Business transformations, such as outsourcing support functions and using more robust software solutions, make businesses more profitable. 65% of surveyed businesses found that turning to outsourced support services allowed them to focus more on core functions and strategic business elements. Another 63% found that the switch made their business operations more cost effective.
When your business is already making the switch to a new ERP, it can be hard to add even more change. After all, switching to an ERP like NetSuite will already massively affect your operations and day-to-day tasks. It’s a positive change but potentially disruptive. Some businesses worry that adding outsourced support to the mix can overwhelm employees’ resilience to change or make business forecasting impossible.
However, when you simply switch to a new ERP, you risk overwhelming your team with technical frustrations, new and incomprehensible workflows, and buggy implementation. You may even find yourself with a lower ROI for your NetSuite implementation than you might have hoped. By pairing NetSuite with ongoing support services from a reputable provider, you can gain far more benefits from your new ERP and a smoother transition for everyone involved.
NetSuite Is Built to Improve Business Operations
Moving away from spreadsheets and disconnected apps to an ERP that integrates with every tech stack and arm of your organization is one of the best changes you can make to your business. NetSuite is one of the biggest ERP platforms in the world, and there are several reasons for that—all tied to increased profitability, scalability, and business continuity.
If you’re already considering moving away from your current setup, then you know the drawbacks of standing still and the potential improvements that are just around the corner. It’s also important to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks if you stop halfway.
How do your business operations improve when you switch to NetSuite, and what improvements are you leaving on the table when you don’t invest in ongoing support?
Centralized Data
NetSuite’s biggest advantage is that it becomes a centralized hub of all your business data and operations. Marketing, procurement, product logistics, and finances all flow between NetSuite and integrated apps, so every employee is getting real-time, accurate data from any viewpoint. Without professional support, your teams may not uncover all the reporting tools they can use to see this information, and they may not realize when some fields don’t match up correctly or have a delay that slowly makes data operations go off the rails.
Automated Functions
NetSuite’s automatic field updates, integrations, and AI functions mean more of your business tasks can be handled by the software itself. For instance, a new order on your eCommerce site can automatically trigger welcome emails, assign an account manager to the case, generate an invoice, and get the ball rolling on manufacturing or shipping. Individual employees get notified along the way and act when they need to.
Without support, it’s hard to change those automations. You might be left with bottlenecks, strict process operations, and manual approval sequences that make sense now but won’t in a year. Without a support team that can update the workflows, your team has no choice but to make do or find workarounds.
Easier Onboarding
Both remote and traditional onboarding sequences get harder when you don’t have an organized, centralized system. New hires don’t have access to the platforms they need, and they don’t even know which platforms they lack access to. Your HR and IT teams will also spend much more time on each new hire.
Implementing NetSuite changes that practice, especially if you create single sign-on processes and develop an in-platform knowledge center. Without a NetSuite support team, there’s still manual work left to do, such as assigning licenses and providing training on the platform itself, that prevents your teams from truly optimizing.
Related: Advantages of Advanced NetSuite Support Services
Even without advanced support, adding NetSuite generally makes everything faster and easier. However, investing in NetSuite support from a reputable, experienced provider enhances every benefit and helps your employees truly capitalize on the advantages of your new ERP.
Optimize Business Even More With Professional NetSuite Support
Push your business to new heights by considering where outsourcing has the biggest positive impact. For most organizations, that’s in the realm of IT support for your most complex software and network operations. There are several reasons why this approach is beneficial.
- The knowledge is specialized, so hiring internal staff is cost-prohibitive.
- IT requirements change over time, so the areas of expertise you need access to also change.
- Your ERP is business critical, so taking risks by having insufficient support can hurt your operations.
- Trying to go without support can frustrate your employees, leading to burnout, high turnover, and reduced productivity.
Now that we’ve seen the negatives of going without support, let’s consider the positives of outsourcing to the experts.
Outsource Administration So You Can Focus on Your Core Competencies
Lean and agile organizations are structuring their composition and internal duties to focus on core competencies. Warehousing businesses focus on warehousing provisions and logistics; marketing companies focus purely on marketing services; landscapers prioritize lawn services and hire landscaping experts.
Ancillary functions like HR, billing, payroll, and supply are outsourced to organizations that specialize in those services. This structure allows businesses to focus on their core mission while simultaneously accessing the expertise of professionals who focus entirely on their niche.
In terms of NetSuite support, this means hiring a third-party service that handles implementation, day-to-day license administration, support and troubleshooting, and so on. It’s a more strategic option than hiring employees or dedicating work hours to these tasks, which pulls people away from revenue operations.
Streamline Your In-House Hiring Process
Hiring is expensive. For current employees, those costs include base salary, in-office resources, benefits, and insurance. When you’re hiring new team members, the costs climb even higher to include training, onboarding, sign-on bonuses, recruiter fees, and all the expenses of turnover. Hiring third-party services often makes more sense, especially when you’re faced with the six-figure salaries of in-house NetSuite specialists.
The costs of hiring support correspond directly to the hours you need them for and the projects they undertake. When services are consistent, your forecasted expenses are predictable (and you can easily calculate the costs of extra projects or more support). Your organization benefits from lower expenses and greater predictability.
Continually Revamp and Improve Key Functionalities in NetSuite
When you hire third-party NetSuite support, you can plan ahead and partner with a service that provides implementation, custom development, and day-to-day support services. This makes it easier and more cost-effective to approve a custom development project or change to your NetSuite ERP. The same organization that’s already familiar with your tech stack and business module can handle the project by integrating an advanced module, connecting new platforms, or even building a custom function with SuiteScript.
Related: Comparing NetSuite Managed Service Providers: A Checklist
You can make iterative improvements part of your ongoing NetSuite operations instead of having to make do without updates or continually pushing off new projects. Even better, full-service NetSuite providers stay current on changes and software updates, so they can make recommendations and ensure your team is aware of upcoming optimization opportunities.
Minimize the Risk of Costly Downtime or Bugs
Outages, disruptions, and long periods of downtime are bad for business. Whether these interruptions are internal or customer-facing, they drastically affect productivity and customer satisfaction. That’s why many businesses have shifted to managed services.
Managed service providers continually monitor operations to ensure everything is running smoothly and intervene if a problem is developing. This is far better than reactive services, which only solve a problem once it’s manifested.
NetSuite support teams continually monitor operational speeds, your data ecosystem, the cloud, and how your team is using the ERP. This grants them the ability to preempt potential bugs before they hurt operations and catch the signs of an oncoming crash.
Maintain a Constant Team of Professionals Aligned With Your Current Needs and Projects
Over time, what you need under the broad umbrella of NetSuite support will change. Right after implementation, you might need training, basic troubleshooting, and assistance getting licenses settled. In six months, you may require light administration help and managed support. In a year, you might be ready for a development project that wasn’t business-critical during implementation.
When you hire in-house staff, you either have to keep them around when there’s not much work to do or fire them, further increasing your costs and potentially hurting your reputation. If you have a NetSuite support service, experts can move in and out of your account based on their areas of specialization and your current needs.
Get the Most Out of NetSuite With Professional Support You Can Trust
Moving to a NetSuite ERP will radically transform your business operations. Adding professional NetSuite support makes it even better. Limebox is a NetSuite-certified team of implementation specialists, administration experts, and custom developers. Our team can be with you during every stage of adopting and using NetSuite so you can gain easy access to all the benefits. Get in touch with us today to see what our support services include and how they can benefit your organization.