Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
Owner at Numex BV
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Useful for companies with complex international financial requirements
Pros and Cons
  • "I recommend this product to professional services companies and those with complex international financial requirements. NetSuite ERP has strong capabilities in the finance domain that other ERPs may lack."
  • "The main implementation challenge is finding experienced consultants to translate customer needs into NetSuite ERP's standard functionality. The second challenge is getting enough time from customers for proper implementation."

What needs improvement?

The main implementation challenge is finding experienced consultants to translate customer needs into NetSuite ERP's standard functionality. The second challenge is getting enough time from customers for proper implementation.

To address these, I focus on raising customers' awareness of time commitments, building a network of skilled consultants, and sometimes declining projects if the right resources aren't available.

The tool must enhance its extension layer and add customization/configuration functionality. In this aspect, competitors like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics are five to ten years ahead.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with the product since 2005. 

How are customer service and support?

I don't have any issues with technical support. It depends on getting the right person. They could improve by enhancing documentation and search capabilities, being more proactive about known issues, and addressing the overload on their third-level support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Buyer's Guide
NetSuite ERP
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about NetSuite ERP. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Regarding costs, it's not just about licensing. Customization recurring costs can become expensive over five to eight years, especially with new releases. However, NetSuite ERP integrates well with third-party applications, so it can still be used for finance while another ERP is used for localized production.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this product to professional services companies and those with complex international financial requirements. NetSuite ERP has strong capabilities in the finance domain that other ERPs may lack. I don't typically recommend it for complex manufacturing/production companies, as it requires too much customization, which can be expensive to maintain in the long term.

Regarding alternatives to NetSuite ERP, I've had good experiences with Epicor in projects and discrete manufacturing. Business Central is gaining popularity for finance and operations, while AP is good for process manufacturing.

Regarding AI, NetSuite ERP isn't quite there yet. You need three to five years of ERP data before AI can bring significant value. I've done some AI projects on the periphery of ERP, like using AI for asset management predictions. The tool's financial management capabilities are strong for complex requirements, often with out-of-the-box functionality that other systems would need customization.

I rate NetSuite ERP an eight out of ten for companies it fits well.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Juan Carlos Escobar Gama - PeerSpot reviewer
Director TIC's - CMC chairman at CSS
Real User
A very solid product for finance and procure-to-pay processes
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a very solid product for finance and procure-to-pay processes."
  • "The solution's initial setup process was complex."

What is our primary use case?

It is a very solid product for finance and procure-to-pay processes.

How has it helped my organization?

My company is working with Anchor Group to make some developments in the base of our NetSuite ERP to ensure that we can handle all the information and the process that we use. The other part is that we are integrating SMART ERP Solutions for external devices.

What is most valuable?

NetSuite ERP's finance model and how they manage the budget and procure-to-pay process, apart from the fact they are easy to install and that they provide a nice dashboard are some of the solution's valuable features.

What needs improvement?

Maintaining workflow on the solution is very difficult. So, it needs improvement. Improvement in the solution's manufacturing is also needed.

For manufacturing, we are looking at other providers to make it possible for integrations and to maintain every integration to the system. We want everything to be stable here in Colombia since we don't have localizations.

For how long have I used the solution?

Even though, at the moment, I am not using NetSuite ERP full-fledged, I am involved in its implementation process. Also, I don't know the version of the solution I am using.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the stability of the solution an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Considering my experience with other companies, I rate the scalability of the solution a seven out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

At the moment, we don't have direct support for Oracle NetSuite. Instead, we are working with a third party who is an expert in this area. So, it's difficult to say how the support is. However, in my previous company, I found that the response time for support was very fast.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is deployed on the cloud.

The solution's initial setup process was complex.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation process was carried out by a third party. We are working with Anchor Group.

What was our ROI?

At this moment, it's hard to say whether I have experienced an ROI using the tool since we are in the implementation part. But as our research, we hope that we can experience an ROI in almost two years.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price is less than the cost of daily hours. The difference is very representative for us.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Before choosing NetSuite ERP, we evaluated a local system from Colombia and SAP ERP's cloud version.

What other advice do I have?

It is a very friendly tool. It generates a dashboard in your system profile. You can maintain track records, and the reporting function is very good, making it a very favorable solution. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
NetSuite ERP
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about NetSuite ERP. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Nitin Mothilall - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business Analyst at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Reseller
Extremely stable, good price, and easy setup
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the ease of setup and customization of forms."
  • "Improvement-wise, it should be more customizable. Currently, you can't enhance the product yourself in terms of development for any applications unless you've got a very strong and big development team. Those are the skills that are in very short supply."

What is our primary use case?

It's used in manufacturing and other environments for day-to-day operations.

What is most valuable?

I like the ease of setup and customization of forms.

What needs improvement?

Improvement-wise, it should be more customizable. Currently, you can't enhance the product yourself in terms of development for any applications unless you've got a very strong and big development team. Those are the skills that are in very short supply.

I would also like them to provide the ability to format their reports as required. Currently, it has quite a basic reporting structure, especially when you're trying to generate reports. So, I would like them to spend more time improving its ability to customize the visual formats of reports.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for the last three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's extremely stable. I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable. I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of scalability.

How are customer service and support?

Their official technical support takes a while to get back to you, whereas, on the user forums, which also have their technical support people, they're very quick. However, they give you more standard answers instead of trying to find a bespoke solution for you. I would rate their support a six out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

It's a software-as-a-subscription solution. It has a very straightforward setup. I would rate it a nine out of ten in terms of ease of setup.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's very competitively priced due to it being a subscription model. So, clients are quite happy with the pricing. I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of pricing.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner / Integrator / Reseller
PeerSpot user
SudhakarJha - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager & Architect - Enterprise Solutions & CoE (Innovation & Digital Transformation) at Nsight inc
Real User
Top 10
Easy to use, good value for money, and lots of customization
Pros and Cons
  • "We can install the bundles based on our needs."
  • "If they could provide more integration options to connect with different products, that would be ideal."

What is our primary use case?

The NetSuite which we are using is mostly for our financial processes, mostly OTC or maintenance, the creation of reports, getting dashboards, tracking the payments or cancellations, et cetera. All this is something for which we are using this solution. At the same time, we are using the SuiteAnalytics feature where we can create our custom reports as well for NetSuite.

What is most valuable?

First of all, it's really easy to use. It has great functionality and is perfect mostly for a company where they're in the initial stage or even the middle stage of its own development. If they want to quickly start with an ERP system that is ready to use, it's really helpful. 

It's good value for money as well. We can install the bundles based on our needs. 

At the same time, the team has a good support system, in case we run into any issues and they do provide a lot of configurations and customization options. If something is not working out, we can customize that as well. 

One more very good point which I have seen while using NetSuite is, that they provide all the leading processes already in-built, whether it's the OTC or P2P, or test to order. All those configurations are already ready to use. We just have to put our data and we can start running those. Unlike others, you don't have to customize.

What needs improvement?

If they could provide more integration options to connect with different products, that would be ideal. Although they provide a lot of functionality within NetSuite, if something is very complex in nature, for example, if you are a manufacturing company, if you're using it for manufacturing, there may be an MRP where we have to do position planning, those advanced features are not available in NetSuite.

From a user spec perspective, there is definitely a lot of scope for UI and UX enhancement. I would expect some screens to be more user-friendly and from the configuration side, so everything in the NetSuite world works on the bundle. If they can provide any mechanism where we can quickly group the bundles based on the need or the process, then that will be helpful. The current process is very time-consuming. We have to do it one by one. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We've used the solution for the last three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. There are no latency issues. It's highly available. I've never seen a system going down.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is good. 

This whole platform is designed in such a way that they do have a user-based billing model, however, system by system is robust. If somebody, some company, is using that at their initial stage and they're growing, so it will not provide any technical issues as such, in terms of systems slowness or things like that. However, if a company's business is getting complex, if there are a lot of new workflows being added, then NetSuite might not be the right choice for them. Scalability-wise, we can scale. In terms of the volume of users, there is no system impact in NetSuite.

We have our clients which are using it. From our company side, as a part of our team, there are four to five people who are using it. I'd rate the solution four out of five in terms of scalability.

How are customer service and support?

They have pretty good support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We chose this solution as it's SaaS-based, so there was no headache on the infrastructure, support, or maintenance side. That is been taken care of by the Oracle vendor itself. Secondly, it's very robust and fully customizable. We can customize it as per our needs. That was the one consideration. There is already a process set up for multiple currencies, and locations. They provide leading practices - all the standard practices with respect to the business, whether it's a B2B, or order to cash, everything is available. It's not taking up a lot of time for the initial setup. There are no extensive configurations or implementation work involved.

How was the initial setup?

It's a SaaS product, so we don't have to deploy it to any product here. It's something that is managed by the company itself.

It took some time to spin up, however, it was, I would say, easy to medium complexity. Out of five, it was like a 3.5 in terms of ease of setup.

What was our ROI?

The solution offers very good value for money.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

While I was a part of the discussion, I cannot recall how much the solution costs. 

What other advice do I have?

We are a partner for NetSuite. We have our own NetSuite license also.

It's a SaaS solution. It's auto-upgrading. There's no specific version number that I can recollect.

If a business or company is not fully grown, then it definitely can start with NetSuite. It's really very user-friendly. It provides all the basic functionality. If some company who already have a very large presence, in terms of employees or in terms of their products, and they are fully matured, they have a lot of different complex processes in their business, then NetSuite might not be the right choice for that stage of the business.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten as definitely there is a scope for improvement.  However, from what we observed so far, it's helping us with all the requirements as per our company size. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
PeerSpot user
Sajith Morais - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant Enterprise Solutions - SAP Business One and Google Workspace ( G Suite) at Axleta
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Effective in managing various business processes but certain limitations in terms of customization and documentation
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is easy."
  • "In NetSuite ERP, they should focus on offering better customization options."

What needs improvement?

In NetSuite ERP, they should focus on offering better customization options. In Microsoft Dynamics Business One, we have features like formatted search queries and SDK-level development, which allows us to easily put controls at the front end. NetSuite ERP lacks this level of customization, and if they improve it, the product will be even better. 

Another area of improvement is documentation and support. In Microsoft Dynamics Business One, we can easily refer to Google and manuals to manage things in-house, but with NetSuite ERP, we often have to depend on developers and experts for support. Additionally, since NetSuite ERP uses the Oracle database, mapping extra requirements can sometimes be limited or constrained. They should address these aspects to enhance the product.

For how long have I used the solution?

I gained that experience and knowledge from one of my previous assignments. I had the opportunity to demonstrate Microsoft Dynamics Business One, and they were considering it as an alternate product to NetSuite ERP and Microsoft Dynamics. 

Therefore, during that assignment, I acquired knowledge and experience about NetSuite ERP.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. However, if your company works with a standard environment and has well-defined processes, then you can easily map the system. It's like an off-the-shelf product that you can buy and use, almost like a plug-and-play solution. 

However, if your company has some extra requirements or needs to map certain areas into the system, then it can be troublesome. That's the case with NetSuite ERP. In contrast, Microsoft Dynamics Business One doesn't have that barrier.

Another significant difference is the licensing. With Microsoft Dynamics Business One, we can use Test more licenses, which allows for extended testing periods. However, NetSuite doesn't provide that kind of facility. While they may have trial options, you have to pay for subscriptions and hosting right from the beginning when implementing the product. This might cause budgetary challenges for some companies during the implementation process.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost can vary depending on the company's size, the number of users, and the service providers. It's not a fixed amount, and it depends on specific requirements and agreements with the service provider.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I am using Microsoft Dynamics. I'm referring to the SME-level product of Microsoft Dynamics. Our Oracle NetSuite is at the same level as the SME product of Microsoft Dynamics.

NetSuite is the biggest competitor for Microsoft Dynamics Business One. We need a fully cloud-based solution, and for that, a stable internet connection and proper IT infrastructure are required. Also, if you use tablets, smartphones, or laptops, you should have the right level of access through browsers. Additionally, dealing with massive amounts of data may require extra configuration to improve transaction processing speed and scalability.

What other advice do I have?

Before considering NetSuite ERP, I would advise you to evaluate your requirements and check the feasibility with Microsoft Dynamics Business One as well. If you find that NetSuite meets your needs and is the ideal product for you, then you can go with NetSuite.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Software Developer
Real User
The fee structure is simpler, and other solutions don't offer as many options for configuration
Pros and Cons
  • "NetSuite is a better value than some competing solutions. The fee structure is simpler, and other ERP solutions don't offer as many options for configuration."
  • "NetSuite is good for data management, but it's missing payroll features."

What is our primary use case?

We use NetSuite for inventory and order management. 

How has it helped my organization?

NetSuite helps us simplify business processes. 

What is most valuable?

NetSuite is a better value than some competing solutions. The fee structure is simpler, and other ERP solutions don't offer as many options for configuration.

What needs improvement?

NetSuite is good for data management, but it's missing payroll features. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We started using NetSuite for a Turkish company two or three years ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

NetSuite's stability is okay. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate NetSuite six out of 10 for scalability. 

How was the initial setup?

I rate NetSuite four out of 10 for ease of implementation. It's difficult to implement but easier than some other ERP solutions. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

NetSuite is expensive, but it is about average for an ERP solution. There are some extra costs depending on the scope of the solution, so it's not always transparent for the customers. Over the course of a project, customers may decide that they need to pay for other modules, which adds to the base price. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate NetSuite ERP eight out of 10. NetSuite is suitable for small and mid-sized companies. Still, it is essential to define your exact requirements before implementing the solution so that you can prepay for the ERP to fit your needs. 

For example, a small company that incorrectly estimates what it needs might go into the hole trying to implement it. In the early stages, you need to compare the numbers for NetSuite and SAP Business One with accurate data about the requirements. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Managing Consultant at Business and Technology Consulting, LLC
Real User
Highly customizable, no infrastructure needed, and very scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "I would say that the solution is highly configurable."
  • "In terms of the main improvement to NetSuite is the talent itself. It's grown so fast and there are about 25,000 companies running on it, and it's a relatively newer system compared to other competitors. It's growing so fast that the talent base in the partner organization (there's about 200 of them), is pretty thin."

What is our primary use case?

I have multiple pharmaceutical distributions. I'm currently doing two projects with companies that are what are called stevedoring companies. They're companies that load and unload these massive vessel ships that come into the ports all over the world. Containers and cruisers and things of that nature. I've also done a large 3PL shipping company. I've done a couple of manufacturing companies. I've done a couple of manufacturer distributor companies. It's a very versatile system. It can be used for a variety of businesses.

What is most valuable?

It's less about functionality today. Although the functionality is there, most systems are pretty competitive on things like financials. At that level, what makes a solution competitive is the architecture, and NetSuite has the most advanced system architecture in the market today. It was built for the cloud. It's a true cloud application. It's truly, purely web-based. 

There's no infrastructure required. It's fast licensed, it's multi-tenant for releases. 

I would say that the solution is highly configurable. 

The solution's data structure is very referential. You can easily customize new data in the system. It's a system that's built for enormous flexibility and customization.

The system itself, the reporting dashboards, integration, API, workflows, all that stuff's strong in NetSuite. The functionality is strong.

They've got people working deeply on it. They spend incredible amounts of money on R&D and their releases are very robust and they just keep moving forward with more.

What needs improvement?

There's always room for improvement in every system.  It's going to have some functional verticals that just aren't as competitive in the app, due to the fact that there are older systems that have been built for 20 years that are deep. For example, in manufacturing, there's something called process manufacturing, versus discrete manufacturing. There's a couple of systems that'll beat NetSuite on process manufacturing.

In terms of the main improvement to NetSuite is the talent itself. It's grown so fast and there are about 25,000 companies running on it, and it's a relatively newer system compared to other competitors. It's growing so fast that the talent base in the partner organization (there's about 200 of them), is pretty thin. 

There's a lot of bodies. There's a lot of kids there. I call them the kids because they're people in their twenties, maybe in their thirties. If you're under 40, you are still a kid to me. What it boils down to is that I've been doing assessments for 40 years. I have five grown sons between the age of 30 and 44. Not a single one of them, if they worked around the clock for the rest of their lives, could catch up with me on experience, because in today's market people get pigeonholed and specialized. They don't get a broad experience. People aren't building systems anymore, so you don't have that depth. What it boils down to is most of these people working in these ERP projects, in all the systems, are truly not systems people.

They're actually people that just know how to push buttons and settings and workflows and reports, and spit things out. They know how to configure a system, however, they don't really know much about how it would actually do what it does, or how it's built. Therefore, the weakness in that is that when you get into business models that require some real custom configuration, they don't really know how to do that. 

In today's market, young people aren't learning how to really learn a business. What's happening is a lot of systems focused work without first understanding the business that they're actually serving. That's prevalent in the NetSuite world and these newer systems, due to the fact that they've basically been staffed with and around young people who really don't have a lot of business experience. They may know a lot about that application, that system, but then not really know very much about the business. Business experience is an issue in this market today.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've worked on multiple systems, however, I've probably been engaging with NetSuite to some extent for the last seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is highly reliable. I've got a client who's been running for four and a half years flawlessly, with no outages, no errors, no failings. Of course, part of that is the architecture and the system. Part of it is we did a world-class job of implementing it. However, the bottom line is you can really mess up a system if you don't know what you're doing. That said, NetSuite itself is a highly reliable system.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is pretty good. It's targeted. Oracle has its Oracle cloud product and some other junk products in between, but the two flagship products are Oracle Cloud (for tier one companies, over a billion dollars in revenue)m and then NetSuite, which is targeted for the half a billion-dollar or maybe up to billion-dollar revenue. We have four companies with over a billion dollars in revenue on NetSuite.

Up to that point, it's really very scalable. Even after that point, it's really not a matter of the system not being scalable. It's more the server and the data centers that they've sort of configured for that. You've got 25,000 companies, and 90 plus percent of them are probably in the hundred to $500 million range of revenue. Revenue is not always a good indicator, because some companies, like the company I'm in right now, is a half a billion-dollar revenue company. However, they function more like a hundred million dollar company because the invoicing they do is very large and very complex invoicing, but large-dollar transactions.

So they'll do a $25-$50,000 invoice as well. That rolls up to half a billion pretty fast. That said, the volumes aren't really there. They don't have any more volume than a retail business, or a distribution business might have with a tenth their size. You can't use revenues and bills as a total indicator every time. 

I would say NetSuite would struggle to scale beyond a billion dollars if it were a retail business. That's just in terms of how it's built. It's built for the mid-market, and some limitations are there that you wouldn't hit then until you get to a billion. It's still a great system and there is a provision for buying up to more tiered levels of processing capacity. That way, very large companies can run on NetSuite.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is very weak. That's because, once again, they've hired a bunch of kids. They've got kids behind the scenes doing the work and they don't necessarily retain much deep talent on the inside at NetSuite. 

They mostly have a great software development group, however, their support group tends to be very young people who basically don't know much. They know the system, again, however they don't necessarily know how to interact with the business. 

The best way to get systems support is really from the network of qualified partners. That's where the talent goes and that's where the money is. That's where people can make the most money. Whenever any of these people get any talent, they tend to jump ship from NetSuite and go out to work for one of the partner companies.

How was the initial setup?

Everything's complex today. It's all complex. Any system is complex. However, NetSuite's setup, what makes it easier, is there's not a lot of complexity in the actual customization. That's easier. Any system, even Microsoft's Dynamics, is going to take 30% or 40% more labor to do the same things. 

NetSuite's highly configurable and it's also very structured for settings, presetting, roles, permissions, personalization, etc. If the partner that's selected is skilled, if they know the system, then the configuration works actually in a pretty straightforward manner. 

There may be a lot of variabilities or a lot of complexity, mainly because clients are complex. Nobody does things the same way. If they did, they'd run out of business pretty quick due to the fact that you always have to have something that differentiates you from your competitor. All those differentiations have to be thought of and incorporated into the implementation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Licensing costs are all over the place. It really depends a lot on the business model. How many seats, what modules they're getting, and what kind of discount you can negotiate all will adjust the cost structure in different ways. 

The discounting can range, depending on what's compelling to that model. For example, I bought these two stevedoring companies and they're old companies, they're longshoremen. They've been doing longshoremen work since clipper ships. The systems tend to be old. Nobody had ever really put a stevedoring company on NetSuite before. When I went to NetSuite to negotiate for them, I was able to get okay pricing. There's a pretty broad opportunity if we get one or two of these done. NetSuite was willing to get me a very deep discount in that case. It depends on the deal. The numbers are all over the place.

What other advice do I have?

We're not a reseller, we're a selection company. We represent the client.

The inherent weakness where you might be disappointed is not functional, because functionality can be built out. It's like buying new furniture in a house. The house is a big cost, the furniture you just need more of. More functionality can be built out readily if the architecture is good. NetSuite's architecture is so phenomenal that you can almost not even imagine. I have one subsystem that my client has, but it's an old premise-based proprietary application that no one else has. It's unique to their business, but it's about ready to fall over. I looked at it and we're going to build it into NetSuite, because NetSuite is capable of absorbing more functionality. So, it's really about architecture. And architecture and NetSuite, I couldn't even imagine what it's going to ask for there. It's really very good.

Ironically, NetSuite's kind of killing our business, because if you're doing mid market, it's going to be NetSuite or Microsoft dynamics. Everything else is not really worth the attention. Where we do selection work we don't get shared revenue. We don't get kickbacks or anything from anything we do. Our work is to help companies pick the right solution, pick the right partner, and get the implementation done. Our work has shifted much more to helping oversee the projects. We do a business assessment work, we do system selection work, we do solution, basically formulating the solution for the client. Then we negotiate for the right licensing, the right contracts, service agreements and we oversee it.

We're like a general contractor for a commercial building. What's happening is that the clients no longer have people like us inside. Basically, systems have become commoditized over the last 20 years to the point where if they've got insight IT people they're really server people. Servers, networks, virus, security, phone systems. These people don't know anything about applications. 

In NetSuite's environment, there's no versioning. It's actually a release strategy. It is in the cloud, so it's multi-tenant and the releases come in and go. Obviously, they have some release numbers on each of them, however, the client really doesn't have to worry about that.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Enterprise Consultant
PeerSpot user
President & Chief Solution Officer at CREIS
Real User
Good scalability, a nice user interface, and helpful technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The user interface is very good."
  • "Some of the features around the payroll and payroll taxes and management of that are lacking. We had to outsource some of that because we found that the functionality isn't there."

What is our primary use case?

The client's use cases really revolve around core financial and accounting tasks such as ARAPGL cash management and things of that nature as well as some supply chain. Inventory management at a rolled-up level. They had a separate system for their core product inventory life cycle management, however, this was from the financial aspect and vendor integration and purchasing side of supply chain and billing management was going to be done through the NetSuite implementation. 

Due to the fact that they had more on their wishlist, we were going to get into some commerce stuff, however, we backlogged that. CRM is what they're actually going to start on next year. We backlogged that as well. I'm all about focusing. I'm really about accounting. The initial high-level inventory management is the core thing we deployed as part of the first phase.

How has it helped my organization?

The client saw a lot of elimination of manual steps that they were doing in their old system. The acceptance of a lot of best practices made even just basic monthly closing a lot simpler and a lot quicker. They went from taking almost three and a half weeks to do a monthly close to five to seven business days.

That time savings alone, there's cost value there from a human resource standpoint.

What is most valuable?

The user interface is very good. That is extremely important when you're making and implementing change. A good, intuitive user interface and good documentation from a standpoint for training and support is super-important. The accounting functions are pretty basic and this was pretty standard. 

While more customization on the cloud would be nice, it forced years of bad practices that were exceptions or custom ways of doing things. 

The solution lends itself to scalability. 

There's good integration with other products. 

It's perfect for a company that is growing, that's still on the border of small to midsize. It fits perfectly from a cost and functionality perspective of them trying to get to standard practices that allows them to grow efficiently. They can take on a new business without adding people.

What needs improvement?

The cloud version lacked the flexibility for some customization. That would've been nice, however, it also then forced us to get out of some bad practices. It really helps you, actually, as it's not as necessarily flexible in terms of customizations, at least the version we worked with. They were working towards improving it.

Some of the features around the payroll and payroll taxes and management of that are lacking. We had to outsource some of that because we found that the functionality isn't there. This has been one of the bugaboos in that product. If the company grows into a lot more markets in terms of the business states and regions, they would need to look at maybe an alternate product for the sales tax and use tax compliance, as that area has gotten more complex in the last few years with the change in laws. NetSuite is well-suited for that.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for over 15 years at this point. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is pretty stable. It's a tried and true product. It's going to the cloud that's different. By the time we went live, we were two releases behind the current release and so we didn't really have to worry about bugs. It was more stable at that point. At the same time, we were sandboxing with a newer version. I got the client on a cadence to catch up at least one version or stay one version behind the current. They've gotten better at responding quickly to critical bug fixes as well. Oracle may have just had some resource constraints or focus constraints on how they were responding.

At the time of deployment, they were going through a lot of technical issues with the Fusion product that was diverting resources off of NetSuite. Again, because they've got such a product suite, resources are sometimes very fixed or it's hard to scale up quickly and get the right people on board. I got the sense that they had teams focused across multiple products.

That said, stability-wise, it was pretty stable when we went live. Overall from a product standpoint, from a performance standpoint of the Oracle cloud, there was definitely some issues that they were experiencing. However, based on my regular contact with his client over the last eight, nine months, post-implementation, things have improved as Oracle was already on a path to upgrading their data centers. 

With my prior client in 2018, I was involved in a lot of Oracle products at that time. Oracle had started down the path of pushing clients onto newer equipment, newer systems, and even transferring them into newer updated data centers. It doesn't happen overnight, however. They've been strategically doing that since late 17, all the way through this year.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is one of the areas of limitation, as it's not designed for the larger, more complex businesses or businesses that grow out of being a small regional player into a super-regional type of organization. 

With the improvements in the cloud product it's possible to move to another Oracle product such as the Fusion more easily. In that respect, once you get a certain level or need certain functionality, the ability to move from a NetSuite to Oracle Fusion now is much easier to do from the cloud.

Our clients are mixed organizations. Most are in the mid to large size company. I'm talking in the hundred millions into billions. I've had quite a few clients that are four billion-plus.

How are customer service and technical support?

Early on, the response was critical. There are those bugs or fixes that they'll get to that aren't impacting your businesses versus extremely critical bugs. Fields won't accept the value that needs to accept the value, or it's not calculating something correctly that's very obvious, for example. Responding to critical bugs was the initial problem. We felt it was putting clients at risk due to the fact that there wasn't a workaround. We were worried about going live with these particular bugs. Fortunately, they were able to resolve them.

I was able to escalate it enough and had enough connection, a good rapport with the Oracle leadership, for what we needed to do, that they acknowledged, "Our resources were pulled away on this. And we're getting somebody to specifically address these and look into it." And so they don't wait for the regular release packages. They made available a patch that we could deploy. They had them deploy it into the Oracle cloud. That's the other thing - you're directly engaged when Oracle manages your service in their cloud. Their team can deploy it whenever you say go. And so, because we were still in the test environment, we could get that in, and retest things. It was later than we liked, however, it still allowed us to go live. We were able to get it in and test it before we went live.

Overall, I'd say we are mostly satisfied with the level of support we receive and I would rate it eight out of ten.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

While we looked at other solutions, we didn't deploy any others with this particular client.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup has improved. Concerning what I know about it from 15 years ago to now, it's fairly straightforward. It's a lot more streamlined. There are not as many customizations you can do. You can create a few fields and add things here and there, however, when it comes to really create custom processes it forces you to use workflows and things like that. It's simpler in that it provides a lot more visibility to the business of how their processes work.

What other advice do I have?

I've had multiple engagements involving NetSuite as it is a good sweet spot system for mid-level size enterprises. I don't recommend it for large-scale enterprises. It's also too much sometimes for small companies. It's a great sweet spot, like I said, for mid-level companies. A lot of companies have been on it and sometimes they make good candidates as people who don't feel comfortable with some of the extra bells and whistles. It's a good, basic, fundamental ERP accounting supply planning system.

I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using right now. I know it wasn't the latest as I'm not a fan of going right away to the latest and greatest typically due to the fact that there are some bugaboos that have to be worked on.

Companies want you to get on the latest system. However, another reason we don't choose the latest was once we went through a build and deployed a model with an 8 UAT, by the time we were ready to go live, they had already released another version. We held off due to the fact that we were comfortable with what we tested. 

While we started using on-premises deployment models, we also now work with the cloud. 

Oracle's done a good job, especially lately. I did a major Oracle project a few years ago where their cloud infrastructure was still a little slow performance-wise, compared to, hosting on Amazon or AWS. However, Oracle's really improved that. Especially in the last year, they've really upgraded their infrastructure center. The performance of NetSuite on the cloud is pretty good now. You can still get that on an on-prem type implementation or a cloud. My last deployment actually happened to be on the cloud. That's another reason we stayed with an early version, The client was still getting their feet wet with NetSuite in the cloud at the time.

I would advise others to be detailed in how they assess their needs to make sure that is the right fit for the company's size, not only for now but over the next five years. A company needs to ask itself: What are the business' growth plans? If you're shortsighted and go into it, where you're already at the top end of the capabilities, then you're losing your investment value. Also, it will be more time and effort to set it up, when you should really be picking either the next product up or a different vendor at the outset.

Overall, it's quite a good solution. I'd rate it nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free NetSuite ERP Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free NetSuite ERP Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.