Why NetSuite Makes Sense for Professional Service Firms

The professional services industry is projected to bring in $600 billion in 2023, particularly because businesses of all sizes are seeing the value in outsourcing core elements of their operations. NetSuite, the #1 cloud ERP, enables professional service organizations to meet the growing needs of their clients—and earn more than their fair share of this $600 billion pie.

NetSuite makes this possible by enabling professional service companies to:

• Improve customer satisfaction and drive repeat business
• Manage and monitor projects, resources, and finances
• Keep track of jobs and issues in real-time

1. Improve Customer Satisfaction and Drive Repeat Business

A NetSuite implementation allows you to afford customers the individual attention they need without having to scale back on the number of clients you serve. The key to the kind of customer satisfaction that results in repeat business is personalized service, but this takes time. 

With NetSuite, you can automate time-consuming processes (such as those outlined below), freeing up your staff to build relationships by connecting with key clients.

Project Management

NetSuite’s project management tools give you a holistic, complete view of the status of different projects as well as the teams working on them. For example, a company that provides IT services can furnish its different teams with information regarding how each project is faring. They can then use that data to shift team members around to help move lagging projects along or to collaborate to address a particularly challenging problem.

Further, NetSuite’s configurable dashboards enable team members to surface the stats most pertinent to the management of their individual projects. This gives them visibility into the data they need to meet—and exceed—project expectations and ensure customer satisfaction.

Resource Management and Forecasting

Because NetSuite for professional services makes it easy to manage resources and forecast future needs, your customer service doesn’t have to suffer while you try to scrape together the resources necessary to meet clients’ demands.

For instance, suppose you run a company that provides digital marketing services. NetSuite shows you that your company spends an average of $3,500 to deliver an email drip campaign consisting of 12 emails sent out over the course of two months. Over the course of a week, you acquire several new clients. You can use NetSuite to:

• Determine how much it cost you to acquire each new client
• Present a price point that meets their budget while also keeping your business solvent

In this way, you boost customer satisfaction because you provide a fair price, without having to sacrifice profitability.

2. Manage and Monitor Projects, Resources, and Finances

NetSuite ERP brings all your projects together under a single umbrella, giving you a complete view of how resources and finances are being used. This is particularly helpful for professional service companies because service, by its very nature, is often fluid, changing according to customer demand, market trends, and challenges that arise along the way.

For example, a company providing professional architectural services can, at any given time, have dozens of projects happening at once. Each requires people-hours, site visits, meetings, etc. to ensure the smooth delivery of services. With NetSuite, you can keep track of the progress and expenditures of each project, using that information to get individual architects and teams the support they need to deliver excellent results on time.

Automated features that NetSuite offers include:

• Billing and invoicing: Keep track of how much is coming in, being spent, when, and how.
• Project accounting: You can see the accounts receivable and payable associated with each project, as well as produce reports showing the revenue each job earns.
• Timesheet management: NetSuite’s timesheet management feature, SuiteProjects, lets you track the number of hours worked and allocate time to certain jobs as needed.

3. Keep Track of Jobs and Issues in Real-Time

You can use NetSuite ERP to track both individual jobs and job categories. This can provide critical information for assessing project profitability. You can then cull out the projects that consume resources without providing adequate payback.

For instance, you can use NetSuite to:

• Generate reports: Track applicable metrics and use advanced analytics to quantify job success in terms of revenue earned, time to completion, people-hours invested, and more.
• Manage expenses: If you’re overspending on a certain category of services, NetSuite for professional services can surface the issue so you can make adjustments.
• Revenue recognition: With NetSuite, you can see how much each kind of service brings in at a glance. You can then use this information to make staffing decisions and design strategic price points.

Grow Your Professional Services Business with GSI's NetSuite Services

By taking advantage of NetSuite services by GSI, your professional services company can leverage the features that make day-to-day work easier and enable you to satisfy—and take on—more clients. Backed by an experienced team of NetSuite experts that understand the needs of professional service companies, GSI can guide you through a seamless, quick NetSuite implementation, so you can start growing your business right away. 

Reach out to GSI today to learn how.