Audaxium Blog

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.

Implementation Implementation, Lessons Learned

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.

Implementation Implementation, Top 10

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.

General, Implementation Implementation, Training

There’s few things I like more than to look at data.  Peering into complicated information and pulling out meaningful results is something I really enjoy.

Now if you like complexity, that’s fine, but if you want to make information analysis easy you may want to consider using one or more of, Class, Department, or Location, to segment your business.

Class, Department and Location are 3 ways to divide virtually all the information in NetSuite.  They are built in by default and can do a number of things I’ll outline below. There’s a bunch of automation that can be done with them and just by tweaking them can really make your NetSuite implementation work well.

Overview

Most people find Department and Location the easiest to understand.  Employees, Items, and Transactions can be assigned to a specific department.  It makes department reporting fairly easy.  Location is the same way.  You can track your business by region, office, etc by applying it to transactions.  Class is a bit different.  Think of it as “Class of product” for example, Software, Services, Renewal, Hardware.

Rename Them

Class, Department and Location can all be renamed.  While each really is designed to work as you might imagine they can really be used to segment the data any way you want. How about Product Line, Region and Channel?

Don’t use them!

You don’t absolutely have to use these.  You can turn them on or off as you see fit.  Or use them but don’t make them mandatory, it’s up to you.

By Item or By Transaction

You can use these classifications both on each individual line item on transactions or you can use them on entire transactions.  It just depends on how you operate.  

You’ll be able to decide where each classification method applies.  On lines or on the whole transaction.  The advantage of applying it on the whole transaction is simplicity. Department and location are obvious ones to do this way. (if you call them by that name!)  The advantage of classification by line item is that you get more granularity on the information.  Class is often used here.  

It’s important to note that items, and employees can have their class, department and location pre-set (or not).  This way nobody really has to worry about keying in the information over and over unless you want them to.

Reporting

Obviously all three classifications make it easy to filter, exclude, include and report nine ways to Sunday.  Even if you only have 1 class of item, it may make sense to turn it on so that you have the information in the future if you are planning on doing more later.

Looking at all the segments simultaneously in NetSuite can be a bit of a challenge.  But it’s easy to dump out to a more advanced graphing tool.  I am just waiting for OpenOffice to implement 3 axis bubble charts with a time axis and then I’ll be all set!

Restricting Access

If you’re a slightly larger company it may be nice to restrict access to different classes, departments, or locations.  Not to be a pain, but to give users a simpler experience when using the system.  Because this restriction is done by role you may want to give certain users access to multiple roles so that they can switch over to the less restrictive role the odd time they need to look up something they don’t normally need to see.

Consider Categories

Outside of these classification methods you can also use categories to classify  customers/leads/prospects. This is done by going to Setup, Accounting, Lists, and adding multiple customer categories.  It’s yet another way to slice and dice your data, and in the case of categories, perhaps find out which of your customer segments is most profitable.

Conclusion

Class, Department, and Location as well as categories are a few ways to customize your NetSuite instance and get the most out of the information you collect on a daily basis.  Done right they’ll allow you to monitor and improve your business.  Done wrong, you’ll be frustrated and your users will slash your tires.

If you have questions look me up!

Implementation, Tips and Tricks Data, Implementation, Reporting

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.

Implementation Implementation, NetSuite, Team

Implementing a system like NetSuite means introducing change into your company.  There’s no avoiding it.  So how do you prepare during your CRM Evaluation?  Here are some tips.

 

Explain Why

Often you’ll have one driving reason why you picked up the mouse and found a NetSuite Partner to chat about a new business system.  But often there are a number of other considerations that pushed you over the edge.  As you launch the investigation into a new tool it’s a good idea to write these reasons down and make sure they are effectively communicated with your extended team.  And by team I mean anyone that has anything remotely to do with the application.

The reason you should do this is first, to get everyone involved, and secondly, because your teammates will immediately begin looking for ways to solve the problem.  They’ll tell you what applications meet their needs and what fixes can be made today to make life better.  At least some will.  Those will mainly be your early adopters.

 

Get Input

Once you get the project rolling a bit I always suggest polling everyone about their ideas, concerns, and requirements around a new system.  Make this fairly free form. Don’t pigeon hole people into clicking answer boxes.  Just ask; “How should a new system improve how we work?”

If some people don’t respond initially make a note.  Then, gently demand their input.  ”You won’t be able to complain afterwards if you don’t give us your thoughts.”  You’ll get 100% response rate after explaining this a couple of times.

 

Be Broad

Often people will get interested in NetSuite for one part of the application.  As you’re investigating a new business system use the project as an opportunity to improve other systems and/or other parts of your business.  You may get some spin off projects when looking for improvements in your business processes.  And, you’ll probably start to define phase II and III if you choose to go with an integrated system like NetSuite.

 

Set Expectations

Once you have collected all the requirements of a new system from your team, it’s time to explain to them that they won’t be getting everything they want.  It’s about compromise.  Have another session where people rank or pick out their top 10 must haves from the very broad requirements list. And then remind them that they might not get all those either.

In reality, most people will get most requirements, especially with NetSuite, but lower expectations now will make implementation and change management that much easier.

 

Talk one-on-one

Now that you understand peoples priorities you’ll need to talk to them. Hopefully face to face.  You’ll have a good idea what on their list is reasonable and what’s not.  Talk to them about what they think of the idea of moving to a new business system and what’s in it for them.

Also start asking people how they want to be involved with the project.  You’ll need lots of different help over the course of the project so collect volunteers early.

 

Users – 1/3 Early Adopters

A certain amount of your team will desire change just because that’s who they are.  It’s very important to harness this energy and use it to your advantage.  You need to make sure that you give enough attention to their needs so that they don’t get frustrated later on.

While most early adopters will desire change a lot of early adopters have short attention spans.  Their desire isn’t an actual indication of how easy it is for them to learn new tools.  Keep that in mind when planning training.

 

Users – 1/3 Followers

Followers look to the early adopters to assess where things are going.  This is the most important group to get engaged during the product evaluation and selection stage. They are often the ones who highlight the project risks for you so that you can mitigate them.

Followers often need to be reminded about previous changes that took place in your company and the benefits that emerged.  These stories are very helpful.

The followers are also a good group to start gathering metrics with.  You’ll want to measure the impact of a new tool and one way to get this group engaged is to get them to look at the “current situation” from a data perspective.

 

Users – 1/3 Cranky

Ah, yes, my favorite bunch, the pessimists.  They’ll think you’re crazy for trying to change out a CRM system, or even put one in for that matter.  It’s important that you focus their rage on what’s wrong now, and then commit to fixing it.  Try to get agreement on what the biggest issues currently are. Then get them to promise you, that if you can fix them, they’ll help you roll it out.

The cranky folks are those that you’ll hold up as examples when you roll out the system.  Often managers will use the early adopters as examples, but everyone in your company knows that they love everything new.  If they see a pessimist saying that NetSuite is working for them then they’ll be more apt to keep pushing to get the system into a highly productive state.

 

How Ready is Your Company?

Change is about people.  And sometimes processes.  But more often its about the people involved.  If you prep each individual for the system evaluation, selection and subsequent change then you’ll have done 80% of the work at being prepared.  The rest of it is the hard work of making sure the system and project actually work the way you want.

Implementation, Tips and Tricks Change, Implementation, Users

Today I went for a excellent run.  And during that run I had one of those moments where you achieve perfect clarity, vision, and visualise an entire blog post in an instant.

This is not that post, because, of course, the next thought through my head was “That’s obvious, now keep up the pace.”

This post formed from the kernel I remember from that thought.

The Question

Essentially what ran through my mind was the following.  Does your company aim to be a high touch, customer responsive, and customer aware organization?  Or, and it’s not better or worse, is your company well positioned to be a low cost provider?

For small and medium businesses it is very easy to get caught in the middle.  Heck, I’ve had years of experience getting smashed by a boulder and some other really hard thing.  All to often there is a desire to over service customers, or, lose business based on dated views on pricing, either discount too much, or not enough.

Now, as times are tough.  Figuring out your strategy becomes increasingly important. Both in the short term, and long term.  There are probably several exceptions out there, where companies can be successful doing both.  But I’d venture to say it’s rare.   And, of course, I neglect all those companies who really compete with their product functionality and placement in the market.

One System

So what you ask?  Well, my endorphin induced thought was that Netsuite, being the awesome system that it is, can really be used by companies employing either strategy, but will implement each slightly differently.

NetSuite of course, can both help get a much better picture of customer habits, information, and profile while at the same time giving tremendous visibility into the profitability of the business, each transaction, and each customer.  What you chose to focus on will drive how you approach your implementation.

If you’re a high touch, customer centric organization you’ll focus much more on a few different areas.  You’ll start with marketing and the customer record.  You’ll track more custom information and have more reports written to drive the behaviours of your sales team. You’ll have a more detailed review of the sales force automation tools.  There will be more focus on the commission tools.  And, of course, you’ll want to nail the customer support end of NetSuite and give your customers the attention they deserve.

If you’re a cost and volume focused company you may in fact implement the above areas of NetSuite but they may be less critical.  Or you’ll give them a pass altogether.  NetSuite will provide you with detailed financial reporting and real time updates of the trends.  You’ll focus more on inventory management, perhaps time and expense billing, or maybe even project management if you’re a services team. Your dashboards will be chalk full of custom key performance indicators driven by the numbers.

Homework

So if you’re about to implement NetSuite here’s some homework.  You might want to do this with a whiteboard.  And, if you’re really inspired give me a call and I’ll stand beside that whiteboard and wave my arms and talk a lot, stoking the fires.

What, today, really causes people to argue in management meetings?  Usually in those debates 1 or 2 areas of information are at the root.  What are they and where would that information come from in NetSuite?

In the cost/customer matrix where do you sit as compared to your competitors?  Where do you want to go? Do you have the information to manage that shift day to day?

Write your vision at the bottom of the board.  Write some behaviours you need your team to exhibit at the top.  Leave lots of room.  Now fill in the following from the bottom up to connect the two.  Strategies, Processes, KPI/Metrics.  

Do you have the system to get you there?  What is the area you need to improve the most?

Figure that out and you’ll be well on your way to getting out of the mushy middle and implementing a system that keeps you laser focused on your goals.

General Implementation, Strategy