How to Make the Most of Your NetSuite Integration

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Successful NetSuite integrations demand some careful thought up front. Why? So that you can not only prepare for potential pitfalls, but also think through how to use this powerful solution to your best advantage over the long term. Without these preparations, your integration can become a huge IT headache that forces you to spend valuable hours manually reconciling bad data and correcting errors.

In our work with clients, we’ve learned some key tips and tricks to help make your NetSuite integration a success – one that reduces costs and effort and makes it easier for your business to change and grow. Here are a few examples:

Start with a strong design

Part of the key to a successful integration is resisting the pressure of tight budgets and time constraints and instead taking the time to think through your project from the beginning. This early prep work can help identify problem areas and potential issues, as well as make it easier to set milestones and assign tasks. And while it can be time-consuming up front, a thoughtful design process can also head off an extensive manual effort to dig up and correct errors later.

Pay attention to data mapping

Have you thought through how data will flow to and from each application in a way that prevents overwrites and duplication? Integrations can involve CRM and financial data from Salesforce and Quickbooks, lead data from Marketo or order fulfillment details from Magento. Will the integration be bidirectional, with information being both extracted and pushed between two systems? If so, which applications will have ultimate ownership over which fields? It’s also highly unlikely that such disparate systems will record data in the exact same way. Careful data mapping can help make sure that everything works together to accurately update records and maintain validation rules instead of compromising data.

Be proactive and make the most of your tools

Another key step is making sure you’re taking advantage of NetSuite’s capabilities and looking for ways to keep refining your integration. Built-in features such as external ID can help to easily import large datasets and prevent duplicates, while notification tools can help report and correct any errors that do creep in. Looking at the larger picture, the intelligence, flexibility and integration capabilities of this powerful tool can help you not only reduce IT effort and costs, but to continue to automate and optimize business processes and better serve your customers over the long term.

Get the rest of the story by downloading Seven Steps for a Successful NetSuite Integration. You’ll discover smart, specific approaches to common integration issues, as well as useful resources to help make your next project a success.