We’ve previously discussed ways a NetSuite partner can benefit your business and how to choose the right partner for your business. Now we’re going to answer the question you most likely have had since the first article: why should you work with a NetSuite implementation partner at all?
Understand Your Industry
NetSuite relies on what they call “leading practices” when they implement the solution for companies in certain industries. That means they will provide what most businesses in a market vertical use. This keeps the solution highly standardized, which makes for an efficient deployment, but it might not work for everybody.
Sometimes, the NetSuite practice strays when it comes to matching the solution to industry requirements. A client can easily become confused when making selections from among more than 200 different line items. The sales representatives may not always be familiar with an industry, and their initial fact-finding might not provide enough direction. Mistakes can happen that way. For instance, we recently helped a distribution company that had erroneously acquired an instance of NetSuite that was designed for manufacturers.
You need to have the domain expertise and also take the time to make company-specific adjustments, which can make a big difference in the outcome of the implementation. A NetSuite implementation partner will have the industry expertise to make sure your project is configured for your business.
Fitting Clients’ Individual Needs
Sikich always pursues the business results that clients want to achieve. A speedy completion of the project is important, but it’s not always the overriding concern. We can deliver value with great efficiency and implement NetSuite functionality according to our clients’ priorities. It can greatly add to the value of an implementation if we consider the entire technology environment. As such, we might suggest additional, integrated software tools so you can gain a complete business management solution.
For example, some distribution companies have warehouse barcode scanning as their standard procedure. It wouldn’t make sense for them to delay that kind of critical capability. Whereas the NetSuite team is trained and focused on NetSuite ERP alone, we, as a NetSuite implementation partner, can ensure that the implementation process meets the clients’ priorities.
Project Management
Your Sikich project manager will be accountable while your implementation is in progress. When the project is complete, we smoothly transition to your client account manager, who will be responsible for our service delivery from that point on. These individuals and their teams are all part of the Sikich service organization, and the same people are involved in Sikich sales, implementations, training, and ongoing support.
When you let NetSuite handle your implementation project, you deal with multiple teams responsible for sales, deployment, training, and support. It can be challenging to manage all of these transitions between teams seamlessly.
In addition, NetSuite rolls out major solution updates about twice a year. In the cloud, the software changes take place without any need for our clients to do anything. Sikich is one of the NetSuite partners testing these upgrades before they are propagated. We also deliver any training and support that our clients may require to gain the full benefit of these enhancements.
Verify Success of Deployment Project
Sikich identifies and defines critical success factors, including KPIs and metrics for a NetSuite deployment, very early in the sales process. We refine and revise them, and document our progress, during the business process assessment and throughout our collaboration with a client. We always get buy-in from the client before we finalize the goals for a NetSuite project and set priorities for it.
Many clients’ goals sound similar, but how exactly they translate into processes and NetSuite configurations may be very different from one industry to another, or even among individual companies. That’s where it pays off that we take the time to become deeply familiar with our clients’ operations, challenges, and goals.
At the end of the project, clients sign off on what we achieved together, and then we help them define and pursue the objectives for the next stage of the solution’s life cycle.
Project Visibility
When we are asked to turn around a failing NetSuite implementation project already underway, we often see that clients lost visibility of their project. They signed off on project goals and schedules, but the implementation proceeded without regular validation checkpoints from the business stakeholders. The implementing team can be extremely efficient that way, but losing sight of your goal is a real risk. It’s important that clients remain in control of the deployment effort, and it needs to remain fully transparent for them.
The client’s IT department has to be closely involved, but the business groups with a stake in the new solution also need to be part of the deployment. Our clients’ share of the deployment project workload matches ours.
Client Relationships
One of the biggest reasons to work with a NetSuite implementation partner over working with just NetSuite is that a partner will develop a true partner relationship with the client instead of merely being a vendor. At Sikich, being a partner is something we need to earn in every client relationship. It’s how we feel we an be of most value and help companies succeed. Instead of fitting software modules to business processes, we learn about clients’ businesses and look for ways to provide long-term business enablement by means of technology and services.
Clients commit to a Sikich engagement with the expectation of a sustained relationship based on shared goals and values. We look to add value as companies evolve and mature long past their first ERP implementation. Our account managers visit with clients quarterly to learn about any changes and ensure that we continue making a vital contribution to their business.
Next Steps
If you’re ready to choose Sikich as your NetSuite implementation partner, here are the next steps you can take:
- Get started with a Sikich business process assessment.
- Learn more about Sikich SuiteSuccess for NetSuite.
- Read the other blog posts in this series:
