Founded in 1999, NetSuite is one of the pioneers of cloud-deployed software.
It was founded just a month before that of Salesforce.
In July 2016, NetSuite was acquired by Oracle to form Oracle NetSuite, though it continues to market its small to midsize business (SMB)-focused enterprise resource planning (ERP) system under the OneWorld moniker.
Beginning at $999 per month along with $99 per user per month, OneWorld was designed and written exclusively for the cloud.
This makes it the exception among its competition, which is a choice that has paid off for Oracle NetSuite, earning it our Editors' Choice designation in the ERP category.
In all, we've tested and reviewed Oracle NetSuite OneWorld from four perspectives:
- First, as an ERP platform to review its core strengths,
- Second as a general ledger (GL) accounting platform to understand the strength of its financials,
- Third as an inventory management platform, which is a critical technology for companies involved in manufacturing, distribution, and production, and
- Finally, as a customer relationship management (CRM), application because this module is surprisingly robust for an ERP portfolio.
Overall, as a GL app, it's similar to our cloud-based Editors' Choice winner in that category, Intacct (Visit Site at Sage Intacct) , but slightly more complex so it rated a 4 as a GL product (still an excellent product, just not a category winner).
Oracle NetSuite OneWorld performed similarly in CRM, where it doesn't offer the depth of functionality of CRM-first platforms like Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional or Zoho CRM, but adds significant business value with a solid suite of core CRM features.
As an ERP platform, on the other hand, Oracle NetSuite OneWorld outshone everyone else, easily earning its 4.5 rating and the overall ERP category Editors' Choice award.
One advantage of working with cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps is that they generally don't have version numbers.
Whatever version you are currently working in, it's the most current.
Because there is only one codebase remaining fully controlled by the vendor, you don't have to wait for updates and bug fixes to be built, tested, then shipped out to thousands of customers.
They're simply rolled out in a continuous fashion, most happening in the background as far as users are concerned.
That enables a safer environment for new technologies and features, but it also means you'll need to keep an eye on "new feature" announcements to avoid being surprised by, for example, an interface that suddenly looks a little (or a lot) different one morning.
Oracle NetSuite OneWorld Basics
NetSuite OneWorld was originally NetLedger, then became the Oracle Small Business Suite, and was finally spun off into a separate public company in 2007.
The system we tested, still built on an Oracle database just like Intacct, was Oracle NetSuite OneWorld rather than the base system.
The largest difference between the two versions is OneWorld's extensive multicurrency and multinational capabilities, while the standard NetSuite offering is the same basic app oriented more towards US operations.
NetSuite also has versions for nonprofits, manufacturing, and other types of specific business operations.
It's also very simple to add additional features such as CRM and human resources (HR), and to scale Oracle NetSuite OneWorld up into the aforementioned full-blown ERP system.
Available solely as a subscription-based service, starting at $999 per month for base access along with $99 per additional user per month, Oracle NetSuite OneWorld is sold primarily through a partner/reseller channel, so you likely won't be talking to a sales rep should you choose to buy.
That means you also need to remember that the base price quoted above does not include fees for partner/reseller value-add services, like installation, customization, or training.
This is similar to almost all of the software in this roundup, and is simply how midrange, SME accounting systems are generally sold.
The system we reviewed included GL (financials), accounts payable and receivable (including sales and purchase orders), payroll, and HR.
I primarily tested the overall system navigation and GL capabilities.
Delving Deeper Beneath the Dashboard
Dashboards seem to be ubiquitous landing pages for financial apps.
Just like the other apps we reviewed, logging into Oracle NetSuite OneWorld immediately brings you to a dashboard covered with widgets, though the company calls these portlets.
As with SAP Business One Professional and Open Systems Traverse, hovering the cursor over a graphic, or "portlet" gives you the detail for that point.
With a portlet displaying a data table, for example, clicking on a dollar amount will usually drill down to where the figure came from.
As with other vendors' software, the portlets are editable and resizable.
There are a fair number of portlets predefined and segregated into three core categories (Standard Content, Report Snapshots, and Trend Graphs) with a fourth tab displaying which portlets are currently being used in the Dashboard.
There is also a scripting language that lets you, or more likely the partner/reseller with whom you're working, program your own portlet.
The predefined portlets are easy to add and remove with the click of a mouse.
There are two ways to move on from the Dashboard.
At the top of the screen is a ribbon bar listing common functions such as "Activities, Customers." Among these you'll find Vendors, Payroll and HR, and the place where most of your time is spent: Financials.
Clicking on any of these initiates a drop-down with available functions.
Clicking on Overview, which is always the first menu choice, launches another dashboard that usually has the most common portlets for that function category.
For example, when accessing the Financial drop-down menu, you're presented with choices including Banking, Lists, Inventory, and Reports.
Selecting Reports opened up another dashboard with portlets including a pane in Windows Explorer-type format with a listing of available standard reports (Saved Reports, Financial, Billing, Inventory, and more) with a plus button to the left of each heading.
Clicking on the plus expands the category to show exactly what reports are available, and clicking on a report title launches the report.
For those looking to create their own reports, there's a Report Builder available by clicking on the "New Report" button at the top of the pane, and a selection of recently run reports in a small pane on the left.
This description might make Oracle NetSuite OneWorld sound more complex than it really is once you stop reading and actually put cursor to screen.
There's a logical and orderly progression of mouse clicks that quickly brings you to the transaction or report you need.
It's not quite as visually intuitive as Intacct, but go through it a few times and you should be quite comfortable.
One way to make things easier to digest is to work with your reseller to build individual workflows for your key business processes.
The company includes the SuiteFlow Workflow Manager specifically for this purpose.
This module lets you drag and drop tasks such as entering data and generating reports into a work pane to create a custom flowchart leading a single user or set of users through an entire process.
This workflow can be as simple or as complex as required.
A process workflow of this kind is not only an efficient way for users to work in general, it's especially useful when onboarding new users or introducing a new app platform.
Using SuiteFlow, it's not difficult to mimic an existing workflow rather than training a user to hunt down, understand, and incorporate the host of new features available in Oracle NetSuite OneWorld.
Information Overload
However, even with shortcuts like SuiteFlow, using Oracle NetSuite OneWorld initially can be intimidating, especially among the C-level set.
There's a lot on the screen, and the higher your permission level the more complicated it can look.
Fortunately, because of its SaaS orientation, Oracle NetSuite OneWorld is actually fairly easy to customize, certainly at the reporting stage, which is where most C-level executives will spend the majority of their time.
Setting up a custom report or form is straightforward, and just as the dashboards lead you through to a particular task, the customizing and setup process is easy to understand for the most part.
Although if it's not obvious to you, you'll encounter one area where Oracle NetSuite OneWorld fell down a bit: help.
Given the sophistication of the overall system, the natural language search capability could definitely be better.
On the plus side, there are numerous training videos available in the online support center.
Surprisingly, ignoring the search box and simply clicking on the "Help" button was the most productive method of answering my questions, which says less about Oracle NetSuite OneWorld's context-sensitive help than it does about how far off some of the natural language search results wound up being.
Smartly Integrated CRM
CRM features are baked into Oracle NetSuite OneWorld throughout the platform.
The CRM pipeline covers all the major points—contact and lead management, sales orders and fulfillments, renewals, up-sells and cross-sells, and marketing automation with a built-in e-commerce module.
From the main navigation portlet, the main CRM capabilities are accessible by scrolling through the long list of categories down to Sales.
The module is then broken into four subcategories: Customer Relationship (with Leads, Conacts, Prospects, and Customers options), Sales Transactions (Opportunities, Quotes, Cash Sales, and Sales Orders), Sales Reports (Sales by Item, Pipeline Review, Forecast vs.
Quota, and Quarterly Lost Sales), and Sales Tools (Quora, Twitter, LinkedIn, and File Management).
The category scrolling mechanism is rather annoying to use, so you can also simply search CRM in the top search bar or add a CRM widget to your dashboard.
With a platform packing so much varied business functionality into one experience, the navigation was bound to get a tad overloaded.
You can quick-add a lead using the Add button on the top navigation bar.
The lead form is fairly basic compared to what you'll find in Salesforce or Apptivo CRM (Visit Site at Apptivo) , another Editors' Choice winner for CRM, but tabbing through the additional fields available at the bottom of the form, you can add notes about specific campaigns and purchase habits, financials, and whether the lead is associated with any specific products or subscribed to marketing content.
The contact list itself is also somewhat bare-bones, but given Oracle NetSuite OneWorld's GL strengths, entries can tie directly into an audit trail for any given contact.
Contact and lead management in Oracle NetSuite OneWorld won't wow any sales managers, but it's on par with the basic capabilities you'll find in a CRM solution such as Base.
Unsurprisingly, where Oracle NetSuite OneWorld's CRM strength shows through the most is in its sales transaction management and reporting.
On the Quotes page, you can label the stage of the pipeline to which a lead has progressed along with a forecast of potential revenue and probability of converting a successful opportunity, synced with shipping and billing information if tied to a specific product or promotion.
Oracle NetSuite OneWorld also provides several valuable CRM report types, particularly the Pipeline Review report breaking down the total pipeline by sales rep and tracking the progression and profits through identifying an opportunity, initiating discussion, identifying decision-makers, sending and negotiating a proposal, and converting a customer.
Add that to the Forecast vs.
Quota report, which identifies the most over-performing and underperforming sales reps, and NetSuite's sales pipeline capabilities rival that of solutions like Pipedrive CRM (Visit Site at PipeDrive) and PipelineDeals.
Finally, there's the e-commerce module, accessible by once again scrolling through the category navigation portlet, this time to Commerce Manager.
From here, Oracle NetSuite OneWorld provides complete website setup and hosting options along with CSS design templates, a site management module to manage an e-commerce item catalog and price levels, and a marketing tab of campaigns and promotions.
While it pales in comparison to a true e-commerce platform like Shopify (14-Day Free Trial at Shopify) , it was fairly simple to manage the e-commerce storefront tied to products and campaigns from the CRM.
Overall, the CRM capabilities of Oracle NetSuite OneWorld are still on the basic side—sales pipeline tracking and reporting notwithstanding—so it doesn't earn an Editors' Choice nod for CRM alongside Apptivo, Salesforce, and Zoho in that category.
Our rating of its CRM capabilities is a 3.5.
That said, the CRM functionality is yet another added benefit of its Editors' Choice-winning GL and ERP SaaS solution.
Even Better ERP
As stated, things look even better when we examine Oracle NetSuite OneWorld as an ERP system.
None of the ERP systems we looked at cover every possible business process subsystem an SME might need.
Most tend to be strongest in a specific area or vertical such as production or distribution.
That's one area in which Oracle NetSuite OneWorld manages to differentiate itself.
Oracle NetSuite OneWorld differs from entry-level ERP systems such as Cougar Mountain Denali Summit in that it offers a wide range of capabilities in just about every area customers might want to deploy ERP.
That includes Project Management (PM), CRM, and Sales Force Automation (SFA).
It's also strong in Supply Chain Management, HR Management, Inventory, Demand Planning, Materials Resource Planning (MRP) as well as Complex Fixed Asset Acquisition, Depreciation, and Disposal.
And that's already a lot to house under one software roof but, for those companies that are more strongly sales-oriented, Oracle NetSuite OneWorld even includes Retail Sales and e-commerce capabilities.
Fixed Asset and Inventory Management
Managing fixed assets isn't something that every ERP system does well.
In many larger, asset-heavy entities, a separate fixed asset system often has to be deployed to supplant the missing capabilities of the customer's ERP software.
Not for Oracle NetSuite OneWorld customers, though.
Oracle NetSuite OneWorld has...
