This article is relevant if you are preparing for a NetSuite project and want to eliminate surprises, increase confidence in outcomes, and clarify what it will take to succeed.
Background
Many businesses jump into NetSuite without fully appreciating what it takes to succeed. They lack a plan. Some don’t understand the scope. Others haven’t assessed their internal capabilities. Far too many treat NetSuite as an IT responsibility, assuming “they” will figure it out. But NetSuite isn’t just a system — it is an operating platform. Without strong business leadership and serious planning, organizations leave NetSuite’s locked-up potential on the table.
We often encounter businesses that have poured significant investments into NetSuite, only to struggle to realize a solid return. They never had a clear, realistic view of what it takes to achieve their goals. These situations are prime candidates for a Roadmap Project, one of Prolecto’s signature methods for building alignment and confidence in complex NetSuite engagements.
Consider a recent example: A $100M+ commodity distributor with 18 locations and family-led management had already “gone live” with NetSuite through two prior partners. However, they could not achieve an idealized competitive capability. Pricing, central to their business, was still a mess. Prophet 21 (Epicor) failed them in this area, and NetSuite didn’t magically fix it. What they needed wasn’t more configuration; it was leadership. Our Roadmap engagement zeroed in on pricing, brought structure to the complexity, and delivered a clear, actionable plan to get them unstuck.
NetSuite Planning: Why Roadmaps Matter
Our firm uses a structured model to evaluate when and how a Roadmap engagement should be applied. Two core dimensions shape the nature of any NetSuite initiative to help us plan the Roadmap:
| Dimension | Option A | Option B | Considerations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Implementation Type | New Implementation | Optimization | Optimizations are more demanding due to legacy configurations and hidden risks. New implementations offer a clean slate. |
| Project Scope | Smaller Scope | Larger Scope | Smaller scopes allow for quicker value, tighter focus, and a better understanding of team coordination. Larger scopes require deeper investment and extended assessment and are inherently riskier. |
Each Roadmap endeavor begins with a key planning step: estimating the amount of onsite (at our client’s offices) time required by our most senior leadership. Most efforts are under a week. The Roadmap varies by project complexity and scope. Smaller, focused scopes (like this client’s pricing challenge) may need only a few days onsite. Larger, multi-departmental initiatives require longer engagements and careful sequencing of interviews and reviews to produce meaningful deliverables.
Regardless of size, Roadmap efforts must be led by top-tier experts who can both envision future-state systems and communicate those visions compellingly. This includes:
- Systems Architects with NetSuite experience, foresight, and an appreciation of both platform constraints and business ambitions.
- Facilitators/Leaders who guide stakeholders through change management, align expectations, and frame the transition as a story about new commitments, not simply software usage.
Our Approach: The NetSuite Roadmap Workshop
The Prolecto Roadmap is delivered through a structured workshop engagement, often spanning three days onsite with senior leadership, operations, and accounting. We bring Project leadership (see our Major Projects Practice) with strong business acumen to drive client confidence in suggested future capacities. Depending on scope and complexity, the time investment may be expanded to ensure a solid foundation.
Our process produces tailored deliverables in six core categories:
- Business Context: strategic goals, customer landscape, unique processes, existing system considerations, current pain points, organizational capacities, and situational constraints.
- Process Review: general current-state analysis, sub-process breakdowns, fit-gap assessments, and targeted improvement areas.
- Systems Architecture: functional diagramming, technical landscape modeling, integration points, future-state design.
- NetSuite Configuration: recommendations for key dimensions, entities, items, workflows, transaction constructs and reporting.
- Innovation Considerations: Applying native tools powerfully, Prolecto license-free Accelerator Templates, anticipated custom logic, or third-party tools to solve unique challenges.
- Implementation Roadmap: phased rollout plan, estimated timelines, work breakdown structure, readiness assessment, investment range, and key risks.
Click on the image to see an example full-screen of a functional model to drive the client pricing solution.
Implementation Details: Roadmap Deliverables
The onsite work is designed to create the following:
- Clear Future-State Vision: the Roadmap synthesizes executive concerns into a practical vision using the NetSuite platform. It becomes a north star for both business and technical teams.
- Readiness Alignment: our process helps stakeholders assess their current situation in terms of people, tools, time, and financial commitment so they can move forward with open eyes.
- Early Innovation Identification: where it makes sense, rather than being limited by native functionality, we actively assess where to introduce Prolecto Accelerator Templates. For example, for this client, we have produced previous custom pricing engines or discount logic demonstrating our ability to push NetSuite where needed; these are topics explored in prior articles such as Get Unified NetSuite Vendor and Customer Discount Price Schedules and Overcoming NetSuite Discount Items in Absolute Terms.
- Tangible Draft Artifacts: within the short engagement, while still onsite, we produce meaningful draft outputs — models, diagrams, workplans and investment estimates that demonstrate feasibility and invite client engagement.
- Momentum to Execute: in the pricing client case, the Roadmap helped stakeholders not just understand the path forward, but feel confident in committing to it because the organization finally had alignment. That clarity accelerated buy-in, leading to a formal design-and-build project that brought the solution to life.
No organization serious about leveraging NetSuite should ignore the planning required to succeed. Skipping it isn’t bold. It is risky and often fatal to the outcomes it’s chasing. What we often witness is an unwillingness to engage in the very commitments that drive success. Clients want the payoff, but without putting in the financial discipline, executive focus, or time devotion necessary. And many NetSuite partners enable that thinking. That’s a recipe for disappointment.
Unlock NetSuite’s Potential: Start with the Minds That Architect NetSuite Success
The Prolecto Roadmap Method is our blueprint for clearly leading before committing to consequential action. Built on deep platform expertise and matured through years of hands-on execution and client situations, it is how we align stakeholders, surface unspoken assumptions, and bring structure to complexity. Too many NetSuite initiatives fail because no one slows down long enough to define what success looks like (unlocking that NetSuite potential) or what it will demand. Our approach engages the business foremost, and includes IT, to ensure readiness across people, process, and capital. With the right minds in the room and the discipline to confront reality, the Roadmap eliminates surprises and sets the foundation for high-stakes projects to confidently move forward.
If you found this article relevant, feel free to sign up for notifications to new articles as I post them. If you are ready to eliminate ambiguity in your NetSuite planning and want a seasoned guide to help shape your vision, 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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