NetSuite’s Secret to Customer Success

A key factor in NetSuite’s success from Day One was the overarching goal of the company. NetSuite was built to run a business. The suite includes many outstanding capabilities, built in from the ground up, including: pure cloud architecture; built-in Business Intelligence; customization framework; ecommerce; and more. These are all incredible capabilities, but its core mission -- software built to run a business -- has always been a subtle misunderstood differentiator.

It’s amazing how many other competitive products out there started off with a different focus. That focus was not running a business. They were created to run a sales force, a shop floor, a warehouse, an HR team or the accounts. Then out of this primary goal, many years later, other functions where then shoehorned in, built on foundations that were not fit for purpose. For example, there are several solutions out there that are based on simple sales force automation foundations that morphed into CRM and then finally the rest of the business functionality was added. Their mantra is the customer is the center of everything. However, the way you sell to and interact with your customers may be very different from the way you need to financially structure your business because of geographic or tax constraints. However, if the product was designed purely for financials, the account is at the center of everything, forcing you to sell to customers based on your financial structure. The same can be said for the shop floor, where the work center is the center of everything, or the HR system where the employee is the center, etc.

Users want a system that caters to their role. A warehouse manager wants the system to be based around the product and the warehouse as that is their entire world. Not that they want to forget the customer, or the accounting impact but it is not their focus. A product that is centered around the general ledger or the customer is going to get in the way of doing their job.

SuiteSuccess, recently announced by NetSuite, is a manifestation of all of this. SuiteSuccess was engineered to solve unique industry challenges that historically have limited a company’s ability to grow, scale and adapt to change. Most ERP vendors have tried to solve the industry solution problem with templates, rapid implementation methodologies, and custom code (trying to force that round peg into the square hole). NetSuite took a holistic approach to the problem ensuring every single aspect of the solution and delivery is oriented around the customer’s industry and roles within that industry. There are four pillars to the solution.

1) Build: develop a complete unified suite covering all elements required to run a business.

2) Engage: Leading practices for each industry including all capabilities, workflows, BI, reports, roles required for each industry. Allowing customers from the first sales engagement understand the product and how it will support the business.

3) Consume: A re-imagined consumption model using NetSuite’s industry stairways allows companies to consume capabilities based on their business needs.

4) Optimize: Continuous improvement of all aspects and consumption of the solution.

NetSuite was built to run a business and handle the complexity and variances real businesses encounter. That is why NetSuite is the leading cloud ERP, delivering rapid ROI to its customers with unrivalled referencability within the industries it serves.

If you have a business to run, you should always look to NetSuite.