As we have previously discussed, there are a number of scenarios where a two-tier ERP deployment makes sense. Two tier ERP lets a company maintain its legacy, on-premise ERP systems at headquarters but deploy more agile cloud ERP at new subsidiaries or remote offices, connected to headquarters through pre-built integrations. In a previous post I outlined how two tier ERP makes sense for companies introducing new products or business models and for companies that need to speed up a consolidation or gain greate corporate visibility. The focus for this week is on the remaining two scenarios that lend themselves to a Two-Tier ERP strategy.
Standardize subsidiaries. A very common scenario faced by a large number of our customers is the proliferation of point solutions across their subsidiaries which leaves them scrambling to pull all the data from these disparate systems and “gluing” it all together to realize their end of period financials processes. Needless to say, the process is way too time-consuming, error-prone and impedes growth. The alternative of extending corporate ERP instance to subsidiaries is unappealing as well because it would be a long drawn-out process. NetSuite, operating in a two-tier scenario lets you standardize all of your subsidiaries and eliminate the headache of dealing with a hairball of multiple solutions while keeping your corporate ERP instance in place.
Build new Ecommerce channels. Another powerful application of a two-tier strategy is to natively integrate ecommerce with core operational systems to meet rising customer expectations for a consistent experience across all touch points, from smartphones to call centers, from tablets to point of sale in virtually any country around the globe. Several NetSuite customers like Magellan, Igloo and more have successfully used NetSuite SuiteCommerce to expose their inventory in storefronts in a variety of languages across a multitude of interfaces while relying on the NetSuite OneWorld to power their back-end operations.
In my next blog, I will focus on how this “functional two-tier” scenario is being powered by NetSuite.
In the meantime, feel free to chime in with your thoughts regarding the above.
-Kishore Bhamidipati Director, Product Marketing, NetSuite Inc.
