How to Find a NetSuite Integration Partner
How much of your business data is trapped in NetSuite? Leveraging business intelligence is essential for strategic-thinking corporate decision-makers, and NetSuite’s comprehensive business management software generates plenty of data. But you can only convert data into usable intelligence when information can freely flow between systems, and the best way to do this is through a NetSuite integration partner.
Data has long been forecast as the new oil of the 21st century. And this popular prediction was more than correct. At this point, certain companies are valued more for their data than any products or services they provide. Surviving and thriving depend on how effectively companies unify, understand, and use internally generated data.
This result generally isn’t an easy task when using various solutions and applications since data doesn’t transport cleanly between disparate systems.
Why Would You Need a NetSuite Integration Partner?
NetSuite was built to unify business information through its integrated cloud-based software. It does this by providing a comprehensive application suite that includes business management, ERP, accounting, eCommerce, HR, and CRM tools.
NetSuite is an industry leader. It was the first-ever cloud-based application and revolutionized the business software industry. NetSuite products are still used by over 28,000 companies around the world.
That said, most companies still use NetSuite along with other apps and platforms. For example, you might want to run your content management, sales, marketing, or other activities with specialized tools. Building an ideal tech stack is excellent. But once that’s done, you’re left with the same problem that NetSuite emerged to solve — a disjointed tech stack that leaves information siloed off.
NetSuite has its own analytics. However, you won’t get a truly comprehensive view unless you can bring its data into other sales and marketing systems or transport outside data into NetSuite.
In this case, you need a way to integrate NetSuite with other systems reliably, and a NetSuite integration partner is the best choice.
Related: How Customer Data Analytics and Automation Can Boost Your Company’s Performance
What’s the Best Way for You to Integrate Your NetSuite Data?
NetSuite understands data’s strategic value and aims to give businesses freedom and control over their own data. It offers a few integration methods to get data in or out:
- Develop your own direct-to-API integration using REST or SOAP web services
- Import data from CSV files
- Use a data importer tool
- Work with a specialized, third-party NetSuite integrator
A few enterprises prefer building out their own integration, particularly when dealing with legacy, on-premises data storage and applications. NetSuite developers are highly skilled programmers who will create custom scripts and endpoints for any data connection.
A couple of options are available if you want to make direct and infrequent data imports or transfers. These actions can be completed with either a standard CSV file or by using an export program. However, this doesn’t compare with a continuous, real-time connection.
Your final option is to go with a NetSuite integration partner. This is a SaaS offering with a purpose-built data integrator designed to sync NetSuite with other programs.
Why a NetSuite Integration Partner is Better
NetSuite is a prominent solution with complex architecture and protocols. But your data integration can still be simple. The entire process can be straightforward as long as you have the right partner on hand.
A NetSuite solution developer should facilitate the integration completely, leaving you and your team with zero technical concerns. A true integration partner will then clean and organize the data to deliver accurate and easily understandable business intelligence.
Data should never be taken for granted. It’s been said that between 60% and 73% of business data goes unused or is misused. A partner specializing in solution integrations, data analysis, and NetSuite will prevent this from happening.
Here’s the thing, not all NetSuite integrators have the same tech capabilities. Choosing the wrong one may leave you with a system full of messy, duplicated, error-filled junk data. And this can leave you worse off than before. So, let’s get into a few things yours should offer.
Related: NetSuite & Marketo: Integrate to Get More From Your Tech Stack
How to Find a NetSuite Integration Partner
NetSuite is a renowned platform running core operational activities. Your NetSuite integration should withstand the volume of data flow, be user-friendly for non-technical professionals, maintain the data’s integrity, and generate its own intelligence.
Here are a few technical requirements to look for:
1. Bi-Directional Data Flow with an Automated Multi-Point Connection
Application integrators can either have a unidirectional or bi-directional data flow architecture. Always go for an integrator with bi-directional capabilities.
Integrators with a unidirectional data flow architecture can only send information one way. This is fine if you want to send updates through to another application or generate occasional reports. But its use is inherently limited.
A bi-directional data flow is when data can flow both ways allowing your apps to communicate with each other, trigger responses, and work together.
A multi-point connection enables you to integrate NetSuite with more than one other application.
Together, these features convert your tech stack into a unified system capable of seamless communication and frictionless interaction.
Let’s say your core stack looks like this:
- NetSuite for resource planning, project management, and HR
- HubSpot for inbound content marketing and customer service
- Marketo for email marketing, lead management, sales, and marketing automation
You might want to have resource management inform your sales department on product availability. Or send customer service reports back to NetSuite for performance management.
The right data integrator will allow NetSuite to communicate with both apps and receive information from them.
2. Automated Data Hygiene
Your NetSuite data integrator should continuously clean, organize, and streamline the data. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a pile of dirty, unusable data.
Transferring information between applications is a messy, complicated process. Even apps built on the same infrastructure won’t have matching fields, records, and values. Data always has to be translated from one system to another.
A solution like NetSuite presents a significant challenge. It has a complex structure and can store large quantities of data. Without careful field matching and record scrutinization, your integration can end up nonsensical or full of duplicates and errors.
Bad data is more than a minor hassle or inconvenience. This represents significant resource waste and lost potential in a data-driven business era. According to Gartner, bad data costs organizations an average of $12.9 million per year. Back in 2016, IBM assessed the economic impact at $3.1 trillion to America’s GDP.
Why so high? You have the missed opportunity cost along with the organizational burden of cleaning data. This includes:
- Having professionals spend their time searching for bad data, cleaning duplicates, correcting mistakes, and verifying information
- Matching and organizing data into coherent reports
- The risk of not catching an error and operating off bad intelligence
Real-time data flow requires continuous data hygiene. This can only be done by an intelligent data integrator tool.
3. Integrated Analytics and Reporting
Your integrator should garner insights from the data being processed. It should at least provide you with some general information on the integration. But innovative new tools are taking this further to give you unified data intelligence.
One of the core reasons why you want to unify your tools is to get better intelligence. But it’s reasonably easy to bring your data together and still end up with incomplete or narrow intelligence.
You can’t rely on individual applications to generate intelligence that covers your entire stack since each application’s reporting is built around its own features. Bringing data from one tool to another can still leave you with a limited view if the app can’t fully process it.
This is where an intelligent data integrator can step in. It will analyze the data flowing through it and generate comprehensive intelligence. A specialized NetSuite data integrator will deliver big-picture business insights and predictive recommendations based on all the data in your tech stack.
4. Completely Code Free
A third-party integration tool can easily turn out to be more work than anticipated. You might need to do more setup than expected, manually verify data, or go in and make corrections.
One way to avoid this is by choosing a codeless data integrator. Ideally, one with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface doesn’t require any technical adjustments.
A drag-and-drop interface shows that the integrator’s development team has already taken care of the prep work.
Introducing an Innovative, Code-Free NetSuite Integration Partner
Integrating platforms should simplify and streamline your operations, making work more efficient and less complicated. It takes an innovative data connector to pull this off.
Vertify is a code-free NetSuite integration partner. It handles multi-point connections, sends data both ways, and automatically cleans the information. It’s the easiest way for any organization to move NetSuite data in and out of other platforms to garner full-picture insights. Request a demonstration to experience it yourself.