QUICK READ:
- SADA Systems resells software services and licenses as a professional services provider.
- Running the business on QuickBooks, Microsoft, and spreadsheets limited control.
- SADA now uses NetSuite to manage revenue, get granular sales insights, and analyze its data.
- With customizations and integrations, processes that used to take as long as two weeks now take a few hours.
- For SADA, switching to NetSuite was a critical component of a strategy that drove 100% growth over two years.
About SADA Systems
SADA is a professional services provider and reseller of cloud computing solutions, software services, and licenses. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the company has grown into a powerhouse with a workforce of more than 850 employees across six global entities.
In its infancy, SADA(opens in new tab) provided services mostly to small companies. It gradually grew into a Microsoft partner, then joined the Google Cloud ecosystem. Since 2019, it has provided resale and services for additional products, including Google Workspace and Maps, and added multiple specializations.
With offices throughout the United States and Canada, SADA was in the process of adding more offices globally when the pandemic hit. This caused the team to rethink its operational strategy and move to more of a coworking-space office environment.
From QuickBooks, Microsoft, and Spreadsheets to NetSuite
SADA previously used QuickBooks for accounting and Microsoft Dynamics for CRM, along with a few other tools for various functions. These systems didn’t share data with each other, and the sales team managed most of its processes in spreadsheets. It was impossible to gain full control over data input, auditing, and reporting.
For SADA team members distributed across North America, creating the kind of efficiencies that fuel growth would require a more comprehensive business system. Leadership chose NetSuite as a solution that would intelligently handle reporting and make workflows more effective through clear segregation of duties and controls.
Tigran Shahnazaryan joined SADA as its director of business systems to lead the NetSuite implementation. A smooth implementation laid a solid foundation for him to achieve his goals in his new role. For Shahnazaryan, success with ERP would mean that everyone at SADA would be able to accomplish more with less effort. Each team member handles an array of tasks — and if even part of that work could be made easier, he reasoned, then SADA would have the kinds of efficiencies that foster growth. If he could use NetSuite automation to make just one task simpler and less time-consuming, then he could scale that to most other tasks.
ERP Simplifies Revenue Reporting, Sales, and Data Analysis
NetSuite functionalities that led to exceptional gains include:
Revenue management: Revenue management is perhaps one of the most complicated disciplines at any company. In SADA’s case, revenue recognition is especially complex because as a reseller, implementer, and service provider, it often deals with third parties. Plus, it now operates across multiple subsidiaries.
Beyond revenue management, there’s the challenge of translating that revenue data into business insights. NetSuite OneWorld(opens in new tab) and NetSuite Advanced Revenue Management(opens in new tab) make both operational and business intelligence reporting more efficient, Shahnazaryan said. The former automates creation of consolidated financial statements, while the latter adjusts deferred revenue and updates contract balances automatically.
CRM: Shahnazaryan sees the benefit of using a CRM that’s part of an ERP system versus a standalone tool. In NetSuite CRM(opens in new tab), teams can log opportunities, convert them to sales orders, then use those sales orders to drive invoicing and revenue recognition processes. They can then report on their work and see how the pipeline affected revenue for a given period — all within a single system. If SADA’s CRM were disconnected from its core systems, it wouldn’t be able to deliver the ease, control, efficiency, and thoroughness of a high-performing ERP. The team plans to soon start taking advantage of CRM functionalities such as marketing campaign management for events.
SuiteAnalytics Connect: SADA uses SuiteAnalytics Connect to extract data from NetSuite for a variety of purposes, primarily business intelligence. The team extracts data from NetSuite to a data warehouse, then runs reports. Some reports are run directly in NetSuite, while others require SuiteAnalytics Connect.
This setup makes it especially easy to analyze trends in data, Shahnazaryan said. Suppose SADA is analyzing a sales opportunity and needs to know what the metrics around that opportunity looked like two months ago, as well as two weeks ago. One method of doing that involves going through system notes and checking logs, gauging how those metrics looked on each day of the past two months. With its SuiteAnalytics Connect(opens in new tab) setup, SADA has daily snapshots of specific records, then compares them for a clear layout of how metrics have changed over time.
SADA Fine-Tunes Its Use of NetSuite
Customizations: In the three years since implementation, SADA has continually optimized its use of NetSuite to support its complex business model, creating over 1,000 customizations. Shahnazaryan said that done right, customizations are just another powerful aspect of NetSuite.
For example, say there are three fields in a sales order and each salesperson can choose a value for each field. But what if there are more than one kind of sales order? In one of them, two of the fields could be pre-populated and the salesperson would only select a value for one. In another type of sales order, the team might want values input for all three. In scenarios like this, customizations can save time, make processes less confusing, and produce more accurate data to mine for insights, Shahnazaryan said.
Integrations: Shahnazaryan also said he appreciates the opportunity to improve NetSuite integrations over time, as they are constantly updated. After NetSuite go-live, SADA just had customer information linked to data in HubSpot. It’s now at phase five of that integration, in which it tracks many data points from NetSuite into HubSpot. Another integration with Google Cloud Rebilling Platform allowed SADA to automate usage-based customer invoicing, cutting the process from two weeks to a few hours.
A Personalized ERP Experience for Every Employee
All SADA employees are now using NetSuite, so Shahnazaryan can tell the system has established itself as valuable to the entire business, he said. From here, his goal is to further fine-tune SADA’s use of NetSuite, ensuring everyone is using it to its fullest capacity. Shahnazaryan said that nearly all SADA stakeholders — from the marketing team to clients — regularly request to make even more use of NetSuite functionalities, out of a desire to make even better use of shared, centralized data.
For example, from day one, Shahnazaryan’s vision was to provide each NetSuite user at SADA with access to the “perfect” dashboard for their role. When an employee can go to their dashboard and see all the company data that’s relevant to them and only the tasks that are on their plate, it simplifies workflows like no other tool can. Tasks get done quicker, and decisions get made faster.
Each of those personalized dashboard experiences involves NetSuite configurations, integrations, and customizations working behind the scenes. Each also requires consistent, reliable data. Obviously, building out role-based dashboards(opens in new tab) for every employee is challenging, but with NetSuite, Shahnazaryan is getting closer to his vision.
Unlimited Productivity and Potential
Shahnazaryan has some strong advice for companies that recognize the shortcomings of multiple, disconnected business systems but have decided to keep muddling through with them in 2023.
He said he understands the hesitancy around switching to ERP; many companies fear letting go of their current systems only to find that a new one doesn’t work as well as they’d hoped. But from his point of view, businesses that continue to use old systems are limiting productivity and growth by maintaining inefficiencies, putting themselves at a disadvantage. He said he would recommend an ERP system, preferably NetSuite, to almost any of these companies – but he finds most make the decision to switch too late.
Like all businesses, SADA is operating in a business environment that puts a premium on efficiency, lean operations, boosting the bottom line, optimizing workforces, and automating wherever possible. In response, the business continues to revisit every process it runs, looking for ways to boost customer satisfaction and launch new services using NetSuite.
Boost efficiency at YOUR business with the top 10 finance processes to automate now(opens in new tab).