Despite the fact that NetSuite is one of the UK’s fastest growing cloud based software, many people still have not heard of it.

It isn’t uncommon for Cofficient to pitch up to software demonstrations, at some very well-known companies, who have told us that NetSuite is the “outlier”, the “wildcard” or the “dark horse”.   NetSuite don’t spend as much on their marketing as competitors like Sage or Salesforce so it’s perhaps not unsurprising that some people have not really heard of it…yet.

 

What Is NetSuite?

NetSuite is an American based software company.  They provision Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software (see What is ERP?) hosted in the cloud.  This year it was ranked as the number 1 cloud ERP vendor by research firm Gartner.  Market share has grown 45% in the last year alone.

It is accessed via an internet browser and device from any location at any time.  Customers pay for access via a subscription based fee model.

The software encompasses front and back office functionality such as financial modules, sales modules, project management, manufacturing, e-commerce and supply chain management as examples.

It was founded in 1998 which means that it has good provenance as far as cloud based business software is concerned.  In fact, it was one of the earliest, true, cloud based software on the market.

Every type of company is using NetSuite.

 

Why is it good?

Whilst the ‘core’ software is locked down, the additional layers on top are built on an architecture which is designed to be developed upon.

That means that the solution is highly configurable and customisable.

NetSuite call their technology platform for customisation and verticalisation, “SuiteFlex”. It gives customers, partners and developers the opportunity to customise the software and to build additional functionality such as workflows and new business processes.  It also allows you to connect to legacy and third party applications and software.

This makes it one of the most configurable solutions on the market place.

The potential is endless.

And because the core software is locked down it means that any customisations don’t break during software upgrades.  Any changes you make to the software follow you through the upgrades so you will never become “version locked”.

Usually when we show customers how NetSuite can be used in this way, it blows their mind.  It really isn’t like anything else on the market just now.

 

How can it help me?

It is light years ahead of competitors like Sage.

NetSuite provides you with anytime, anywhere access to your data.  It’s as easy to log on from home at 3am as it is from the office at 9am.  Only 15% of Sage customers report easy remote access to their system.

The majority of NetSuite users spend less than 2 days closing their month end.  Astonishingly, 90% of Sage customers don’t manage to close within 2 days.

Sometimes it’s an eyeopener for our customers that there is a credible alternative to Sage.

Running your business from several different software solutions (like Sage for accounts and Salesforce for Customer Relationship Management (CRM)) causes inefficiencies in the business.  Duplication of effort as you push and pull data between systems, human error and manual reconciliation will cause your business to stall.

Using one business solution, for both front and back office functions of finance and CRM, will dramatically improve your business intelligence and performance.  Imagine the impact of extending that out towards all elements of your business such as e-commerce or inventory management.

Click here to read more about how NetSuite is improving the lives of ex-Sage customers everywhere

To talk to someone about how NetSuite can improve your business, just get in touch.

We’ve been implementing NetSuite for over 13 years so we really know our stuff!

 

Written by Emma Stewart – Sales & Marketing Director at Cofficient (One of NetSuite’s longest standing Implementation Partners in the UK)