As 2023 begins to wind down, and your organization starts planning and budgeting for 2024, optimizing your tech stack for the new year should be high on your priority list. During this final quarter, it’s important to identify and address year-end pain points impacting your financial and operational systems and processes. Use what you learn in Q4 2023 to prevent those pain points or bottlenecks from occurring in 2024.
Giving your Oracle NetSuite ERP instance some year-end TLC helps optimize your business performance. Based on first-hand expertise with getting clients’ ERP systems finely tuned, ScaleNorth has curated a list of NetSuite priorities that leading companies must address while going into the new year. By engaging in this annual check-up, you can be sure you’re entering 2024 with an optimized NetSuite instance that will improve operational efficiency using the #1 Cloud ERP Software.
Review Hard Lessons from 2023 and Address Pain Points
First, try to identify and qualify any observed pain points or bottlenecks of the last year. This task is best performed as a group effort, so reach out to leadership in different departments to gather their feedback. Was the accounting department spending too much time on manual processes? Was the warehouse staff relying on spreadsheets?
Write down all of the areas where your operations could have been improved. The more exhaustive the list the better.
NetSuite Health Check from ScaleNorth
Now that you have documented your bottlenecks, it’s time for a more technical assessment. With a NetSuite Health Check, a team of ScaleNorth NetSuite consultants – experienced with NetSuite, Finance, and Industry best practices– will evaluate the specific issues you identified, while also looking for underlying issues and associated areas for improvement. Once all of the bottlenecks and pain points have been identified, your consultants will propose a prioritized path forward.
Third-Party Software Analysis
Do you have the right third-party software to empower your business, and is it tied into NetSuite for optimal performance? While NetSuite serves as 360-degree business software, most clients still have one or more third-party programs to supplement core NetSuite functionality. As your NetSuite Solution Provider, ScaleNorth will be able to assess your business processes and make recommendations on what additional software (if any) you require to meet your 2024 business objectives. At ScaleNorth, we have built an extensive technology partner network that allows us to recommend, implement and integrate a variety of software and systems to help our clients drive lasting value from their NetSuite ERP investment.
Integration
When utilizing third-party software, proper integration is key. If all of your systems aren’t communicating in real-time, you run the risk of creating data silos, using mismatched information, and delayed decision making. ScaleNorth’s technical services team has extensive experience with NetSuite integrations utilizing APIs, IPaaS software such as Celigo, Boomi, and a variety of EDI solutions. You’ll want to identify any software you utilize that is not currently integrated but should be, as well as identify existing integrations that don’t provide timely, reliable, accurate and complete information.
Process Automation
Once all your systems are tied together, it’s time to look at automating routine processes and flows. With NetSuite, you have a nearly infinite number of automation possibilities that can span every corner of your operations. Some common business processes that the ScaleNorth team automates revolve around order processing & fulfillment, closing the books, reconciliations, reporting & analytics, human resource management, marketing automation and more. If you have any departments that are not utilizing some form of automation, it’s worth taking a closer look at what can be optimized. This typically results in decreased manual labor, improved data accuracy, and lower operational costs.
Reports & Dashboards
Do all of your stakeholders have the visibility they need into relevant KPIs, goals, and other financial and operational data? NetSuite is renowned for its reporting capabilities, but many clients aren’t utilizing this functionality to its fullest extent. ScaleNorth consultants are experts at setting up custom dashboards, automated reports and saved searches. These reports can be automated to run on schedule, send out email alerts, initiate workflows and more. If your team struggled to access any information in the previous year, speak with ScaleNorth’s NetSuite consultants to see how the problem can be fixed before going into 2024.
Accelerated Closing & Reconciliations
How many hours did your team spend closing the books and managing reconciliations in the past year? Chances are, there is room to significantly improve and expedite this process by utilizing automations, workflows, integrations and streamlined processes within NetSuite. For example, NetSuite allows you to automate many routine financial tasks such as invoice approval, expense-report processing, and purchase-order matching. ScaleNorth can help optimize your financial close processes via bank-feed integrations, workflow automations and more, allowing your team to save time while reducing errors. By taking these labor-intensive tasks off of your accountants’ 2023 to-do lists, you’ll allow your team to focus on strategic 2024 initiatives.
Training & Support
Another common issue we come across is lack of training and buy-in from internal employees. If your team members aren’t adequately trained on NetSuite, you’ll lose out on key efficiencies and functionality. ScaleNorth’s certified NetSuite consultants can get your staff trained on utilizing the platform to its fullest extent, allowing you to operate more efficiently in 2024 while increasing employee satisfaction.
Additional User Licenses
If your business has expanded in the last year, or you plan to increase your internal usage of NetSuite, you may need additional user licenses for your team. As a NetSuite Solution Provider, ScaleNorth can sell, provision, and support additional licenses.
Module Implementations
NetSuite has dozens of modules to expand the functionality of its core ERP offering. After spending time on the platform, many businesses identify additional modules that they want to implement to give their business increased functionality, or to replace legacy third-party software. ScaleNorth’s implementation team can recommend, implement and optimize additional modules to help your team get more out of its NetSuite investment in 2024.
Additional Outsourcing
More and more businesses are turning to business process outsourcing (BPO) in order to streamline operations, decrease overhead, and navigate uncertainty. ScaleNorth’s NetSuite certified CPAs can provide full-stack NetSuite accounting services ranging from basic bookkeeping to fractional Controllers. Even if you’re already utilizing some of ScaleNorth’s BPO services, there may be room to further optimize your accounting and finance department by temporarily increasing the level of outsourcing during year-end budgeting and closing efforts. Our flexible model allows you to scale services as needed, so you’ll always have an agile and adaptable finance department.
Happy New Year
Continuous improvement is essential for remaining competitive in today’s business landscape, and that goes beyond just the quality of the product or service you provide. Businesses that constantly look to optimize their existing back-office operations, technological infrastructure, and overall business model are setting themselves apart from the competition and unlocking increased growth opportunities.
ScaleNorth serves as your one-stop shop for NetSuite optimization, outsourcing and strategic supply-chain guidance, allowing our clients to thrive on the world’s leading cloud-based ERP system.
If you’re ready to set your business up for success in 2024, contact ScaleNorth today to learn more about optimizing your NetSuite environment, increasing outsourcing initiatives, and receiving the strategic support you need to succeed.