NetSuite ERP Reviews

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

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.

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.

I have been using it for the last three years.

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

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

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.

Neutral

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.

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.

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

NetSuite ERP has dramatically improved our organization. We went from QuickBooks to NetSuite. You can compare this transition to changing from tennis shoes to a flying car. You really have much more functionality over foreign operations with NetSuite. I would say in capability, report-wise, data querying, is much better to use than QuickBooks. QuickBooks is only for small companies.

The feature I find most valuable is the reporting function as I work in accounting. There is an innumerable number of data analyses and reports that you could be called to do on a daily basis. The ability for just your average users to do what they call customized reporting or searches is very simple. Again, it's a user-centric tool. You don't have to have involvement with your IT function. If you're in a New York company, especially in software, where you have engineers that are hyper-focused on product development, you don't get any support from them anyway. So, having a product that can be supported by the users themselves is golden.

The areas that this product needs to improve on is the implementation and inventory processes. That is my accounting-based opinion. The more automated these processes are, the better.

I have been using NetSuite ERP for about 20 years.

My impression is that the NetSuite ERP solution is quite stable.

I would rate this solution's scalability a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. Currently, there are around 40 or 50 users of this solution in our organization.

I would rate NetSuite ERP's technical support a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. Obviously, you can't get a dedicated support specialist unless you want to pay a huge amount of money for that, but I would say their technical support is good. The more you go to a third party, the worse it gets.

Positive

The setup process mostly depends on the type of VAR that you have. If you have a good VAR with competent engineering capabilities, your implementation could be a dream. But if you're like me and you have a VAR that is horrible, unresponsive, lacks the skillset, is completely unhelpful, and likes to point fingers, then you're going to have a very difficult implementation that's going to turn into a nightmare.

We were doing an integration with Stripe, which was a horrible experience. Stripe is a poor product, so it was very difficult to engineer that kind of data integration. Most of the VARs are not capable of handling that kind of environment. 

Time-wise, it can really depend on how long the deployment can take. If you're not trying to integrate it with a platform like Stripe, then you can have an easy implementation. That really depends on how much data you're trying to integrate, in terms of historical data. In the United States, we have laws around Sarbanes Oxley requirements. So there are certain steps that you have to follow to make sure that you have the right amount of data. When you do a new ERP system, you're really kind of concerned with the functionality in your reporting. So if you have transactions going through the new system, but you don't mirror them in the old one, you're never going to know whether or not what you're trying to do can be comparable to the old way, which is something you've relied upon and you have. It's like a test case, for example.

The implementation is done through a third-party team. We have VARs that help with that kind of work. NetSuite also has its own implementation teams. But if you have more customized implementation needs, like integration with third-party platforms, other than a banking function, for example, Stripe or Bill.com, then you have to get some VARs that are very knowledgeable.

The ROI is visible almost immediately. Its capability of dealing with foreign operations are much better than QuickBooks. With QuickBooks, you can't do foreign currencies within one environment. So if you have a US company, you can only do one currency, the US dollar. However, in NetSuite, you could do multiple currencies for each entity. The difference in capabilities is just night and day.

It's an annual, usage-based subscription. The more users you're going to have, the more licenses you need. The pricing is very much to my liking. I was very satisfied with it. I don't have any complaints. If you have a very superior product, you're going to pay for it, but that's the trade-off.

A lot of times, you have multinationals that can work under different reporting requirements. For example, you can have a parent company in a different country that's subject to IFRS and then you can have US entities that are subject to US GAAP. They have ways of accommodating that and that will definitely cost you more money. They're called books. It's very much like what you would think of, like, a sub-ledger. So it would be where you'd make specialized transactions to integrate between two different regulatory bodies.

I would advise others trying to implement this solution to be very careful about the value-added reseller (VAR) that they choose. There are some really bad VARs out there. They will promise you the world and then when things go bad, they'll point the finger at you. It's better to go with NetSuite's recommendation first. Obviously, they're not going to choose somebody to implement their product unless they've carefully vetted them and have had good reviews.

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.

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.

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. 

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

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

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.

They have pretty good support.

Positive

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.

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.

The solution offers very good value for money.

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

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We use it for the projects we do in the telecom industry.

I didn't see the NetSuite ERP having the profit center or fund management features we have in SAP, and that's where we are struggling. What we need is a fund management feature, which we didn't find in the current version.

We're mainly looking for the fund management feature in the next version.

I have been using this solution for one and a half years.

It is a stable solution. I would rate the stability of NetSuite ERP a six out of ten. I haven't experienced any glitches or bugs with NetSuite so far. However, there are some features, like local taxation, that are not properly available in NetSuite. To access those features, we have to purchase a bundle.

The scalability of NetSuite ERP is quite good when incorporating APIs and plugins. In that regard, I would rate it highly. However, when it comes to high volumes of transactions, I am not sure if it is still scalable.

I would rate the scalability of NetSuite a seven out of ten. There are around 20-30 users in our organization.

It was expensive. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten.

We are currently using NetSuite ERP, but it doesn't satisfy all our needs. We are hoping SAP will be a better fit for us.

Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten because many features are not there yet.

We use NetSuite for inventory and order management. 

NetSuite helps us simplify business processes. 

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. 

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

NetSuite's stability is okay. 

I rate NetSuite six out of 10 for scalability. 

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

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. 

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. 

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.

I have been working with the product since 2005. 

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.

Neutral

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.

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.