NetSuite ERP Reviews

NetSuite ERP has dramatically improved our organization. We went from QuickBooks to NetSuite. You can compare this transition to changing from tennis shoes to a flying car. You really have much more functionality over foreign operations with NetSuite. I would say in capability, report-wise, data querying, is much better to use than QuickBooks. QuickBooks is only for small companies.

The feature I find most valuable is the reporting function as I work in accounting. There is an innumerable number of data analyses and reports that you could be called to do on a daily basis. The ability for just your average users to do what they call customized reporting or searches is very simple. Again, it's a user-centric tool. You don't have to have involvement with your IT function. If you're in a New York company, especially in software, where you have engineers that are hyper-focused on product development, you don't get any support from them anyway. So, having a product that can be supported by the users themselves is golden.

The areas that this product needs to improve on is the implementation and inventory processes. That is my accounting-based opinion. The more automated these processes are, the better.

I have been using NetSuite ERP for about 20 years.

My impression is that the NetSuite ERP solution is quite stable.

I would rate this solution's scalability a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. Currently, there are around 40 or 50 users of this solution in our organization.

I would rate NetSuite ERP's technical support a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. Obviously, you can't get a dedicated support specialist unless you want to pay a huge amount of money for that, but I would say their technical support is good. The more you go to a third party, the worse it gets.

Positive

The setup process mostly depends on the type of VAR that you have. If you have a good VAR with competent engineering capabilities, your implementation could be a dream. But if you're like me and you have a VAR that is horrible, unresponsive, lacks the skillset, is completely unhelpful, and likes to point fingers, then you're going to have a very difficult implementation that's going to turn into a nightmare.

We were doing an integration with Stripe, which was a horrible experience. Stripe is a poor product, so it was very difficult to engineer that kind of data integration. Most of the VARs are not capable of handling that kind of environment. 

Time-wise, it can really depend on how long the deployment can take. If you're not trying to integrate it with a platform like Stripe, then you can have an easy implementation. That really depends on how much data you're trying to integrate, in terms of historical data. In the United States, we have laws around Sarbanes Oxley requirements. So there are certain steps that you have to follow to make sure that you have the right amount of data. When you do a new ERP system, you're really kind of concerned with the functionality in your reporting. So if you have transactions going through the new system, but you don't mirror them in the old one, you're never going to know whether or not what you're trying to do can be comparable to the old way, which is something you've relied upon and you have. It's like a test case, for example.

The implementation is done through a third-party team. We have VARs that help with that kind of work. NetSuite also has its own implementation teams. But if you have more customized implementation needs, like integration with third-party platforms, other than a banking function, for example, Stripe or Bill.com, then you have to get some VARs that are very knowledgeable.

The ROI is visible almost immediately. Its capability of dealing with foreign operations are much better than QuickBooks. With QuickBooks, you can't do foreign currencies within one environment. So if you have a US company, you can only do one currency, the US dollar. However, in NetSuite, you could do multiple currencies for each entity. The difference in capabilities is just night and day.

It's an annual, usage-based subscription. The more users you're going to have, the more licenses you need. The pricing is very much to my liking. I was very satisfied with it. I don't have any complaints. If you have a very superior product, you're going to pay for it, but that's the trade-off.

A lot of times, you have multinationals that can work under different reporting requirements. For example, you can have a parent company in a different country that's subject to IFRS and then you can have US entities that are subject to US GAAP. They have ways of accommodating that and that will definitely cost you more money. They're called books. It's very much like what you would think of, like, a sub-ledger. So it would be where you'd make specialized transactions to integrate between two different regulatory bodies.

I would advise others trying to implement this solution to be very careful about the value-added reseller (VAR) that they choose. There are some really bad VARs out there. They will promise you the world and then when things go bad, they'll point the finger at you. It's better to go with NetSuite's recommendation first. Obviously, they're not going to choose somebody to implement their product unless they've carefully vetted them and have had good reviews.

In NetSuite ERP, they should focus on offering better customization options. In Microsoft Dynamics Business One, we have features like formatted search queries and SDK-level development, which allows us to easily put controls at the front end. NetSuite ERP lacks this level of customization, and if they improve it, the product will be even better. 

Another area of improvement is documentation and support. In Microsoft Dynamics Business One, we can easily refer to Google and manuals to manage things in-house, but with NetSuite ERP, we often have to depend on developers and experts for support. Additionally, since NetSuite ERP uses the Oracle database, mapping extra requirements can sometimes be limited or constrained. They should address these aspects to enhance the product.

I gained that experience and knowledge from one of my previous assignments. I had the opportunity to demonstrate Microsoft Dynamics Business One, and they were considering it as an alternate product to NetSuite ERP and Microsoft Dynamics. 

Therefore, during that assignment, I acquired knowledge and experience about NetSuite ERP.

The initial setup is easy. However, if your company works with a standard environment and has well-defined processes, then you can easily map the system. It's like an off-the-shelf product that you can buy and use, almost like a plug-and-play solution. 

However, if your company has some extra requirements or needs to map certain areas into the system, then it can be troublesome. That's the case with NetSuite ERP. In contrast, Microsoft Dynamics Business One doesn't have that barrier.

Another significant difference is the licensing. With Microsoft Dynamics Business One, we can use Test more licenses, which allows for extended testing periods. However, NetSuite doesn't provide that kind of facility. While they may have trial options, you have to pay for subscriptions and hosting right from the beginning when implementing the product. This might cause budgetary challenges for some companies during the implementation process.

The cost can vary depending on the company's size, the number of users, and the service providers. It's not a fixed amount, and it depends on specific requirements and agreements with the service provider.

I am using Microsoft Dynamics. I'm referring to the SME-level product of Microsoft Dynamics. Our Oracle NetSuite is at the same level as the SME product of Microsoft Dynamics.

NetSuite is the biggest competitor for Microsoft Dynamics Business One. We need a fully cloud-based solution, and for that, a stable internet connection and proper IT infrastructure are required. Also, if you use tablets, smartphones, or laptops, you should have the right level of access through browsers. Additionally, dealing with massive amounts of data may require extra configuration to improve transaction processing speed and scalability.

Before considering NetSuite ERP, I would advise you to evaluate your requirements and check the feasibility with Microsoft Dynamics Business One as well. If you find that NetSuite meets your needs and is the ideal product for you, then you can go with NetSuite.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We use it for the projects we do in the telecom industry.

I didn't see the NetSuite ERP having the profit center or fund management features we have in SAP, and that's where we are struggling. What we need is a fund management feature, which we didn't find in the current version.

We're mainly looking for the fund management feature in the next version.

I have been using this solution for one and a half years.

It is a stable solution. I would rate the stability of NetSuite ERP a six out of ten. I haven't experienced any glitches or bugs with NetSuite so far. However, there are some features, like local taxation, that are not properly available in NetSuite. To access those features, we have to purchase a bundle.

The scalability of NetSuite ERP is quite good when incorporating APIs and plugins. In that regard, I would rate it highly. However, when it comes to high volumes of transactions, I am not sure if it is still scalable.

I would rate the scalability of NetSuite a seven out of ten. There are around 20-30 users in our organization.

It was expensive. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten.

We are currently using NetSuite ERP, but it doesn't satisfy all our needs. We are hoping SAP will be a better fit for us.

Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten because many features are not there yet.

We use NetSuite for inventory and order management. 

NetSuite helps us simplify business processes. 

NetSuite is a better value than some competing solutions. The fee structure is simpler, and other ERP solutions don't offer as many options for configuration.

NetSuite is good for data management, but it's missing payroll features. 

We started using NetSuite for a Turkish company two or three years ago.

NetSuite's stability is okay. 

I rate NetSuite six out of 10 for scalability. 

I rate NetSuite four out of 10 for ease of implementation. It's difficult to implement but easier than some other ERP solutions. 

NetSuite is expensive, but it is about average for an ERP solution. There are some extra costs depending on the scope of the solution, so it's not always transparent for the customers. Over the course of a project, customers may decide that they need to pay for other modules, which adds to the base price. 

I rate NetSuite ERP eight out of 10. NetSuite is suitable for small and mid-sized companies. Still, it is essential to define your exact requirements before implementing the solution so that you can prepay for the ERP to fit your needs. 

For example, a small company that incorrectly estimates what it needs might go into the hole trying to implement it. In the early stages, you need to compare the numbers for NetSuite and SAP Business One with accurate data about the requirements. 

I have multiple pharmaceutical distributions. I'm currently doing two projects with companies that are what are called stevedoring companies. They're companies that load and unload these massive vessel ships that come into the ports all over the world. Containers and cruisers and things of that nature. I've also done a large 3PL shipping company. I've done a couple of manufacturing companies. I've done a couple of manufacturer distributor companies. It's a very versatile system. It can be used for a variety of businesses.

It's less about functionality today. Although the functionality is there, most systems are pretty competitive on things like financials. At that level, what makes a solution competitive is the architecture, and NetSuite has the most advanced system architecture in the market today. It was built for the cloud. It's a true cloud application. It's truly, purely web-based. 

There's no infrastructure required. It's fast licensed, it's multi-tenant for releases. 

I would say that the solution is highly configurable. 

The solution's data structure is very referential. You can easily customize new data in the system. It's a system that's built for enormous flexibility and customization.

The system itself, the reporting dashboards, integration, API, workflows, all that stuff's strong in NetSuite. The functionality is strong.

They've got people working deeply on it. They spend incredible amounts of money on R&D and their releases are very robust and they just keep moving forward with more.

There's always room for improvement in every system.  It's going to have some functional verticals that just aren't as competitive in the app, due to the fact that there are older systems that have been built for 20 years that are deep. For example, in manufacturing, there's something called process manufacturing, versus discrete manufacturing. There's a couple of systems that'll beat NetSuite on process manufacturing.

In terms of the main improvement to NetSuite is the talent itself. It's grown so fast and there are about 25,000 companies running on it, and it's a relatively newer system compared to other competitors. It's growing so fast that the talent base in the partner organization (there's about 200 of them), is pretty thin. 

There's a lot of bodies. There's a lot of kids there. I call them the kids because they're people in their twenties, maybe in their thirties. If you're under 40, you are still a kid to me. What it boils down to is that I've been doing assessments for 40 years. I have five grown sons between the age of 30 and 44. Not a single one of them, if they worked around the clock for the rest of their lives, could catch up with me on experience, because in today's market people get pigeonholed and specialized. They don't get a broad experience. People aren't building systems anymore, so you don't have that depth. What it boils down to is most of these people working in these ERP projects, in all the systems, are truly not systems people.

They're actually people that just know how to push buttons and settings and workflows and reports, and spit things out. They know how to configure a system, however, they don't really know much about how it would actually do what it does, or how it's built. Therefore, the weakness in that is that when you get into business models that require some real custom configuration, they don't really know how to do that. 

In today's market, young people aren't learning how to really learn a business. What's happening is a lot of systems focused work without first understanding the business that they're actually serving. That's prevalent in the NetSuite world and these newer systems, due to the fact that they've basically been staffed with and around young people who really don't have a lot of business experience. They may know a lot about that application, that system, but then not really know very much about the business. Business experience is an issue in this market today.

We've worked on multiple systems, however, I've probably been engaging with NetSuite to some extent for the last seven years.

The solution is highly reliable. I've got a client who's been running for four and a half years flawlessly, with no outages, no errors, no failings. Of course, part of that is the architecture and the system. Part of it is we did a world-class job of implementing it. However, the bottom line is you can really mess up a system if you don't know what you're doing. That said, NetSuite itself is a highly reliable system.

Scalability is pretty good. It's targeted. Oracle has its Oracle cloud product and some other junk products in between, but the two flagship products are Oracle Cloud (for tier one companies, over a billion dollars in revenue)m and then NetSuite, which is targeted for the half a billion-dollar or maybe up to billion-dollar revenue. We have four companies with over a billion dollars in revenue on NetSuite.

Up to that point, it's really very scalable. Even after that point, it's really not a matter of the system not being scalable. It's more the server and the data centers that they've sort of configured for that. You've got 25,000 companies, and 90 plus percent of them are probably in the hundred to $500 million range of revenue. Revenue is not always a good indicator, because some companies, like the company I'm in right now, is a half a billion-dollar revenue company. However, they function more like a hundred million dollar company because the invoicing they do is very large and very complex invoicing, but large-dollar transactions.

So they'll do a $25-$50,000 invoice as well. That rolls up to half a billion pretty fast. That said, the volumes aren't really there. They don't have any more volume than a retail business, or a distribution business might have with a tenth their size. You can't use revenues and bills as a total indicator every time. 

I would say NetSuite would struggle to scale beyond a billion dollars if it were a retail business. That's just in terms of how it's built. It's built for the mid-market, and some limitations are there that you wouldn't hit then until you get to a billion. It's still a great system and there is a provision for buying up to more tiered levels of processing capacity. That way, very large companies can run on NetSuite.

Technical support is very weak. That's because, once again, they've hired a bunch of kids. They've got kids behind the scenes doing the work and they don't necessarily retain much deep talent on the inside at NetSuite. 

They mostly have a great software development group, however, their support group tends to be very young people who basically don't know much. They know the system, again, however they don't necessarily know how to interact with the business. 

The best way to get systems support is really from the network of qualified partners. That's where the talent goes and that's where the money is. That's where people can make the most money. Whenever any of these people get any talent, they tend to jump ship from NetSuite and go out to work for one of the partner companies.

Everything's complex today. It's all complex. Any system is complex. However, NetSuite's setup, what makes it easier, is there's not a lot of complexity in the actual customization. That's easier. Any system, even Microsoft's Dynamics, is going to take 30% or 40% more labor to do the same things. 

NetSuite's highly configurable and it's also very structured for settings, presetting, roles, permissions, personalization, etc. If the partner that's selected is skilled, if they know the system, then the configuration works actually in a pretty straightforward manner. 

There may be a lot of variabilities or a lot of complexity, mainly because clients are complex. Nobody does things the same way. If they did, they'd run out of business pretty quick due to the fact that you always have to have something that differentiates you from your competitor. All those differentiations have to be thought of and incorporated into the implementation.

Licensing costs are all over the place. It really depends a lot on the business model. How many seats, what modules they're getting, and what kind of discount you can negotiate all will adjust the cost structure in different ways. 

The discounting can range, depending on what's compelling to that model. For example, I bought these two stevedoring companies and they're old companies, they're longshoremen. They've been doing longshoremen work since clipper ships. The systems tend to be old. Nobody had ever really put a stevedoring company on NetSuite before. When I went to NetSuite to negotiate for them, I was able to get okay pricing. There's a pretty broad opportunity if we get one or two of these done. NetSuite was willing to get me a very deep discount in that case. It depends on the deal. The numbers are all over the place.

We're not a reseller, we're a selection company. We represent the client.

The inherent weakness where you might be disappointed is not functional, because functionality can be built out. It's like buying new furniture in a house. The house is a big cost, the furniture you just need more of. More functionality can be built out readily if the architecture is good. NetSuite's architecture is so phenomenal that you can almost not even imagine. I have one subsystem that my client has, but it's an old premise-based proprietary application that no one else has. It's unique to their business, but it's about ready to fall over. I looked at it and we're going to build it into NetSuite, because NetSuite is capable of absorbing more functionality. So, it's really about architecture. And architecture and NetSuite, I couldn't even imagine what it's going to ask for there. It's really very good.

Ironically, NetSuite's kind of killing our business, because if you're doing mid market, it's going to be NetSuite or Microsoft dynamics. Everything else is not really worth the attention. Where we do selection work we don't get shared revenue. We don't get kickbacks or anything from anything we do. Our work is to help companies pick the right solution, pick the right partner, and get the implementation done. Our work has shifted much more to helping oversee the projects. We do a business assessment work, we do system selection work, we do solution, basically formulating the solution for the client. Then we negotiate for the right licensing, the right contracts, service agreements and we oversee it.

We're like a general contractor for a commercial building. What's happening is that the clients no longer have people like us inside. Basically, systems have become commoditized over the last 20 years to the point where if they've got insight IT people they're really server people. Servers, networks, virus, security, phone systems. These people don't know anything about applications. 

In NetSuite's environment, there's no versioning. It's actually a release strategy. It is in the cloud, so it's multi-tenant and the releases come in and go. Obviously, they have some release numbers on each of them, however, the client really doesn't have to worry about that.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

We use the product for inventory and financial management. 

I am impressed with the product's ease of use. It also helps us reduce the techstack. 

The product should improve its warehouse management solution. 

I am using NetSuite products for three years. 

The tool is stable and we have had no issues with its stability. 

We work in a cost-controlled environment and hence use authorized NetSuite support from India. The team provided us excellent support but since they were based in India, there was a delay in time between our environment and theirs. However, the support was economical. 

The product's deployment is simple since it is a well-documented solution. 

I would rate the product an eight out of ten. The tool is comprehensive. It is better to use the integrated platform of NetSuite and avail of its benefits. 

Financial tools and inventory management allow scalability to high volume multi-channel orders and fulfillment.

As a consultant/implementer, we track all projects and financial tasks.

We use NetSuite tools to handle a multi channel, high volume order environment providing insight and profitability by channel and product velocity and profitability.

The CRM module just does the basics. I’ve worked with CRM tools for over 15 years, rolling out Siebel and Oracle as a sales manager and as an IT leader. I now deploy NetSuite ERP and eCommerce.

I’ve worked with the SFDC folks in extensive demos as well as some contact management software. I know my way around this CRM subject area reasonably well.

The NetSuite tools perform the needed functions that a sales team needs. Because it is integral to the NetSuite platform with a variety of technical tools, I feel it is more capable for the sophisticated user.

My sense is that sales teams having sophisticated capability without having the time to learn or benefit from it, does not compete with the SFDC approach of rapid start up and simplicity for the end user.

Embedded graphics and a simpler UI seem to win over the sales teams. That is why the CRM within the NetSuite application is best sold as part of an enterprise sale. This prevents the sales team from going their own way in application selection. Companies that choose the best breed of solutions and then choose to integrate them, create a sub-optimized enterprise solution.

Do not treat the CRM capability as a bolt on to the excellent ERP platform.

Give the CRM module the embedded graphics and faster responding user interface for laptops and mobile devices that attracts the general sales and marketing teams.

For more sophisticated CRM users, leverage the native tie in to ERP and eCommerce for real time financial, inventory, and sales data.

I have used NetSuite ERP for three and a half years.

We have not had stability issues.

We have not had scalability issues.

Technical support is excellent.

We made the switch from on premise applications to cloud-based NetSuite.

Setup is straightforward. The methodology is extremely important. If the core business model and financial strategy is implemented correctly, all other modules become sequential building blocks.

Order at the end of the quarter.

We evaluated Oracle, SAP, Sage, and QuickBooks.

Build out the business and process models and walk through them multiple times. If there are integration points, make sure data mapping is part of the process model.

I became a real fan of NetSuite due to the fact that it's very easy to use and it's very easy to configure from the implementer side. When you're looking for an ERP solution, often it can be very difficult to configure and difficult to use, however, this is very easy. I'm pretty impressed. It sounds like a short or a small solution, and yet it's not.

The whole experience it's very easy. It's very intuitive. It's integrated into everything well so you can navigate and use it in a very simple way. The whole experience for the ERP is very fine. This ERP has no interface. It's completely integrated so you don't have to run any process from accounting to get all the numbers. Everything is detected online instantly.

The initial setup is straightforward. 

Most of the features that my customers deal with I get access to. I can't recall coming across any missing features. We haven't come across areas that are hard to understand or configure. It's all pretty straightforward. 

If you do go through an implementor, you need to be careful that they are actual implementors and not just resellers.

The stability of the solution is very good. There are no bugs or glitches that we've dealt with. it doesn't crash or freeze.

The solution is very scalable. It's not an issue to expand it.

The technical support is very good. We've been very happy with the level of support we get. They are helpful and responsive. 

The initial setup is not overly complex or difficult. It's simple and straightforward. 

You have to be aware of the experience of the implementer before the initial setup even if it seems like it's easy to implement. There are some skills and there are very, very many new resellers that they are naming themselves implementers. My only advice is to be aware of the experience of the previous implementation on the NetSuite platform and be aware if these implementers also sell other solutions. I deal with some implementers that sell SAP as well and they sell Microsoft as well and these kinds of platforms need their own people due to the fact that it's not fixed. 

I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten.