Oracle NetSuite is widely considered to be the top cloud based Enterprise Resource Planning software with over 40,000 companies currently running on the platform. The core functionality covers nearly every facet of business needs including CRM, Accounting, Business Intelligence, Commerce, Order Management, Human Resources, etc. The core functionality is vast; however, in this article I want to focus on what makes NetSuite exceptional, which is its ability to be customized specifically for a company’s business needs.In order for your business to succeed in a competitive marketplace, it must develop a competitive advantage. There must be a unique product offering or way of doing business that entices customers to choose your business over another. As your business evolves to be unique in the marketplace, custom business processes will need to be created. Since it is necessary to support its unique and competitive way of doing business, then your company must run on a platform that is both flexible and easily customizable. NetSuite is that platform.
Over my past fifteen years of being a NetSuite user and running multiple organizations on the NetSuite platform, I have faced many operational challenges and opportunities for sales that required custom business processes. The NetSuite platform gave me the tools needed to build simple and elegant solutions quickly and efficiently.
When I was vice-president at an e-commerce company, we were faced with a particular operational challenge that required a customized solution. A member of our accounting team came to me concerned that credit card charge backs were not being managed well and it was beginning to hurt our profitability. Charge backs are when a customer calls their credit card company and files a complaint, usually saying that the product was never delivered or they were not satisfied with the level of customer service. Credit card companies instantly pull the money from the business bank account and give it back to the customer unless a formal statement is submitted explaining the situation. The credit card company then makes a judgement call as to who wins the charge back. We had a fully staffed, competent customer service team that was consistently providing superior customer service.
As we looked into many of these charge backs, we realized that some were fraud, some were issues that had already been resolved by our team, and only a few were legitimate. So there was indeed a requirement to manage these charge backs effectively; however, NetSuite did not have native functionality for managing credit card charge backs and I would venture to say that most other ERP systems do not as well. I sat down with my Operations Team and in about an hour we outlined a series of customizations that would allow us to have the business processes we needed for our accounting team to manage the credit card charge backs. Our solution included:
- A custom record named ChargeBack
- A series of Custom Fields on the ChargeBack record
- A dashboard that allowed the accounting team and manager to see the status of all ChargeBacks in the system
- A custom saved search that sent a reminder email after a certain amount of time had passed and the ChargeBack was not resolved
- A custom saved search consisting of ChargeBack historical data for the purpose of reporting to the Executive Team
- A workflow that automatically created a commission record that reduced commissions for sales reps when their order had a chargeback
We were able to design, create, train and implement these new business processes in less than a week and the customizations did not require the assistance of a programmer. We were able to keep all of this work within the Operations Department which eliminated the need to transfer knowledge to the Programming Team. This eliminated the inevitable back and forth of quality assurance between the two departments. The development and execution of the new business processes stayed in the Operations Department where it was conceived. This made for a highly efficient delivery of our custom solution.
NetSuite’s customization capabilities give you the tools you need to build the custom processes that support the uniqueness of your business. Reach out to our team to discuss how NetSuite can support your business.
