How To Approach NetSuite Customization In The Right Way?

NetSuite, the leading cloud ERP platform is preferred by enterprises for its flexibility, adaptability, and scalability. But to truly leverage NetSuite’s potential, businesses need to tailor the platform to specific needs. NetSuite is also well-equipped to allow customization to suit specific operational requirements. 

While some customizations can be as simple as choosing the right configuration options, in some cases more complex customization may require dedicated developer teams. In this blog post, we will discuss the customization needs, key considerations, customization methods and options, and best practices.  

When Do We Need NetSuite Customization?  

An enterprise needs to customize its Netsuite experience principally because of aligning the ERP platform with exact requirements. How deeper and at the granular level this alignment works can determine system performance, operational efficiency, and customer experience. 

Here are some of the scenarios where NetSuite customization is required: 

1. Meeting Domain Needs 

Every industry domain has its share of operational bottlenecks, challenges, and compliance needs. A generic NetSuite ERP may fall short of meeting these requirements. This is when businesses need to customize NetSuite to align the ERP with industry-specific processes and workflows. 

2. Siloed Operational Processes 

Even after implementing NetSuite, many businesses suffer from siloed operational processes, Customization can help them streamline processes, automate repetitive tasks, and optimize workflows, ensuring agility and faster turnaround time. 

3. User Experience Pain Points 

In many organizations upskilling employees to utilize the NetSuite system to its full potential involves several challenges. This often results in slow system adoption, lower efficiency, and lower productivity levels. Through customization of the NetSuite, enterprises can tailor the user interface and navigation, ensuring quick access and ease of use. 

Things to Consider Before NetSuite Customization 

If you want to go for NetSuite customization, you must plan and prepare to get maximum advantage from it. To tailor the NetSuite platform to the fullest advantages of your business, consider the following aspects. 

• Evaluate customization needs: First, identify the particular bottlenecks and pain points that can be addressed with customization. Carry out a detailed analysis of business processes, tasks, workflows, expectations from the NetSuite system, and performance gaps and see whether customization can mitigate them, 
• Customization cost and impact on ROI: You also need to analyze the cost versus value propositions of NetSuite customization. If the cost of customization is outweighed by the potential advantages or if you can assess achieving a better ROI through customization, you should opt for it.
• Evaluate compatibility with the upcoming NetSuite versions: Sometimes, an imminent product update may have all the answers to your customization needs. So, consider the possible product updates shortly that can address your pain points before going for customization. You should also consider maintaining compatibility with the latest or future product upgrades. 
• Availability of skilled resources: Consider the skilled resources available in your team to carry out the customization. In case you need to hire an expert NetSuite customization company, consider the cost implications against the benefits you get.
• Is the customization scalable: When you customize a NetSuite module or feature, always consider whether you can scale it up for more users and processes as your business grows. Always think about whether the customization is open to further modifications in the future or not. 
• Compatibility with third-party tools: Many businesses rely on several disparate software systems for different processes, and they need to integrate them with NetSuite customization. So before customization, think about whether the new changes will cause problems for integrating these third-party apps. 
• Maintaining the custom components: You also need to plan for maintaining the custom components with bug fixes, small enhancements, and modifications from time to time. The custom components must be stable and reliable for years to come. 

Best NetSuite Customization Options

NetSuite offers customization options through 3 major tools such as SuiteFlow, SuiteBuilder, and SuiteScript. Let’s explain these customization options: 

1. SuiteFlow

Through this NetSuite tool workflow can be customized for streamlining processes as per specific business needs. This drag-and-drop workflow management tool can be used to configure workflows with ease. Users can automate processes like data updates, notifications, alerts, approvals, and routing, as per specific requirements. 

2. SuiteBuilder

SuiteBuilder allows enterprises to customize their NetSuite experience through simple modifications, changes, and additions to forms, record fields, and workflows. Users without any coding knowledge can make changes to optimize their experience as per their needs. 

3. SuiteScript

SuiteScript is for adding new functionalities or extending the existing ones by writing custom scripts. By leveraging SuiteScript, NetSuite users can create new business logic, allow data transformation, and facilitate easier integration with legacy applications and existing APIs. SuiteScript allows developers to write custom scripts for rendering on both the server side and the client side. 

Also Read: NetSuite Customization Tools

Apart from the customization through the above-mentioned tools, some common areas in NetSuite that often need customization, include the following:  

• Custom Forms and Fields: Customising standard Netsuite forms to accommodate domain-specific needs is most common. These forms include sales orders, purchase orders, invoices, etc. Businesses also need to create custom record fields to capture relevant business and user data.
• Custom Workflows: You can customize workflows to streamline business tasks and processes to save time and reduce manual intervention. 
• Custom Saved Searches: NetSuite saved search feature can be customized to retrieve search data across criteria. This data can be further utilized for repeating these searches in similar use cases or for reporting needs.
• Custom Reports and Dashboards: NetSuite dashboards and reports can be customized to accommodate industry-specific data visualizations and data-driven insights on business performance metrics, financial indicators, and evolving opportunities.
• Custom Roles and User Access: Businesses can customize user access management by creating new roles and access permissions. 
• Custom UI: Enterprises often need to customize NetSuite user interfaces and layouts to ensure enhanced user experience easier accessibility and navigation.
• Meeting Specific Compliance: NetSuite can be customized to adhere to local regulations, tax rules, and compliance standards as required by various industries for operating in different countries and regions.
• E-commerce: SuiteCommerce, the e-commerce module within NetSuite can be customized to allow seamless integration with different e-commerce platforms. The customization can ensure a highly personalized shopping experience, inventory and stock management, and custom product catalogs. 
• Adding New Functions through SuiteApps: NetSuite customization also involves adding new functions through pre-built applications packaged under SuiteApps. Businesses can also build custom extensions to fulfill particular operational needs. 

Best Practices for NetSuite Customization

While enterprises often opt for tailoring NetSuite to their needs, without following certain practices, they may not be able to get the most out of their customization. Let’s now explore the best practices for NetSuite customization.  

• Set priorities right: You cannot customize too many things at once and so, it is important to set priorities for fulfilling your customization needs. Give priority to customizations that are going to offer the highest value and can make an immediate impact. Following these, you can move to more resource-savvy, complex, or less important ones.
• Adhere to NetSuite’s customization guidelines: NetSuite offers very detailed customization guidelines with specific recommendations. Make sure you plan customization by adhering to these guidelines and recommendations. 
• Emphasize testing customizations: Before making your customizations live make sure you test them thoroughly in a sandbox environment. Plan tests covering as many user scenarios and potential bottlenecks as possible to make your test results foolproof. 
• Feedback loop for users and stakeholders: Throughout the customization process maintain a robust feedback loop involving principal stakeholders and end-users. Assess the pain points cited by them and accordingly iterate, make changes, and test again. 
• Document all customizations: Make sure you document the entire customization process with details related to the objective, scope, solution design, test results, feedback, and impact. 
• Get help from the NetSuite community: For successful customization, it is always advisable to learn from other NetSuite developers and business users undertaking similar customization projects. Engage with the NetSuite community through forums and user groups, and get practical guidance from documentation and similar case studies from the web. 
• Partner NetSuite customization experts: Finally, for an enterprise lacking skilled in-house resources, it is always advisable to partner with a leading NetSuite customization company. Hiring experts can be a little cost-intensive, but they can plan and execute successful customization based on your requirements.

Considering Cost Optimization Factors  

Customization of NetSuite can result in higher costs and that is why it is important to assess the specific needs and to what extent you need to customize. Here are some factors to help you control your NetSuite customization cost. 

• Degree of personalization: To reduce the cost, you can always opt for light customization. You can choose to configure the modules as per your needs or create custom reports instead of creating custom workflows.

• Open-source substitutes: There are also open-source customization options to help reduce costs. But these third-party options in the long run can increase complexity so consider this approach cautiously. 

• Pre-built integrations: Another way to decrease cost is to leverage pre-built integrations that can fulfill certain custom needs without adding to the cost burden. 

Why Choose VNMT?  

NetSuite customization requires extensive domain knowledge and an understanding of pain points faced by enterprise users. VNMT Solutions, with a robust track record of successful NetSuite customization across diverse industry niches, can help you tailor NetSuite to your business processes. Our NetSuite customization experts focus on achieving a lasting impact within a reasonable time. 

Conclusion 

Every business is different and NetSuite ERP is a well-equipped platform to accommodate their needs irrespective of the niche and size. But, to get the most out of NetSuite ERP, you need customization. NetSuite customization, when done right, can help your business thrive and maintain a competitive edge.