When you’re picking an ERP, you want to make sure that you examine every one of your options and alternatives. Switching ERPs is a big undertaking. Finding out you’ve chosen wrong for your business can be a massive blow to your efficiency, productivity, and bottom line.
If you’ve been using NetSuite or are considering it but aren’t sure if it’s the right choice for you, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll walk through NetSuite’s pros and cons and why Acumatica could be a better fit for your business.
Overview of NetSuite
NetSuite is a cloud-based, all-in-one business management software company that provides financial, inventory, and enterprise resource planning services. It was founded in 1998 by Evan Goldberg. The company’s headquarters are in Austin, Texas. NetSuite has more than 31,000 customers in over 200 countries.
NetSuite’s suite of business management tools is designed to help businesses efficiently manage their operations. NetSuite offers the following features:
- Financials, including accounting and reporting, financial planning, and enterprise performance management (EPM)
- Customer relationship management (CRM), including sales force automation (SFA), marketing automation (MA), and service automation
- Supply chain management, including order fulfillment and inventory optimization
- Human capital management (HCM), including workforce planning, talent acquisition and development, compensation planning, benefits administration, talent mobility, and succession planning.
NetSuite supports different kinds of industries, such as:
- Manufacturing
- Retail
- Hospitality
- Professional services
- Healthcare
- Financial services
- Wholesale distribution
NetSuite’s Pros
The company has over 100,000 customers worldwide, including over 20% of the Fortune 500 companies. It is also ranked as the 1 cloud ERP provider.
Like most cloud ERPs, NetSuite prioritizes flexibility. It offers add-on modules and allows you to choose how long you want your contract to be, which is excellent for creating a bespoke package.
It also is highly rated on its overall usability, flow, and UI elements. It’s easier to navigate than many of its competitors.
Since it’s such a large company, there is also an extensive network, meaning providers are all over North America and elsewhere.
NetSuite’s Cons
While NetSuite does its part to deserve its high ratings, it’s not without its flaws and quirks that may be a make-or-break situation for some companies.
Here are the three top complaints customers have about NetSuite.
Not optimized for smaller organizations
The main complaint is that NetSuite is not optimized for small to mid-sized businesses. While the Fortune 500 companies may find NetSuite an excellent fit, smaller businesses may find the service a poor match in multiple ways.
Steep pricing
There are some options for customizing your pricing. But the baseline package is $999 a month with the added price of $99 a user.
While this may not be prohibitively expensive for larger companies, small to medium-sized companies may quickly find themselves strained financially, especially those with many part-time employees or a larger employee base. User bases can artificially inflate a company.
This pricing doesn’t even consider add-ons, one-time fees, or upgrade costs.
Insufficient customer support
While customer support does come with every package, it doesn’t mean the style of customer support is helpful for every business’s needs.
For one thing, the included customer service is very, very basic. It provides online support during business hours with the basic package. Better support comes at a more premium price point.
Customer support is one of the most crucial elements of choosing an ERP because of how complex the program can be. If you’re on basic and have problems on the weekend or can’t understand the online instructions, you’re out of luck. You’re stuck submitting an online case and waiting.
If you’re running a leaner team without IT support, this can put you at a significant disadvantage.
Overview of Acumatica
Acumatica ERP is another highly rated cloud-based program that often falls right behind NetSuite’s ranking. It boasts 8,000 customers in 50+ countries and has been rated the fast-growing for six years.
Founded in 2008, Acumatica was designed with the needs of small to mid-sized businesses as its primary focus.
Why Acumatica is a good alternative to NetSuite
Acumatica addresses all the top complaints about NetSuite.
Optimized for small businesses
Acumatica was designed with small and mid-sized businesses in mind, making it ideal for those companies that don’t fit the enterprise category.
Pay for what you use
Instead of paying per user with Acumatica, you pay for resources used and functionality. So your pricing only increases when your business grows. This way, you can hire part-time workers without worrying about adding unnecessary costs. Depending on how you use your ERP, you can also give access to your suppliers or customers.
Essentially price correlates to profits and transactions instead of employees.
Award-winning customer service
ERPs are complicated programs that allow for a lot of customization. Unfortunately, this means there is a lot of potential for things to go wrong.
If you’re stuck waiting for tech support, your entire system could be unusable for whatever time. This loses you customers and profits.
Acumatica is dedicated to its customers, even publishing a customer bill of rights. They also provide 24/7 customer service and implementation with no hidden fees.
They’ve been awarded for their software’s usability and good relationship with customers.
They also provide benefits like constant monitoring, disaster recovery, backup services, software updates, and app maintenance. All these benefit smaller companies without a huge IT support staff. In addition, Acumatica can take the lion’s share of upkeep off your hands so you can focus on running your company.
Acumatica May Be Right for You
While NetSuite is an impressive company and excellent ERP, it’s not made for everyone. It’s less focused on the needs of small to mid-sized businesses. Acumatica, on the other hand, prioritizes the needs of its customers and takes a less hands-off approach while also providing a quality program.
Acumatica ERP Integration
Acumatica Cloud ERP is a complete technology solution that is well designed for growing small and mid-market organizations. If you want to implement Acumatica for your business, Confianz can help! We are well-versed in ERP implementation and Acumatica implementation in particular.
Call us today to get started!
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