6 NetSuite Performance Optimization Tools to Improve ERP System Efficiency and Account Management
Your ERP system is bleeding productivity; the second it lags even 1/1000th of a second. Not only do slow dashboards frustrate the users of the system, but they also cost the company revenue because of their inefficient processes, including lengthy workflow and unresponsive reporting.
Although organizations that use NetSuite know how powerful NetSuite can be, only some are aware of how to unlock its full potential.
A sluggish implementation of an ERP versus a high-performing one is often due to the specific tools used and how purposefully these tools are applied. Here are six Tools for Optimizing Performance in NetSuite ERP to improve performance and keep operations running optimally.
1. SuiteAnalytics Workbook
Data should answer your questions rather than create more questions. SuiteAnalytics Workbook provides finance and operations departments with an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop reporting solution, eliminating the need to purchase additional BI tools.
Instead of waiting for an IT department to pull reports, finance and operations departments have the ability to create reports from the actual live transactional data using the Workbook in real-time.
The Workbook takes the difficulty out of creating a complex join; creates a complex/sophisticated pivot table and uses multi-dimensional filtering without requiring ANY programming.
For those businesses that are using manual Excel spreadsheets, this solution will save many hours of work each week.
What It Improves: Speed of Reporting, The Accessibility of Data, and The Visibility to Other Departments.
2. SuiteFlow (Workflow Manager)
SuiteFlow helps with manual approvals that slow down your business operations. SuiteFlow helps speed up these manual processes through automation of repetitive and process-based tasks (i.e. Purchase Order Approvals, Employee Onboarding, Invoice Routing).
All workflows are built visually, through the use of a drag and drop canvas. All conditions, actions, and branching logic snap together easily without the need for custom development. When the designated trigger is "fired," Suite Flow will automatically move the record forward, notify the appropriate person, and log out all actions for audit purposes.
When using SuiteFlow, you will see reduced bottlenecks, improved cycle times, and a team that can focus its time on making decisions rather than routing records through processes.
What it improves: Process automation, approval of velocity, and compliance tracking.
3. Suite Script 2.x
When using SuiteScript 2.x, NetSuite provides a JavaScript based development framework that allows developers to build custom logic into the NetSuite platform without impacting NetSuite's core development paths when upgrading to future updates.
SuiteScript allows for client-side scripting (validating data entry on-the-fly), scheduled scripts (automating the processing of nightly reconcile), and many other functions that extend NetSuite to meet the specific demands of your industry.
Experienced partners specializing in the NetSuite ecosystem utilize SuiteScript to build custom integrations, automations, and UI enhancements in alignment with your current business processes.
When utilizing SuiteScript, you will see an increase in your ability to create custom automations, integrate with third-party solutions, and extend the overall capabilities of the NetSuite platform.
What it improves: Custom automation, third-party integrations, and platform extensibility.
4. Suite Bundler
Maintaining consistency between environments is an ongoing challenge for teams that are expanding. SuiteBundler creates one deployable bundle that contains all customizations, which include scripts, workflows, forms, saved searches, and records.
The benefit of this is that your dev teams can build and test changes in a sandbox environment, then deploy a validated version of the same on the production environment. Version control becomes seamless; rollbacks become predictable; and therefore, your company's development-to-deployment cycle is significantly shorter.
For companies that are growing by scaling their subsidiaries or by adding new business units, SuiteBundler allows for every environment to remain synchronized and ready for audit.
What it improves: Deployment continuity, version control, and scaling reasonability.
5. Performance Center (System Health Metrics)
If you can’t see it, you can’t fix it. NetSuite's Performance Center puts real-time metrics at your fingertips by displaying information about system health, including script execution time, slow searches, memory used, and API requests made directly in the admin console.
When a saved search takes 40 seconds to complete instead of 4 seconds, the performance center will notify you. If a SuiteScript hits its governance limit, the performance center will provide the relevant information in the console. By gaining this level of insight, reactive troubleshooting is transformed into proactive management.
Most organizations that leverage NetSuite ERP Managed Services implement Performance Center as a consistent monitoring layer, enabling them to identify poor-performing processes before they affect end-users.
What it improves: System visibility, proactive troubleshooting, and managing governance.
6. Saved Search Optimization
Almost every list, report, and dashboard on NetSuite is built using saved searches. These saved searches can also be the cause of many of the slowdowns you might be experiencing when saving searches aren’t optimized for performance.
To optimize a saved search, you’ll want to refine the logic used to create the joins between records, limit the number of columns returned in the results, apply indexed filters first, and schedule resource-heavy queries to run during off-peak hours. All small changes to a saved search make a huge difference in terms of how fast it will load; a well-optimized saved search can load 10 times faster than an unoptimized saved search.
NetSuite account management teams that perform regular saved search audits report faster page loads, lighter server loads, and significantly better user experiences across the board.
What it improves: Improved system speed, reduced server load, and better quality of user experience.
The Smarter Path Forward
Each of these tools will provide significant benefits on an individual basis. Collectively, they create a multiplying performance benefit, allowing your business to scale effectively. The companies that have accelerated ahead of their peers utilize not only the NetSuite ERP, but also use it in an intentional manner, using the appropriate tools to align with their operational needs and structure.
If you feel as though your ERP is not working for you, the above tools should be your first point of reference. That's where Cinntra comes in. As a trusted NetSuite partner, Cinntra will help you implement, optimize, and manage your NetSuite Business with precision so that every tool works harder, and every process runs smoother.
When using these tools systematically in conjunction with the right partner, you will see your NetSuite system move from a cost center to a true competitive advantage.