NetSuite Archives

Dilemma Solved: Should You Replace QuickBooks with NetSuite?

Posted on June 18, 2024June 18, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

Many companies often find themselves in a place where they outgrow software that has once served them well. However, with new business challenges—particularly in accounting—comes new software that can match their growth rate and scale alongside them.

Organizations using myriad disparate systems to operate their business mostly come to the decision that migrating to one, more powerful platform is the answer. This often happens with QuickBooks users who have come to realize that it simply doesn’t meet the complexity of their needs. Let’s look at why many QuickBooks users migrate to NetSuite and why QuickBooks may have been right for them at some point but they now need to migrate to something more robust that meets their challenges.

QuickBooks and NetSuite Commonalities

While both cloud-based softwares are made to essentially help businesses manage their accounting needs, there is a significant difference in the approach and complexity of offerings. Both offer invoicing, billing, AP, and AR, and both integrate with other software solutions that help organizations streamline workflows and connect different parts of their operations. They also both provide reporting capabilities—but on a totally different scale, which we will tackle below.

Differences Between the Two

QuickBooks tends to be great for small- to medium-sized businesses looking for an easy-to-use platform to manage finances. It offers some functionality for those looking to manage a few elements of their supply chain, eCommerce, and retail. It’s primarily focused on accounting for businesses that have straightforward needs for financial management, while NetSuite can handle much more complex and diverse functions, making it more applicable for those organizations with intricate processes and integrations. NetSuite also offers more extensive functionality beyond accounting, such as CRM and ERP, making it suitable for larger or more complex businesses.

What NetSuite has that QuickBooks Lacks

NetSuite’s financial management tools are made for entire accounting departments looking to run billing, planning, reporting, and more—all with real-time visibility into performance. It also has features that can keep organizations in compliance with regulatory requirements. NetSuite has an integrated CRM as part of its ERP suite, which offers integration between accounting and customer management processes. QuickBooks does have basic CRM features, but it’s not as robust or integrated with its accounting capabilities.

While QuickBooks offers some degree of customization, NetSuite provides extensive customization options, which allow organizations to tailor the system to its specific workflows and needs.

NetSuite’s reporting capabilities are advanced analytics tools that allow businesses to generate financial reports, analyze performance, and gain insights into their operations. QuickBooks does have reporting, but it’s not nearly as comprehensive or customizable.

The same goes for eCommerce integration—NetSuite includes features for eCommerce integration, enabling businesses to manage online sales channels, automate order processing, and synchronize data between their accounting system and eCommerce platforms. QuickBooks may have integration options with a few eCommerce platforms, but they may not be as seamless or comprehensive as NetSuite’s.

QuickBooks has limited support for global operations, especially for businesses with complex international requirements. NetSuite was designed to support multi-national businesses with features like multi-currency support, multi-language support, and compliance with international accounting standards.

When to Make the Switch

Organizations should consider their long-term strategy and whether QuickBooks or NetSuite best aligns with their business challenges, growth objectives, and operational needs. Firstly, the size of the business and its complexity should be considered. If your business has outgrown QuickBooks capabilities and requires more advanced features such as multi-entity management, international accounting, and more advanced reporting, it is time to consider the shift to NetSuite.

Organizations experiencing rapid growth that need a more scalable solution should also consider transitioning to NetSuite, which will accommodate the growth sans the need for frequent system migrations.

Consider your industry that may have more unique accounting and reporting requirements that QuickBooks may not address. NetSuite offers solutions and customizable features that are industry-specific to those like manufacturing, retail, or eCommerce.

Another thing to address is whether your business relies on multiple systems that will need to be integrated into your accounting software. NetSuite offers a comprehensive suite of integrated applications that streamline operations and improve efficiency.

Making the switch to NetSuite requires planning, implementation, and training, all of which are all made simpler with a partner. To help you decide whether your business should migrate to NetSuite, give us a shout below in the contact form.

How NetSuite AI Empowers Users to be Efficient, Effective, and Precise

Posted on June 5, 2024June 13, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

The hottest investment in tech right now is AI, and NetSuite has taken full advantage of these advancements. AI-powered tools in NetSuite greatly improve the user experience with elements such as predictive analytics for inventory management, and intelligent automation for repetitive tasks like processing invoices. As NetSuite continues to be proactive and anticipates the needs of the end user, it helps to solve problems before we are aware that they even exist.

NetSuite’s intelligent capabilities include a myriad of tools that boost users’ efficiency and productivity. With automated data entry, manual tasks such as extracting relevant information from invoices, receipts, and bills are greatly reduced, which saves time and the chance for mistakes. Helping to improve accuracy and compliance, NetSuite’s AI capabilities analyze expense reports to detect patterns and anomalies, which can flag potential fraud or erroneous transactions.

With predictive analytics, its AI can look into historical financial data to identify trends and make predictions about future performance, which helps users make more data-backed decisions. With cash flow forecasting, AI algorithms can examine cash flow data to predict future patterns, helping organizations optimize their cash management strategies. To help identify fraud and financial irregularities, NetSuite’s AI can detect discrepancies in transactions and can generate reports by automatically aggregating and analyzing data from different sources, helping accountants be more accurate.

NetSuite’s AI can also streamline bank reconciliation processes with tools like automated matching, where its algorithms match transactions from bank statements with corresponding entries into accounting systems – this reduces the manual effort and chances for errors. Machine learning helps to regularly improve the reconciliation process, learning from historical data and user actions to enhance the accuracy of matching over time, while adapting to changing transaction patterns and business needs. NetSuite’s AI helps automatically categorize transactions based on predefined rules and historical data, too. This also saves time and ensures better accuracy.

There are other myriad components in NetSuite AI, including intelligent automation used to streamline business processes such as order management, procurement, and inventory management that all help reduce manual tasks, improve efficiency, and minimize human error.

Other NetSuite AI tools include NLP or natural language processing, which is used to interpret and respond to user questions or commands in natural language. This enhances the user experience when it comes to tasks such as querying data, generating reports or initiating workflows.

For business intelligence, NSAW, or NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, helps users reveal patterns, opportunities, and relationships from different data sources. Its automations “validate, centralize, and connect data sources from different systems, reducing costs, manual work, and human error,” according to NetSuite. Machine learning in NSAW analyzes large datasets to identify patterns, anomalies, and correlations that can inform business decisions, while its natural language processing (NLP) enables its users to better interact with data, allowing for simple exploration and analysis of complex datasets. NSAW can also automatically generate insights and reports, which provides users with actionable data without the need for manual analysis.

To learn more about how NetSuite can help accelerate your business processes with AI, contact us below in the form.

The Top 7 Benefits of NetSuite ERP

Posted on May 20, 2024May 31, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

Thousands of users are reaping the benefits of NetSuite, but what do they include? Let’s take a look at some of the top offerings the software giant features.

Customization

With over 30 varying modules and add-ons, each designed for different business requirements, organizations can easily tailor NetSuite ERP to its liking. SuiteBuilder, for example, allows users to build custom fields, forms, and records without any programming expertise. They can modify existing forms or create entirely new ones to capture specific data relevant to their business processes. Another is SuiteFlow, a built-in workflow management tool that allows users to create custom workflows to automate business processes. Users can define rules and triggers to automate tasks such as approvals, notifications, and record updates. These are just a couple examples to show how NetSuite ERP can be specifically designed for the way an organization requires.

Convergence of Business Processes

NetSuite ERP allows you to strategically grow the business in all aspects, from sales and marketing to finance—all in one platform. Keeping all these elements connected in one place allows for transparency to various departments within the organization, preventing users from going to other systems to search for what they need. The software provides real-time visibility into all business processes, keeping users on the same page and enabling them to make more informed decisions. With its many collaboration tools, NetSuite facilitates communication among employees, customers, and partners, which helps to break down silos and promotes cross-functional teamwork within the organization.

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Simplified Integration With Third-Party Systems

NetSuite ERP offers many methods for integrating with third-party systems to streamline processes and data flow. SuiteTalk is NetSuite’s web services API and allows for integration with external systems and applications. Developers can use it to build custom integrations that sync data between NetSuite ERP and many other business systems. For integration of external eCommerce systems, businesses can use SuiteCommerce, which allows developers to create seamless shopping experiences by syncing data. SuiteAnalytics Connect allows users to connect NetSuite data with third-party business intelligence tools like Tableau and Power BI. This integration enables users to create interactive dashboards and reports using NetSuite data alongside data from other systems. These are just some of the tools available, but there are many more.

Scalability

NetSuite ERP is highly scalable, grows along with the business, and can adapt to the unique requirements of many industries and organizations. Because it’s cloud-based, it eliminates the need for on-premise hardware and allows organizations to scale operations by simply adjusting their subscription level or configuration. Due to its flexible configuration, as organizations grow and change, NetSuite ERP can adapt to accommodate new processes, workflows, and business requirements without significant redevelopment or disruption. With its modular nature for various business functions like financials, inventory management, CRM, and eCommerce, organizations can start with the modules they need and add additional ones as the needs arise. Built on a scalable infrastructure that can handle the data processing and storage requirements of growing organizations, it’s designed to scale horizontally and vertically to accommodate increases in data volume, user load, and transaction volume without sacrificing performance.

NetSuite ERP Automation

Offering a wide range of automation capabilities across the board, NetSuite ERP allows users to simplify their business processes, save time, and avoid human error. Its workflow automation facilitates approvals, notifications, and data updates based on predefined rules and conditions it can schedule recurring data imports, generating reports and backups according to when they’re scheduled. This lessens manual efforts and saves time on tasks that are consistently repeated. NetSuite ERP also offers automation for inventory management, including generating purchase orders and monitoring stock levels, among others. Its financial automation capabilities work for billing tasks, invoicing, and managing expenses, as well. It streamlines workflows, minimizes possible mistakes, and overall, boosts efficiency and effectiveness. NetSuite also offers automation of certain CRM tasks like managing leads, forecasting, and ticketing for customer support. eCommerce automation in NetSuite improves online sales processes, including communication with customers, order processing, and synchronization of inventory.

Real-Time Data in NetSuite ERP

Offering a slew of real-time data, users can instantly see underlying patterns and trends across various business processes. With real-time dashboards, NetSuite ERP offers clear visualization of financial metrics, sales performance, employee performance, and so much more. Other types of real-time data include financial information like income and cash flow statements, balance sheets, and more. Inventory data is also given in real-time and offers visibility into stock on hand, in order, and in transit, among others. It enables the tracking of sales orders and performance KPIs, as well as procurement data such as vendor and supplier information, allowing users to better manage their relationships. Customer data is also in real time, which gives users the ability to view transactions and their history, as well as communications, which helps support staff to better understand the 360-degree view of the customer.

Accurate Reporting

For leadership to make informed decisions, accurate reporting capabilities are provided in NetSuite through real-time data consolidation and automated processes. Because all data is centralized and stored in one platform, it eliminates discrepancies that can arise from utilizing various systems, thereby making its reporting capabilities completely accurate. Reports are based on the most recent information, which lessens the likelihood of mistakes caused by old data. They’re also customized by the user according to their business needs and can be configured using relevant data. Financial reports are also in compliance with accounting standards, including GAAP and IFRS, ensuring accuracy.

Looking to implement NetSuite into your organization? Let us help. Contact Caravel in the form below.

Your NetSuite Implementation Guide: A 7-Step Checklist

Posted on May 13, 2024May 31, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

What’s involved in a NetSuite ERP implementation? Let’s dive into this complete checklist that will give you all the details you need to know before connecting with a NetSuite implementation partner.

What to expect from kick-off to go-live and beyond:

- Requirements Gathering
- System and Customization Design
- System Configuration
- System Testing
- Training
- Deployment, Preparation, and Go-Live
- Support and Maintenance

Requirements Gathering for NetSuite Implementation

The first step is to discuss and lay out the business goals with your NetSuite implementation partners. What are you trying to solve? What are the ERP requirements of the various departments within the organization and the issues they have that they will need to address? A deep dive into the needs, along with the challenges and goals, is imperative to the discovery and assessment phase. Look at current workflows and processes and identify inefficiencies that can be addressed with NetSuite ERP.

Once you have identified the issues that need solving, clarifying which processes you’d like the ERP system to take responsibility for and the business goals the new system will need to support is next. It’s also vital to examine the current systems within the organization that are working or not working to help reach business goals and decide whether or not to keep them.

Part of the assessment process is to also identify the key stakeholders that will be involved in the implementation, including the leads of different departments. These stakeholders should be involved in this initial phase, as their input is invaluable. At this stage, it’s also time to identify what KPIs will need to be monitored, tracked, and optimized. At the end of this portion of the process, your team and NetSuite implementation partners should be able to clearly identify the objectives and results you expect to come out of deploying the new ERP.

Throughout the implementation process, ensuring that accurate and complete data is transferred to NetSuite is pivotal. Conducting a thorough check of current data and its integrity is critical, as well as identifying what needs to be moved. If data must be cleansed prior to migration, then organizations must complete this effort prior to any other step. Once data has been cleansed and validated and is free of errors and redundancies, developing a mapping strategy to align the old with the new system is necessary. Determining which data sets are necessary for operations should be prioritized for migration. Be sure that security and compliance measures are taken to protect any sensitive information during the data migration. Consider how the data will flow between systems after the migration and that these integration points are configured properly. Decide whether data will be migrated in phases or in one fell swoop based on needs and limitations.

Once all these determinations have been solidified, testing the migration process to identify issues before going live is essential. Validation of the data’s accuracy and the completion of the migration should be verified and reconciled. A backup and contingency plan should be implemented as well, in case of unexpected failures, and to address any risks or disruptions. All of these considerations should be taken into account to maximize the success of data migration into your new NetSuite ERP system.

System and Customization Design

After the discovery and assessment phase, a plan for customization should be next on the checklist. Customizations should be prioritized based on their impact on the business, availability of resources, and strategic significance. The focus should be on customizations that present the most value. Consideration for out-of-the-box functionality should be evaluated first, as those may already meet the needs of the organization without the need for customization. When considering customizations, scalability should be taken into account to ensure they’re flexible and can accommodate future growth without too much rework. Prior to deploying any customizations, thorough testing should be done to ensure they function properly.

System Configuration

This vital step in the ERP implementation process involves setting up items like language preferences, assigning user roles and permissions, and changing any default settings to meet the needs of the organization. Your partner will also help to optimize any database settings for performance, security, backup, and recovery. At this point, you may also integrate the ERP with other applications, depending on the various phases in which you agree. This stage also includes the implementation of any change management practices to minimize interruptions and manage any changes effectively.

System Testing

Evaluation and testing of your new NetSuite ERP’s functionality, performance, and reliability is to make sure it meets the needs of the organization. There are several types of tests to perform, including functional testing, which ensures that all works as intended. These can include data entry, transaction processing, and generating reports. Another phase involves testing the integrations with other applications to ensure that data smoothly flows from the ERP to the other systems. Performance testing, another phase, evaluates the responsiveness of the ERP, as well as its performance under different workloads. Testing the security is also vital to address any vulnerabilities and includes user authentication, data encryption, and more. You will also want to test the user interface and experience to ensure that layouts, navigation, and overall user satisfaction are up to par. Once this phase is completed, full deployment across the organization occurs.

Training

Training not only involves educating new employees on the system but also teaching those who will be training others. There should always be a set group of employees that will be responsible for training new employees on the system, so they need to be read in first. Multiple scheduled training sessions take place in order to completely familiarize users with the new system. This involves providing hands-on practice where users can interact with NetSuite in a simulated environment, ask questions, and get assistance as needed. Feedback is an important part of the process, as it identifies any areas of improvement as well as the effectiveness of the training sessions.

Deployment, Preparation, and Go-Live

At this stage, testing and training have been completed and all parties agree that the next phase is to go live with the implementation. Change management strategies have been implemented to help users adapt to the new processes and system. Detailed plans have been developed for the launch of NetSuite, including scheduling the actual go-live, identifying key stakeholders and support personnel, and outlining contingency plans for any issues that may arise.

Support and Maintenance

Your NetSuite implementation partner should offer support services long after going live so that you and your team can focus on the business. Support services can include anything from administrative to analytical and technical support, as well as operations and integration support. These services should be offered through various channels, such as via phone, email, or even web-based support portals. You should also ideally be assigned a dedicated support manager who will look after your needs and make sure that your ERP continues to run smoothly.

Now that we understand how the implementation of NetSuite is not merely a technical endeavor, we can see how strategy, meticulous planning, thorough communication, and comprehensive training play a role as well. By utilizing this checklist, you can be more confident in knowing what to expect from an astute NetSuite implementation partner and how they can help transform your business processes and thrive in today’s dynamic business landscape.

Caravel is an award-winning NetSuite Alliance Partner who has worked with over 750 clients in various industries ranging from small businesses to enterprise-level corporations. Interested in learning more? Contact us below, and let us show you how we can help.

Mastering DCAA Compliance

Posted on March 22, 2024May 30, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

The federal government signs over 11 million contracts annually, and approximately 95% are awarded to small- and medium-sized businesses. Steady cash flow and profitable, long-term contracts are just a few significant reasons these contracts are valuable to businesses.

Once awarded a government contract, companies must comply with regulations set forth by the DCAA, or the Defense Contract Audit Agency. These companies should, therefore, maintain business systems that facilitate that compliance.

Some of the elements of compliance include:

Maintenance of accurate payroll and time-keeping records
Implementation of DCAA-compliant accounting systems
Production of accurate documentation for audits
Cost-tracking
Following government-issued checklists

Being Prepared for DCAA Audits

The DCAA performs contract audits that affect negotiations with over 7,000 contractors annually to help enable and facilitate negotiations for which contracting officers are responsible. Although the DCAA has no actual role in determining which companies are awarded contracts, they provide recommendations to those who select the contractors.

The DCAA iterates on its website that its role “in the financial oversight of government contracts is critical to ensure DoD gets the best value for every dollar spent on defense contracting. DCAA operates under the authority, direction, and control of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer.” Overall, its main function is to conduct audits on contracts and financial advisory services to determine if those contract costs are “allowable, allocable, and reasonable (or not).”

Due to the firm requirements of the DCAA, businesses must be prepared for possible audits. Manual or disconnected software systems that are both time and labor-intensive won’t cut it. Instead, automated processes on a unified ERP platform that include pre-built DCAA compliance capabilities should be in place from the get-go. Without a system such as this, it would be difficult for various departments to collaborate on a single platform, which causes many challenges when trying to produce a report or a specific document for the DCAA.

“To be more prepared for audits, organizations need to define business process flows, that a) work with your current business processes, and b) are expandable for other business processes. Also, having someone on your team available who has experience in how these processes flow and can provide guidance is quite important. Before implementing any new systems, nailing these two things down is paramount,” explains David Tillotson, Director of Solution Engineering at Caravel.

Audits can result in negative findings such as overpayments, unallowable costs, fraud, and mismanagement. These results are reported to the Department of Defense and the contractors themselves, who are responsible for rectifying issues.

For non-compliance, consequences include civil and criminal penalties, voided contracts, and companies being completely barred from ever doing business with the government in the future.

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Meeting DCAA Requirements

Automation in lieu of manual processes is a no-brainer in facilitating compliance with DCAA requirements. Unmatched by spreadsheets, an automated and singular solution approach to time entry, labor costs, accounting, billing, and reporting will not only bring various departments on the same page but will also greatly facilitate compliance and communication. Disparate systems—such as utilizing QuickBooks and spreadsheets—only make compliance more difficult.

“Many organizations have relatively complex percentage-based calculations based off cost pools,” notes Tillotson, “and if mistakes are made, it throws off the reporting. Automating these processes eliminates the potential for these types of errors. Time spent on manual processes requires a significant amount of effort compared to automated processes.”

Let’s review some of the compliance requirements:

Timekeeping

Tracking time is essential for DCAA compliance, as this data is the foundation for reporting. Time reporting, daily time entry, time approval, time entry updates, cost pool association, and employee training are all required for best practices as laid out by the DCAA. The DCAA will occasionally conduct random checks at the vendor’s site, where they will speak with employees and inspect time sheets to ensure they’re completed daily.

Cost Segmentation

As part of qualification for compliance, companies are required to classify costs as direct or indirect; direct costs are grouped separately from those that are indirect. Direct costs are traced to specific projects, while indirect costs are shared resources across internal activities (e.g., R&D, Bid and Proposal, Operations). This allocates what the contract is responsible for in terms of operational overhead.

Financial Management

An accurate view of the financial performance of each project must be clearly laid out. Recording what was spent, as well as classifying expenses and revenue by category (e.g., rent, accounting, or services) is essential. Tracking and separating allowable costs (reimbursable by the government) from unallowable costs (cannot be charged to the government) must also be recorded and reported.

Labor Distribution

This report relays the hours worked and cost per employee and is divided by project and cost pool.

FAR and CAS Compliance

Government contractors must also be consistent with Federal Acquisition Regulation and Cost Accounting Standards to comply with the DCAA. Accounting practices must be disclosed along with evidence of compliance.

These requirements prevent fraudulent billing; by default, they become legal documents and must be accurate. Promoting transparency and accountability is essential to DCAA compliance. “When it comes to reporting to the DCAA, manually filling out forms and spreadsheets takes an exorbitant amount of time, whereas an automated system will generate it for you for every single invoice, as well as for any on-demand reporting needed,” says Tillotson.

A Complete Compliance Solution

A unified, cloud-based ERP, together with a fully integrated DCAA solution, will enable government contractors to carry out all the above requirements smoothly.

For NetSuite users, meeting regulatory requirements set forth by the DCAA can be achieved through Caravel’s DCAA Compliance SuiteBundle, which controls common variables across various businesses. Although NetSuite is a GAAP-compliant accounting system, there are key regulations to which it does not comply. The SuiteBundle is built directly into NetSuite to supplement the functionality necessary for DCAA compliance.

Join the DCAA subject matter experts at Caravel on March 29, 2024, in a live webinar where we will show you how to master compliance in NetSuite. Register here.

The Power Behind NetSuite Analytics Warehouse

Posted on March 6, 2024May 3, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

Data is quite possibly the most valuable business asset. Information from various business departments accumulates over the years and tells the story of an organization. It can provide invaluable insights into the future of that business and requires the utmost care in storage and management. In many cases, the various data from each entity is stored separately and in different formats, making it cumbersome, unmanageable, and overwhelming.

Challenges in the Dataverse

The rate of data among enterprises is growing at a rate of 40-60% each year. This rapid expansion makes the storage, management, and utilization of that data more and more challenging and can greatly affect growth. Hindrances to the effective use of data include siloed data sources, a shortage of experts who can analyze big data, extracting meaningful insights that lead to actionable intelligence, as well as the security of data.

“Data-driven companies are those with a certain data maturity and literacy across the organization, where employees value the power of data,” explains Ashish Tamboli, EPM Senior Consultant at Caravel. Tracking, reviewing, and analyzing data and trends over time can greatly help organizations to better understand which processes need to be fixed and which are performing well. Data helps leadership create strategy based on evidence and to better understand customers—where they come from, what propels them to buy, and perhaps why certain items have high return rates. Simply put, having organized data helps businesses make more informed decisions, improves customer relationships, and increases revenue.

What is NSAW?

NSAW, or NetSuite Data Warehouse, is a cloud-based data storage and analytics solution for NetSuite ERP users that marries data and analytics along with AI and Machine Learning (ML). This allows users to speed up their decision-making processes and convert them into actionable results. NSAW employs the power of the Oracle Analytics Cloud, which is backed by the Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse. This allows users to build and run analyses and visualizations quicker and without the need for their IT department.

Effectively solving data management challenges, NSAW brings together ALL data sources, including NetSuite Finance and Operations data, and other sources a business may use such as Shopify data, Salesforce data, Google Analytics, and many more that allow a business to turn off legacy systems that no longer serve it. NSAW also reduces the heavy task of migrating data and offers self-service analytics and automated reporting from multiple sources.

NSAW allows its users not to look at data in isolation, but rather from an entire workflow perspective to more easily identify patterns, understand what the data is revealing, and make true, data-driven decisions.

NSAW propels businesses to make faster, more cost-effective decisions by:

- Streamlining data management and ease of access.

- Fast-tracking business insights and solving business challenges.

- Reducing IT costs and complexity.

- Eliminating reliance on spreadsheets.

- Giving direct access to historical data.

- Simplifying reporting by eliminating the need for presentations.

AI Capabilities

The power of artificial intelligence drives NSAW to validate, centralize, and connect sources of data from unrelated operational systems, thereby granting access to the most up-to-date data that is consistent and whole. This reduces human error, as well. Always on the job and running in the background, it allows for speedier insights and produces a clear look into financials and operations by utilizing pattern recognition, outlier detection, automatic forecasting, and predictive modeling. AI makes analyzing trends and creating reports based on the most current and historical data. By processing large data sets from multiple sources, NSAW reveals the value that would otherwise be buried by legacy systems.

How Historical Data Adds Tremendous Value

Historical data is classified as past (pre-NetSuite migration) ERP transactional information on sales, products or services, customers, and suppliers. Businesses are required to retain this information for financial and legal purposes, and it’s typically stored in siloed, legacy in-house systems with restricted access to preserve its integrity. This data is rich with information and lessons from historical operational performance as well as the customer and explains a lot about current facts and figures. It also plays a large role in forecasting, which allows businesses to plan for change.

Money is spent to safeguard, monitor, update, and patch this data – and this requires expertise to guard it against security threats. Over a seven-year period, these costs add up. This is where a centralized, cloud-based system can eliminate all the issues that segregated and costly historical data causes.

Benefits include:

- A single source of truth for all business transactions.

- Secure, reliable, and accessible data.

- Direct access to historical data.

- Ease of use out-of-the-box for immediate results.

- Multiyear trend reporting alongside current data, allowing for cause-and-effect analysis.

- Solid customer data, allowing businesses to identify pertinent information on loyal customers.

- Viewable multiyear purchase trends that blend historical data with current eCommerce data.

- Website and CRM data blended with historical data to reveal more about customer acquisition, which is important for retention.

Unsiloed Data is Powerful Data

One of the biggest challenges that businesses face is having their data in silos as well as in many different formats. Getting access to their data is yet another issue they face, while the struggle with manual fatigue is next on the list. The cost implications of managing legacy data are an additional problem, but all these issues can be easily solved.

Many NetSuite users have other systems and data sources within their organization that could offer tremendous benefits by adding additional context and a more thorough understanding of the past, present, and future. This diverse data can help detect early signs of change, allowing businesses to be more agile and adaptable.

Sources of internal data include:

- Customer service data

- eCommerce data

- Marketing and social media campaign data

- Legacy data

- Spreadsheets

- Website data and leads

Sources of external data include:

- Employment data

- Google search and Google ads data

- Reseller data

- Social media sentiment on competition

- Supplier data

- Subsidiary data

- Trade events

All this highly valuable data isn’t being shared across the business, and as it accumulates, it gets stale if unused.

There are many ways that data silos waste resources and reduce employee efficiency. According to Stitch Data, it can reduce the speed at which a company uses data to make decisions, permit poor collaboration among departments, incur unnecessary IT costs, and reduce the quality of data, thereby leading to poor analytics.

Centralizing data will unlock tremendous value and allow the business to safely retain the data and allow for access across departments, retire legacy systems that no longer serve a purpose, be rid of costly data migration projects, and allow for analysis of operations, trends, and performance over time.

Data storage scales according to a business’s needs and NSAW offers over 40 pre-built connections to sources such as Google Analytics, Shopify, payroll data, inventory data, HR data, Salesforce, and more. The challenges of integrating and managing data are minimized so users can focus on unveiling valuable insights that lead to more informed business decisions.

The visualizations and dashboards are comprehensive and easy to understand, while using the built-in ML models allows for predictive analysis.

Painless Reporting

Manual reporting is an effort of the past. With NSAW, self-serve reporting is easy, with drag-and-drop features and a collection of visually appealing dashboards that offer key metrics from all over. Sales, inventory, financials, procurement, and more—these dashboards are easily customizable and offered in everyday language, making it simple. Meanwhile, AI runs in the background and offers features such as auto recommendations on the optimal visualization styles, helping to interpret results more quickly. Reports refresh themselves automatically, so the user is not constantly rebuilding them. No-code forecasting allows users to better plan and predict for the future. All this is presented on one screen, avoiding users jumping around to uncover inefficiencies and discover revenue opportunities.

NSAW offers KPIs and metrics for many different job roles, putting them in the proper context for each employee. This role-based analytical capability makes it simpler for users to view what is relevant to them. It also allows users to drill down from KPIs and charts and investigate elements at the transaction level. Its reporting capabilities reduce time spent on creating presentations by offering visuals that can directly export to various formats such as PDF, PNG, and XLS.

Spotting Key Revenue Drivers

One of the driving values of NSAW is cost savings. As a data migration solution, being able to store and access historical data without having to pay for other licenses is tremendous on the bottom line. NSAW, compared to other solutions on the market, allows current NetSuite users to save tens of thousands of dollars a year by consolidating their data in the warehouse.

“NSAW is a strategic investment for data-driven companies to gain valuable, immediate, and accurate insights, Ashish states. “Since many employees lack IT knowledge, NSAW acts as a self-serve tool that can be used with little to no IT support by leveraging pre-built datasets and reports.” This is where significant cost savings come in and eliminate the need for complete IT support, making users more autonomous and able to gain insights and delve into trends without relying on IT.

Once data has been effortlessly merged into NSAW and is centrally packaged with easy access, users can easily solve business problems and make more informed decisions. Running autonomously in the cloud, a prebuilt data pipeline automates the flow of NetSuite ERP data into the Warehouse (daily or at other frequencies); automations organize the data so it’s usable and accessible—thereby eliminating the need for an IT team to run it. As Ashish points out, “NetSuite ERP is not enough of a system to give you insights into your data. Users need to have the capability to slice and dice data to get more meaningful outputs and compare trends. This is where NSAW comes in and allows users to compare trends over time.”

NSAW consolidates information and centralizes assets, giving relevant data to end users—anytime, anywhere.

Caravel can help accelerate the implementation of NetSuite’s Analytics Warehouse so that your teams can all be on the same page when it comes to data and insights.

Watch the on-demand webinar, Harnessing the Power of Your Analytics With NSAW, and learn more about this extraordinary program that will propel your organization to the next level.

Category: NetSuite