When partnering with SquareWorks Consulting on a new NetSuite implementation, there are some key things you can do to help guarantee the success of your project. This includes clearly defining roles and responsibilities, ensuring all relevant stakeholders are aligned on the goals of the project, verifying the company has identified its pain points and how it expects migration to NetSuite to solve them, identifying a project champion, incorporating change management into the project plan and being realistic about the time required from project participants. Oftentimes, spending a little extra time planning will ensure fewer issues when executing the project.
The Key Players
For a high-quality NetSuite implementation, you first need all the right people at the table. Depending on company size and industry, this might include the CFO, controller, finance department heads and members of the operations team like the COO or warehouse manager. The key is to get everyone who has a hand in overseeing finance and operations for the organization involved from day one. Depending on company size, this could include a handful of finance pros to upwards of 30 people from across several departments.
The SquareWorks team always includes a project sponsor, a solution architect who works with your team to design the entire solution, a technical consultant, a functional consultant to build process tools and a project manager to keep everyone on time and within budget.
Initial Discovery
With everyone in the room, it’s time to outline your organization’s current state, identify pain points, discuss future-state needs and set project goals. This part of the process usually consists of the SquareWorks consultants asking a lot of high-level questions, such as:
- What must-haves are on your list?
- What nice-to-haves are on your list?
- What does your leadership expect from this project?
- How much change management will end users require?
- What do you like about your current system or processes?
- What do you dislike about your current system or processes?
- What are your key pain points?
- What roles and responsibilities have you assigned to members of your team?
Answering these questions clearly and completely is essential to establishing a good foundation for a successful NetSuite project and to ensuring all participants understand the project goal, their role in the work and the ideal end-state.
The NetSuite Consulting Process
Once the critical players are in place and the project foundation is laid, the SquareWorks team will identify a detailed timeline, set weekly status meetings and schedule key project activities.
These activities, conducted by business process area, include:
- Identifying key users and roles.
- Reviewing/confirming requirements.
- Constructing a solution design to meet those requirements.
- Configuring NetSuite based on that solution design.
- Importing data.
- Conducting an end-to-end walkthrough of the configured system.
- Preparing for and supporting user acceptance testing.
- Building and executing on a detailed system cutover plan.
Clients will focus on the following:
- Spending ample time testing processes and workstreams.
- Validating inputs and outputs.
- Reviewing migrated data to make sure everything is correct.
- Ensuring the overall system meets their needs.
Project managers from both sides will work together closely to ensure the project adheres to its predefined timeline, scope and budget.
For data migration best practices, also read: Mastering Data Migration for a Seamless NetSuite Implementation
A NetSuite implementation project can take 3 – 12 months, depending on the size and nature of your business. Common areas of focus for 90 – 100-day implementations include Record to Report (GL), Procure to Pay (AP), Order to Cash (AR) and Design to Build (items and inventory).
The Project Close
When an implementation project ends, how will you gauge its success? The SquareWorks consultants will lead the team through a project close-out to assess success and ask follow-up questions such as:
- Did we address the established goals?
- Can end-users successfully operate in the new system?
- Have we achieved good adoption across the organization?
- Did we do this on time and on budget?
- Do we have a roadmap for future improvements?
Continuous Improvement
A NetSuite implementation shouldn’t be considered a one-and-done effort. Continuous improvement of your environment will only increase the system’s usefulness and bring your organization added value and ROI. Many SquareWorks implementation clients choose to continue a partnership via SquareWorks Premium Support for basic system administration, troubleshooting and analytics.
SquareWorks consultants also offer optimization projects, which can be used to address a specific process improvement, provide end-user training or execute the implementation of a new module. Whatever the circumstance, SquareWorks is here to make sure your organization leverages the power of NetSuite to the greatest extent possible.
Time, resources and expertise are required to fully implement any ERP, which is why choosing the right partner is essential. SquareWorks Consulting is a premier NetSuite consulting firm, bringing a decade of NetSuite-specific experience from a fully NetSuite-certified team to the table. With additional industry expertise in areas like software, biotech and wholesale distribution, the SquareWorks team is optimally positioned to execute your NetSuite project for the lowest cost, in the least amount of time, in a way that fully meets your needs and sets your team up for success.
