Implementing a powerful ERP solution is a solid business move for any growing or maturing business. 49% of surveyed companies saw improvements across all of their business processes following ERP implementation. At the same time, barebones implementation wasn’t enough to see that comprehensive degree of success.
Instead, most companies required at least some degree of customization—with 33% of organizations requiring moderate customization and 37% requiring significant custom work. NetSuite advanced customer support is just as critical for implementation and day-to-day success, whether your company needs a great deal of customization upon implementation or not.
With the right level of in-depth customer support, you can unlock the full potential of your NetSuite ERP from the start. Let’s take a close look at the benefits NetSuite brings to the table without any custom or support elements—and the enhanced level of performance you can expect once you add those elements into your implementation plan. We’ll also examine what advanced customer support can offer your organization even after implementation is complete.
Why You Need NetSuite Advanced Customer Support to Get the Most Out of NetSuite
NetSuite is the chosen ERP platform for more than 40,000 organizations around the world. This number alone showcases the value it can provide your organization: any software that is robust enough to be the foundational platform for 40,000 company’s business operations is powerful and versatile and likely has the tools you need to turn a profit.
At the same time, the sheer scale of its customer base points to a potential issue: NetSuite may be too universal and complex to immediately fit your business’s unique operations. This quandary sits at the heart of most businesses’ NetSuite implementation plans, so it’s important to dig a little deeper. How much value can you get from NetSuite without any advanced support, and how does the right support change the equation?
What NetSuite Offers Right Out of the Box
NetSuite sells annual licenses to its subscription-based core ERP platform. You can select just its core platform and purchase licenses for each of your business users to have access. You might also add on the NetSuite SuiteSuccess program, which offers a complete NetSuite ERP built for twelve different business verticals; users can select the vertical that best aligns with their own business for a NetSuite that makes sense for your business needs.
Along with access to the software itself, NetSuite subscriptions include access to a basic degree of support. Basic support includes access to a 24/7 helpline, the online knowledge center, and the community group forum.
Related: 8 Differences That Set Top NetSuite Implementation Partners Apart
Businesses can operate NetSuite straight out of the box and rely on a combination of community resources and basic tech support to get things up and running. If you have a simple business model or are willing to adapt your business to the software instead of the other way around, you can make it work.
But NetSuite isn’t necessarily designed to work that way, nor is it limited to specific parameters. Instead, it offers a wide array of supplemental options, customization potential, and different levels of support to perfectly suit your business.
How to Make It Stronger
There are three options NetSuite users have for unlocking more of the power NetSuite provides. All three allow for more complex operations, more speed, and better ways to use data. All three also rely on advanced NetSuite customer support solutions.
Option #1: Modules
To make NetSuite work better for your organization, you don’t have to turn to full customization. In fact, in some cases, customization can be more complex, costly, and cumbersome than what your business actually needs to thrive. Instead, NetSuite offers modules.
These modules contain sets of more in-depth functionalities based on the ERP capabilities you need for your business, whether that’s more complex financing and accounting, more comprehensive warehousing and inventory tracking for global operations, or tools built for your specific vertical—like a hotel or dropshipping business.
NetSuite-certified professionals can install the modules, make sure everything aligns with your core iteration of the platform, and make sure everything runs smoothly.
Option #2: SuiteScript Customizations
Sometimes, modules may not offer exactly what you’re looking for. In this case, you and your team would turn to custom development. Note that this is a key tip for finding reliable developers and support services: if a third-party service starts by pushing a big custom development project, they may be trying to upsell you instead of doing what’s best for your business.
NetSuite uses SuiteScript, a JavaScript-based platform. Custom developers can peel back the layers of your NetSuite ecosystem and custom-code changes to fields, create new operations or functions, and integrate existing tools with SuiteScript APIs. This enhances all of the core functionalities and capabilities you previously had so NetSuite truly powers your business.
Option #3: Well-Managed Integrations with Other Systems in Your Techstack
You will have other programs in your organization-wide or department-specific tech stacks. You may have marketing platforms, Google Analytics, unique fulfillment and shipping apps, and more that fulfill different operations across your company. While NetSuite may not replace all of them, it should be able to communicate with all of them. For example, if a new prospect signs up for a consultation or sales call, that information should automatically feed into your CRM. Down the road, your shipping and fulfillment arm should use those same client-specific details to deliver the product to the right address.
Properly implemented standard integrations and integrations with SuiteScript APIs make all the difference. With a properly implemented data architecture at the foundation, you can build increasingly nuanced operations that involve multiple different programs so every aspect of your business speaks to each other.
The Essential Component: NetSuite Advanced Customer Support
You can take any or all of these approaches during implementation or when you decide to revise or upgrade your ERP in the future. But each of these routes requires the same thing: advanced customer support from certified professionals who know what they’re doing. A support team provides services like:
- An assessment of what you need to efficiently transform NetSuite into your ideal ERP
- Ongoing monitoring to ensure data fields are mapping to each other without errors or overwriting issues
- Proactive and preventative maintenance
- Support for modules, APIs, and the occasional custom project to make everything fit together smoothly
Not only is it important to have support, it’s important to have third-party support. A dynamic team of NetSuite-certified professionals can provide more niche expertise for every aspect of your ERP, whereas a full-time employee or two can only provide a couple of areas of expertise. Third-party services are also more dynamic, so you can have more support when you need it—such as during implementation or a change in your business’s operational course—and less support when you just need maintenance and monitoring.
How NetSuite Advanced Customer Support Provides for Ongoing Business Needs
When you’re thinking about adopting a new ERP, implementation is going to be your main priority. But once implementation is complete, that doesn’t mean your NetSuite iteration will stay static. Instead, advanced support services play a critical, ongoing role. Consider:
Day-to-Day Operations
When you aren’t making changes, your demand for support might dial down to needing an occasional NetSuite administrator. A professional in this role helps with onboarding and user access, security audits, resolving small bugs and issues, and maintaining data integrity. There may not be enough work to keep a full-time employee busy, or there may be too much work for a single individual to handle. Third-party services can help by providing exactly the right level of support, whether your needs go up or down from week to week.
Ongoing Business Transformations
Over time, your business will change. Today, your focus might be on developing a national distribution system. In a year, it could be global. Your target markets might change over the seasons, and your products and services may grow more diverse as your company increases in size. In the background, your ERP will also need to change to keep up.
Related: Staff NetSuite Developer vs. NetSuite Development Company: Which Do You Need?
When you’re restricted to the capabilities of your in-house staff, making those changes might not be fluid. After all, you may have a full-time NetSuite admin who specializes in day-to-day tasks but can’t do custom development work. You may have someone who knows how to do custom work but isn’t familiar with implementing modules, which can significantly stretch out the time and expense of each transformation.
By having an ongoing relationship with a third-party support service, you can have access to the right experts on hand for every task or project. This gives you access to incredibly specialized knowledge.
Keeping Your Organization Lean
Outsourcing work is cost-effective and efficient, especially when it comes to variable services that see fluctuating demand over time. Hiring a full-time administrator, development, and support staff can make your organization bloated—not only do you need to pay their salaries, but you’ll need to grow your payroll team, HR staff, and other administrative services in proportion to your growing employee count. By hiring NetSuite advanced customer support, you can keep your organization leaner and your costs more predictable.
Staying Up-to-Date on NetSuite Changes and New Capabilities
One of the key advantages of a third-party service instead of an in-house employee is that it’s impossible to expect one professional to have time and expertise in every single aspect of NetSuite, especially for a reasonable budget. But the advantage goes deeper than just areas of knowledge. Advanced support teams focus explicitly on multiple different areas of NetSuite, from new security protocols to recently released upgrades to ERP trends for different businesses. You have access to up-to-date expertise, where an in-house employee will be too busy managing daily tasks.
Get NetSuite Advanced Customer Support and Get More Value Out of Your ERP Environment
NetSuite is built to provide value, whether you use its core functions, upgrade it with modules, or have custom capabilities built into your system. But every step of the way, NetSuite advanced customer support remains critical. Look for advanced support options, including:
- User access support and management of the user interface
- Data integrity protocols that follow best practices
- Department-specific support for onboarding, migration, and assistance with role-specific operations
- Custom development work
- Monitoring and proactive troubleshooting to minimize outages and disruptions
- Implementation support
- Rescue and recovery services to get your ERP back on track
At Limebox, we provide all this—comprehensive, scalable support so you can have the right mix of custom developers and administrators available at a predictable cost. Reach out today to talk about the resources you need to unlock NetSuite’s robust capabilities and start seeing more value from your ERP.