This article is relevant if you are relatively new to the NetSuite platform and you will be holding a leadership role in a new NetSuite implementation.

Background

An ERP (and CRM) implementation is a challenging endeavor fraught with both opportunities and risks. In my conversations with prospective clients seeking to get on to NetSuite, I am looking to evaluate their experience. Those prospective client sponsors that have never been through an ERP implementation are ignorant of the considerations that must be addressed during the implementation journey.  These individuals are often highly influenced by promises offered in sales practices, such as Oracle’s SuiteSuccess. Others that have been through an implementation typically demonstrate a greater appreciation for the experience of the people that will offer assistance to activate the business systems platform.

Since an ERP implementation is risky and a one-time endeavor, it is generally meaningful to work with outside consultants. Consultants are generally regarded as professionals who provide expert advice in a particular area or industry. The role of a consultant often involves analyzing existing organizational problems and developing strategies to solve them.  Consultants are valuable because they can bring assistance to project-based situations.

Stronger consultants have a greater capacity to hold both general and specific managerial concerns. An ERP systems implementation (independent from specifically NetSuite) sets up a situation where all the existing organizational practices for making and fulfilling trade-based promises may be modified.   Accordingly, a company that wants to implement NetSuite will (implicitly) change its procedures in hopes of building better practices — yet this is where the risk lies.  How do we know if the new practices suggested by the ERP business systems are better than incumbent practices? These practices collectively result in systems that drive day-to-day performance, costs, and customer experiences.   Strong consultants help people navigate this collective concern.

Getting Educated for a NetSuite Implementation

To produce a NetSuite implementation well, one must understand situational patterns that one can anticipate. How does one begin to get oriented to such patterns so that good judgment can be developed?  These kinds of questions are meaningful to those that are not initiated into the discourse. I am pleased to suggest that I found a book that I will use for all of my firm’s entry-level consultants. NetSuite for Consultants (second edition 2023) does a good job of helping the uninitiated.   The book is an easy-to-understand read for any inexperienced individual that will be holding a project leadership role for a NetSuite implementation.

Here are references to the book (there are no affiliate links here; I don’t play that game):

1. Amazon Review
2. Google Review

I gave the book an Amazon 4-star rating primarily because the book serves well enough for those seeking a general overview but falls short in providing the in-depth insight required for the leadership our clients need in new NetSuite implementation.   This lack of depth and positioning prevents me from giving it a full 5-star rating.

What Makes Successful NetSuite Implementation Consultants?

My firm is frequently engaged to rescue or take over failed ERP implementations. We are asked to address these unfortunate situations because we recurrently produce NetSuite implementation success.  But why do we recurrently produce implementation success?

Generally, we are offering wisdom in navigating the risky ERP implementation endeavor.   Wisdom is not something that a single book can produce. Wisdom is a complex and multifaceted trait that often comes from a combination of lived experience, reflection, learning, and personal growth. While there’s no one-size-fits-all pattern (which the NetSuite for Consultants book may somewhat imply), there are some common pathways that can contribute to the development of wisdom in the ERP industry:

1. Experience: Living through diverse experiences, both positive and negative, can provide valuable insights and understanding.  Encountering different situations, perspectives, and challenges can broaden one’s view.  It’s not the number of years but the number of NetSuite ERP challenges faced.
2. Listening and Observation: Good listeners often develop wisdom by absorbing the insights and experiences of others.  Observation also plays a crucial role in understanding the nuances of human behavior and the world around us.  My firm values individuals who demonstrate they can listen by being patient and then summarizing what they understand in their own words.  This is the opening move for one to develop leadership.
3. Reflection: Reflecting on experiences, thoughts, and feelings helps foster deeper understanding and self-awareness. Analyzing situations and recognizing patterns can lead to more thoughtful decisions. In our Practice, we regularly discuss the ERP situations we are in and ask questions about what we are observing.
4. Learning from Mistakes: Acknowledging and learning from mistakes rather than dismissing them fosters growth. Taking responsibility to turn setbacks into valuable lessons develops one’s guidance capacity. Our firm maintains a “Lessons Learned” database to act as a repository to help us remember what we encountered and what we want to remember.
5. Empathy and Compassion: Cultivating empathy and compassion toward others enhances emotional intelligence, a key component of wisdom. Listening to clients’ moods and concerns helps us develop better ways of being able to generate more openness and willingness to follow. These capacities all sit in the soft-skill domain and are difficult to develop when we regularly are under high-stress ERP implementation project obligations.
6. Continuous Learning: Wisdom often comes from a lifelong pursuit of knowledge. Continuously seeking to learn through reading, studying, or engaging with mentors can provide deeper insights into various subjects. We all start at the beginning of our learning journey. The NetSuite for Consultants book can be a great aid.  Naturally, obtaining NetSuite Certification can be a public illustration of the commitment to ongoing learning.
7. Ethical Consideration: Being guided by strong ethical principles and recognizing the moral dimensions of decisions can lead to actions aligned with wisdom. Our firm is guided by three keywords for which we organize our practices: Responsibility, Trust and Care.  Ask anyone on our team, and they will share how we talk about these values.
8. Resilience and Adaptation: Embracing change and demonstrating resilience in the face of adversity can foster wisdom. It’s about learning to adapt and find meaning even in difficult circumstances.  To succeed in a NetSuite ERP implementation, we anticipate that we are going to be challenged, and we must be ready to change to fit what is needed.
9. Humility: Recognizing that one doesn’t have all the answers and being open to the views and experiences of others is a hallmark of wisdom. It’s a willingness to accept that we are always growing and learning. When working with the highly adaptable NetSuite platform, we must remember that we may be wrong in our interpretations, and thus we better double-check our assumptions.

Leadership Development

I have recurring meetings with my managers and staff to discuss how we develop our wisdom in the NetSuite ERP space. We call ourselves a NetSuite Systems Integration Practice because we are continuously learning to sharpen our craft. Collectively,  I call this focus leadership development. While my firm offers great value by offering no-license-fee for NetSuite accelerator code modules, our real offer is leadership. Our clients want to know that we will solve their specific challenges, offer sound guidance on how to implement the solutions, and be there when questions come forth.

In our minds, we must be able to have a meaningful business-level conversation with an owner/executive/manager. We then must be able to translate those conversations into requirements that we will model in the NetSuite platform. We do not believe that we fit the practices to the software — instead, we fit the software to the desired business practice if the investment will bring a return.

NetSuite’s Platform for Innovation and Practice Development

Fifteen years ago, in 2008, I devoted our focus to developing our NetSuite expertise. I could see that NetSuite was the one ERP system with the right architecture for ambitious organizations that understood that they also needed to continue to develop and adapt their practices to the increasingly competitive landscape. While the built-in capacities are the opening move to solve a business challenge, the more important consideration is if those capacities fit right. If they do not, we don’t get upset and say we can’t. Instead, we stay committed and adapt — because we can!

This is why sales programs, such as SuiteSuccess, that promise rapid delivery times because “we already know what you need” lack the humility and listening required to truly achieve the goal. Experienced business leaders usually learn this lesson after their first challenging ERP implementation.

Join a NetSuite Consultancy Committed to Wisdom Development

This article aims to illustrate that good books and learning aids are valuable for professional development. They are a component of the overall commitment to the development of wisdom. Increasingly, in a world with the emergence of Natural Language Models and Artificial Intelligence, we will find that wisdom is the scarcest and most valuable human quality sought after in navigating complex business endeavors.

Wisdom must be earned, over time, through multiple experiences with a commitment to developing the hard and soft skills needed to offer leadership to others to help them obtain what they most care about.  Value is always an assessment that lives in us and others; to be ethical is to submit to other people’s interpretations of what they consider most significant and meaningful.

Perhaps you recognize that you thirst for substance in your work. You see that to develop a career, it’s important to connect with like-minded individuals that are focusing on developing their wisdom so they can offer leadership to others in their community. As such, it may be time to gear up for the long but very rewarding journey of professional development in a fundamental business space that invites creativity and innovation.

If you found this article relevant, feel free to sign up for notifications to new articles as I post them. If you are prepared to make a commitment to enhancing your career with the NetSuite ERP platform, let’s have a conversation.

Marty Zigman

Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.

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