrepair when it comes to their customer information?

How can we fix this up when we implement NetSuite?

How can we make sure that it doesn’t happen again?  Or at least not to the same degree.

But first let’s get to the top 3 reasons why this happens. Read More »

Just what is the best browser for use in NetSuite?

The other day a customer asked me this question and I gave my usual response based on the feeling I get while using various NetSuite instances.  Normally I feel Chrome is fastest, and Internet Explorer slowest with others falling in between.  Firefox is my usual choice as Chrome has some known issues (we won’t call them bugs) with NetSuite.  Safari also seems to hold up well in the speed department as a few NetSuite users I follow on twitter keep raving about it and I found it fairly snappy as well.

Just for kicks I decided to do a rather unscientific test of 4 different browsers and use the built in NetSuite performance reporting to figure out which were fastest and which were slowest.  The results were surprising.  In fact, I re-ran my scenario multiple times to see if there had been some mistake.

The Scenario

My test was very simple, mainly because I don’t know how to automate the testing and get page load times for multiple browsers using some kind of super plugin.  I ran the test 3 or 4 times and used the times I got most frequently, as opposed to averaging.  This to ensure that my connection wasn’t the issue.  In all cases I got 3 results that were very close for each page.  All tests were done on my Windows XP SP3 Desktop.

I admit that this is rather unscientific and I haven’t removed certain variables and I encourage others to try the same thing and report on the results here.

Read More »

We live in an age of self help.  Anyone with a brain is supposed to be able to sit down, and with a good enough help file be able to turn on just about any technology going.

This has lead a few folks I know to implement NetSuite without much help at all.  It’s not that it’s impossible, or even terribly difficult, but it’s harder the first time you do it.  This got me thinking and this quick list came to life.

It’s a bit Scary

When you implement NetSuite, you’re putting in an application that has the potential to affect almost every part of your business.  You don’t want to mess it up and fly into the ground.  Or, perhaps worse, you don’t want to wreck anything or anyone while trying to get off the ground.

Solution?  Talk with people who’ve implemented it before!  You don’t learn to fly from the guy in the showroom who sells you the airplane. (If you can afford an airplane in a showroom) Talk to people who run the system day to day, and to people who’ve seen mistakes made.  That would be me by the way!

It’s Easier with a Copilot

With NetSuite you can get people to help you implement it remotely.  They’re really smart.  And having someone talk you through it over the web just might work in many cases.  But there is also something to be said by having someone by your side, giving you the best practices and the finer points that will take you from good to great.

Consider what the benefits are of getting someone into your boardroom to help you out.  Even if it’s just for a second opinion or for best practices and change management.

Airplanes have Standard Dashboards

NetSuite has a lot of power in it’s Dashboards.  It’ll consume a lot of time if you simply try to muddle through and figure out the best way to work.  Talk to those who use Dashboards every day, what works, what doesn’t.

There’s a lot that belongs on dashboards but there’s a lot that doesn’t.  Get stuff up there that really lets you manage the operations of your business.  This isn’t Salesforce.com here.

Heads Up Flying

It’s critical when flying to fly the plane and look up, and not keep your head stuck in the instrument panel.  The same is true for a NetSuite implementation.  You’ve got to manage the people involved, you’ve got to constantly be examining your situation and your business surroundings.

When implementing NetSuite it’s about getting your business to the next level.  Keep the end goal in mind and you’ll have a safe arrival.

I’ve had a few conversations in the past few days to people who are, or have, implemented NetSuite.

If it’s just NetSuite CRM, or NetSuite ERP and Accounting, E-commerce, or the whole ball of wax here are some things to consider if you’re just getting into it.

This is by no means a comprehensive list but just what has come to mind in the last couple of days.  This list is also a bit more appropriate for smaller implementations of 10-100 users.

Find an Admin

If you’re going to be successful you need to get a person dedicated to learning NetSuite who you trust to implement and make decisions about how you run your business. 

There’s a lot of changes that can be made quickly and you shouldn’t let everything get managed by committee.  You’ll go faster if you loosen the reigns. 

Get an Executive Champion

There are going to be those who look to to the big cheese before they commit to a new system.  Make sure that you’ve got a leader who is going to lend not only her full support but also big ideas on where the company is headed.  

It’s not enough to attend the kick off meeting and ask for updates.  NetSuite is THE system of record.  Get the big cheese involved.

Prioritize your Requirements

You can’t have everything you want on day one.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a sales person, or the boss, get over it.  

Pick your big wins and focus on those.  A lot of little wins will come along for the ride and you won’t waste time boiling the ocean to get at all the tiny details

Consider other Departments

I’ve seen it happen over and over. One department gets going with NetSuite and makes a bunch of decisions without considering the implications for other groups.  

NetSuite offers an amazing opportunity to get everyone working together.  Use it.

If you don’t fully understand the implications, call someone who does. *cough

Keep it Simple

Sometimes it’s fun to cook up a complicated plan and see how far you can get but more often than not it means that you’ll just have a lot of late nights prior to going live.  

The more simple you keep things, the more flexibility you have down the road, and there’s real value in having options.

Things to keep simple? The plan, the requirements, the customizations, the phases, the roles, well, everything.

Plan for Change

I love NetSuite because it can be changed fairly quickly.  Don’t worry if you don’t nail everything for day one.  You’ll be able to change things as you go to make life easier on all the users.  

Don’t go for months without getting people up and running on the system.  You’ll have plenty of room to have multiple phases after go live.

Be Bold

People who defend old, silly processes never cease to amaze me.  Don’t be afraid to use the implementation to change some things about the way you do business that annoy employees and customers.  

Be easy to do business with.

Automate Later

There are two reasons you want to delay writing scripts to automate things in NetSuite whenever you can. First, you don’t really know what you want and what’s important. And secondly, it adds a level of complication to your plan that violates Keep it Simple.

I’ve seen too many people invest in scripts and then turn them off because they either complicate the users experience or they can’t accommodate every little scenario.

Automate once you’ve gotten everything working manually.

(There are exceptions to this rule but you’ll know them when you analyse your business requirements and prioritize them)

Plan for Improvements

This tip goes with the above one.  Every NetSuite implementation should have a Phase II where you put in a bunch of improvements that weren’t critical but are still helpful. Do this for two reasons.

First, it keeps the momentum going on the adoption of the system.

Second, you don’t want to delay Phase 1 with a bunch of “nice to haves”

Consider a Partner

If you’re purchasing NetSuite you can purchase, separately or together, the software and implementation from an implementation Partner.  Many people don’t even consider this.

I’ll get into this in a later post but an Implementation Partner like Audaxium can offer a different kind of service than those offered directly from NetSuite.  Partners have often used the software in production and can be more flexible in how they engage with you.

Ignore the Naysayers

There are a lot of people who will be negative about change, about NetSuite, about your plan.  Your challenge is to pick out their key concerns, address them as best you can and then move on. Move with confidence and people will follow.

Right now the News is filled with bad press about the economy. Last weeks Economist painted a particularly gloomy picture.

It’s all well and good to simply unsubscribe from the news feeds but that won’t make you successful in the long run, just maybe less stressed.

Right now a lot of businesses are waiting cautiously, not spending money, but waiting for signs of a turnaround.  Cruising along. Perhaps your business is one of them.

So how will you know when a turn around is beginning for your business?  Your business is unique, it won’t simply happen for everyone at once.  For some it’s already starting, for others, they may have to reinvent themselves to simply stay afloat.

Will you wait until you’ve had two good sales quarters in a row?  How long does it take to roll up a quarter?  1 Month?  That might just be looking 7 months into the rear view mirror.

Will you wait until you’ve had 2 good months over targets?  Can you be sure that it’s not a lucky blip?

Will you watch the forecast, and when it starts to grow, start investing in your business?  How reliable is your forecast?  What’s driving the uptick?

Will you look at inbound leads? When they start increasing, turn up the heat on the reps.  How will you know where the leads are coming from and what their intent is?

Unfortunately there’s no one answer but I can say one thing for certain.  Those companies that only look far in the past for recovery will do less well than a firm with a balanced view of it’s KPI’s

The questions to ask yourself are:

• “Do I have the systems in place to get me the numbers I need, and trust, fast enough to react in a timely fashion?”
• “What are the 3 pieces of data I need to predict the direction my business is headed?”

If you’ve got the systems, great.  If not, give me a call.  Now’s the time to invest to ensure that your business can really be excellent once everything is moving again.  Don’t wait until you’re too busy to become more productive.

Here are some example Key Performance Indicators that NetSuite Provides out of the box. Perhaps some of these could help if you had them on your dashboard every day. Keep in mind that you can create your own KPI’s as well!

• Authorized Commission
• Authorized Partner Commission
• Bank Balance
• Cases Escalated
• Cases Closed
• Cart Abandonment
• Closed Issues
• COGS
• Credit Card Balance
• Equity
• Estimated Commission
• Estimated Partner Commission
• Fixed Assets
• Forecast Override
• Gross New Leads
• Hosted Page Hits
• Inventory
• Long Term Liabilities
• Net Cash Flow
• New Business (Sales Orders)
• New Customers
• New Customers (Sales Orders)
• New Issues
• New Opportunities
• New Visitors
• Open Issues
• Open Opportunities
• Open Prospects
• Open Quotes
• Operating Cash Flow
• Operating Expenses
• Opportunities Lost
• Orders
• Other Assets
• Other Current Assets
• Other Current Liabilities
• Paid Commission
• Paid Partner Commission
• Payables
• Pipeline (Projected)
• Pipeline (Weighted)
• Pipeline Deals
• Profit
• Quota Reps
• Receivables
• Revenue
• Sales (Cash Basis)
• Sales (Orders)
• Total Open Opportunities
• Total Open Quotes
• Total Orders (Count)
• Total Pipeline (Projected)
• Total Pipeline (Weighted)
• Total Pipeline Deals
• Total Sales (Orders)
• Unique Visitors
• Web Orders
• Web Revenue
• Web Site Hits