NetSuite takes ERP a step further. It is an ERP with a built-in CRM, all available in the cloud.
Most of the products out there are specialist products for specific areas of the business; for instance, salesforce.com, ConstantContact, or ShipStation. While these are excellent products with deep functionality, they are designed to automate departments whereas NetSuite automates the entire business.
NetSuite's functionality spans accounting, the warehouse, the website, marketing, sales, and customer support. This doesn't just provide efficiencies because we are administering one system instead of many. All the data is in one place for reporting and can easily be leveraged by different departments; for instance, the pricing matrix on the item master serves the website as well as the sales reps. If there is a price increase, it only needs to be changed once instead of in multiple databases.
NetSuite also tracks all the transactions and interactions on aggregate—such as sales reports for the company as a whole—but also on a per customer level. The result is a complete 360° customer view showing each individual customer history on one page, capturing the historical sales and products sold with records of the calls, meetings, and emails exchanged with anyone in the company, which enables us to serve the customer more effectively and efficiently.
An employee can see the details by merely looking at subtabs on the customer card or at a summary by accessing the customer dashboard. So, the accountant can see that the sales rep is close to closing a huge opportunity with the customer prior to calling to collect a small outstanding debt, which could place the opportunity in jeopardy. The converse is also true; the sales rep can view the customer's average days to pay invoices prior to extending that customer's credit. Most importantly, it enables sales and marketing departments to access a customer's purchase history to determine which products represent good upsell opportunities—would you like fries with that?:
Customer record
The cloud also has implications for the business as well as administrators. The system requires minimal IT support. All you need is an internet connection and there is no need for database management, such as backups.
It also allows us to centralize administration. Do you need to implement and support a feature for the subsidiary in China? There is no need to fly there; you can simply do it all right from your office. (In my view, this shouldn't apply to subsidiaries in Hawaii, which require an onsite visit, especially if the deployment is scheduled for the winter!)
The cloud also offers opportunities for easier customer self-service by merely opening a window into the core business system. A cloud system is simply a database permanently on the web, which allows people access based on specific permissions. We typically think of employees as those users but there is no need to restrict this just to employees. We can simply allow outsiders into our system provided they have the right set of permissions, so NetSuite contains built-in customer, vendor, and partner portals, which can be made available to specific customers, vendors, and partners at no additional cost.