Rapid implementation of the most critical capabilities
Once the life sciences company had decided to contract with Sikich for implementing NetSuite, the deployment was soon underway. The Sikich team began the engagement by learning about the company’s specific operating conditions and documenting its objectives and requirements for the ERP deployment. They asked the finance team to take a thorough inventory of their processes, so they could fine-tune NetSuite, for instance, to support the company’s chart of accounts, project structure, and reporting practices. The VP of finance says, “Sikich expected to pilot us through an efficient NetSuite implementation that would take twelve weeks. However, by making the best of their ERP, life sciences, and project management expertise, and by providing them promptly with all the information they needed, we went live in just eight weeks.”
The client and Sikich agreed that it was preferable to use the standard solution as much as possible and prioritize the most business-critical capabilities in the initial, fast implementation. The VP of finance notes, “My top-of-mind recommendation for anybody planning an ERP deployment is not to customize the ERP system unless it’s truly necessary. Instead, learn what the solution can help you do and put it to work. I’ve seen implementations fail when business groups ask for capabilities that are nice to have, but not critical. Such requests will lengthen the deployment and make it more complicated.”
Putting modern ERP into practice
The life sciences company went live with such foundational capabilities as a general ledger, accounts payable, journal entry booking, and reporting. “Our level of confidence in Sikich and NetSuite was very high,” the accounting manager says. “We switched from QuickBooks to NetSuite without running the two in tandem. That was a complete success.”
The finance team worked with Sikich to become proficient and comfortable NetSuite users. Then, the finance managers facilitated several brief trainings for their colleagues who needed to learn how to approve invoices and others who had to use a subset of the solution’s capabilities. When Sikich implemented the NetSuite Employee Center, which included expense management functionality, everybody in the company would interact with NetSuite for expense reimbursement. The business offered a series of lunchtime meetings where employees could learn about these solution features. “We made sure people understood how NetSuite would make their lives easier,” the accounting manager explains. “By using the new tool, they could manage their time and expense reimbursement in a single resource. That was the standard process from then on.”