Blog by FoodQloud developers Javier Vazquez and Georgios Psistakis
NetSuite offers a very complete cloud-based business software solution, combining multiple business processes like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Warehouse Management, eCommerce, partner portals and so much more. On top of this, the SuiteApp store offers a huge selection of industry specific and generic apps to choose from in order to complete your solution. All of them offer out-of-the-box functionality.
However, there are times that demand tailoring to meet unique business requirements. We consider customization only necessary when it’s needed to empower your unique business differentiators. Happily, NetSuite offers multiple ways to perfect your specific solution in a flexible and agile way. It’s important to mention that these customizations are integrated seamlessly into the bi-annual automatic upgrades of NetSuite, so there is no trade-off involved if you decide to customize the system.
Today we will dive into the five major options that NetSuite offers to tailor the system:
1. SuiteBuilder
Using SuiteBuilder can quickly help you set up NetSuite to your specific needs. SuiteBuilder provides a point-and-click interface for creating fields, forms and layouts, record types, transaction types, segments and centers. It also allows you to define how information is accessed and entered by each user of your NetSuite account.
2, Workflow Engine SuiteFlow
Workflows are created via a very intuitive user interface, which allows to create very useful workflows in a glimpse. A workflow is the definition of a custom business process for a standard or custom record in NetSuite. It could be any type of business process; transaction approval, lead nurturing, etc. What a workflow does is define and automate a given business process. You define workflows for a specific record type and contain the stages or phases of a record as it moves through the business process. In each phase, a workflow defines the actions that need to be completed, like sending emails or adding buttons to a record form, before you can move on to the succeeding phase. A workflow can move between different states, or transition, depending on the business process requirements: A state corresponds to a stage or status of a record within a specific business process. A workflow can contain as many states as determined by the business process. A transition moves the record in the workflow into another state. A state can contain multiple transitions, with each transition having its own condition. The actions and transitions can contain conditions that must be met before they can be executed.
3. SuiteScript
SuiteScript allows developers and administrators to create flexible business logic within NetSuite. From sophisticated business processes to entirely new applications. SuiteScript is built on leading industry standard JavaScript. This ensures portability of the solution and increases productivity of developers. Thanks to JavaScript, SuiteScript enables full-featured application-level scripting capabilities throughout NetSuite. Supporting sophisticated procedural logic and featuring robust debugging capabilities, SuiteScript is virtually limitless when it comes to customization and cloud application construction.
By using the SuiteScript API (Application Programming Interface), core business records and user information can be accessed and manipulated via scripts that are executed at pre-defined events.
The Key Benefits of SuiteScript
- Standards-based scripting language speeds developer productivity
- Flexibility to customize NetSuite to meet ongoing industry and business needs
- Multiple scripting models include event-based, scheduled, client scripting and more
- Create automations for faster and easier user experience
- Flexible Scripting Models that Support Customization needs:
- User-event scripts can be triggered when users work with records and data changes in NetSuite such as when opening, editing or saving records
- Suitelets provide the power to create dynamic user interfaces using server-side logic
- Scheduled scripts allow SuiteScript logic to run as part of a schedule, to process records such as aging invoices or imported data
- Client scripts can be used to easily validate user-entered data within the user’s browser, run logic when a field selection changes or perform any other processing on the fly
- Portlet scripts enable easy definition and publishing of custom dashboard content and even enable external data-feeds on NetSuite dashboards via RSS, HTML and more.
- RESTlets provide new integration possibilities, including the ability to build mobile applications
- Workflow action scripts can be easily launched from NetSuite’s SuiteFlow workflow management tools to embed complex business logic within workflows.
4. SuiteTalk (Web Services) – Integration
SuiteTalk integration makes it easy to enhance, extend and integrate third party and legacy systems seamlessly with NetSuite. For example:
- SOAP Web Services Features
- Ability to use any programming language or platform that supports the SOAP standard in order to generate NetSuite business objects in that language, such as Java or Microsoft .NET.
- REST Web Services Features (Beta)
5. Advanced PDF/HTML Templates
NetSuite comes with a feature that allows you to create standard documents that can be used for printing and e-mailing transactions and other standard records. In addition, there is the possibility to create more advanced templates by using HTML/CSS. With this feature you can customize your documents in the style or format that you prefer and you can even include built-in calculations in the template. By combining Advanced PDF/HTML with SuiteScript you can extend NetSuite functionality even further. For example: Creating Prints for Custom Records, Labels etc.
Actually, the only real limitation of customizations in NetSuite is your own imagination. Feel free to contact us via LinkedIn if you want to learn more.
Until next time!
Georgios & Javier