Eight Reasons Why Companies Should Consider Moving From JD Edwards to NetSuite
As companies shift focus from on-premises ERP solutions like JD Edwards or SAP to SaaS-based cloud solutions, NetSuite is increasingly the solution of choice for companies of all sizes and across all industries.
Last year, cloud software took on even greater importance as companies shifted priorities over to more remote work and videoconferencing and less internal IT infrastructure—all while managing the ongoing impacts of the global pandemic.
“Over the past decade, cloud computing has become the foundation for the delivery of mobile and content services as well as an alternative to traditional enterprise computing environments,” says research firm IDC, which expects total worldwide spending on cloud services to exceed $1.3 trillion by 2025 while sustaining a compound annual growth
rate (CAGR) of 16.9%.
“As businesses pivot to a digital-first economy,” IDC adds, “cloud will continue to play an ever greater, and even dominant, role as the IT industry focuses on delivering greater efficiency, flexibility and faster innovation.” This business guide explores the key challenges that current on-premises enterprise software users are encountering, and explains why NetSuite should be at the top of every company’s cloud ERP shopping list right now.
JD Edwards to NetSuite: A Shift to the Cloud
As organizations continue to prioritize cloud software over on-premises solutions, the COVID-19 pandemic, the move to remote work, and the expanded use of videoconferencing are all accelerating this trend. As more of their customers shift to using cloud-based options, software providers are rethinking their solution delivery methods and/or considering sunsetting and no longer supporting their on-premises applications.
Oracle’s JD Edwards (JDE) ERP software is one of the on-premises systems that many organizations rely on to run their enterprises. While JDE has a stated support window of at least 2033, many clients are feeling the need to stop running a data center and move their operations to the cloud. While 10 years may sound like a long timeline for an IT project, successful Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations incorporate many different processes, procedures, IT partners and other stakeholders. Working together, they must assess, evaluate, select and roll out the new system in the most affordable and least operationally disruptive manner possible.
Getting all of these boxes checked takes time. Put simply, it’s not a project that companies can afford to wait until the last minute to start.
“On-premises solutions are coming to an end as vendors stop investing in them, and companies are moving toward using more Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS) solutions,” said Shawn Scanlon, Executive Vice President at GSI, Inc., a NetSuite Partner and NetSuite Solution Provider. GSI specializes in providing a broad spectrum of business, functional and technical NetSuite consulting services, including NetSuite implementation and managed services, business value assessments, custom development, and integrations.
“When your business relies on sophisticated, complex ERP solutions, getting those solutions up and running takes time. The time to start that process is now.”
Shawn Scanlon, Executive Vice President, GSI, Inc.
Eight Reasons NetSuite Rises to the Top
The fact that much of the “tribal knowledge” about these older, on-premises systems resides in the minds of veteran employees who may be at or near retirement makes the switch to the cloud that much more important. “When you factor the technical resources required to run an on-premises ERP with outside factors like the labor shortage and ongoing supply chain disruptions, the value of moving to the cloud becomes increasingly
clear,” said Scanlon. “On-premises ERP requires a fairly advanced IT skillset that’s unnecessary with a cloud- based solution like NetSuite.” Here are eight more reasons why companies should consider a move to NetSuite sooner rather than later:
1. Two automatic software upgrades per year.
Every year, NetSuite releases two major upgrades that improve and enhance the functionality of the cloud-based ERP platform. Unlike on-premises solutions, which require significant costs and resources to upgrade, NetSuite’s enhancements happen automatically and require no heavy lifting on your part. “With JDE, you have to deploy all of your own upgrades and your tools releases may require upgrades to your infrastructure,” Scanlon said. “These steps may eat up resources, not to mention the potential costs and hardware associated with the upgrade itself.”
2. NetSuite integrates well with other software platforms.
The SuiteApp Marketplace provides a wide range of options for companies that want to deploy new, integrated applications. Because JDE is available
across multiple different releases and toolsets, it doesn’t offer these options. “NetSuite offers a wide range of pre-built connectors that don’t require a lot of cost or resources to deploy,” said Scanlon. “They can be put in place with just a couple of clicks and a plug-and-play integration.” Using application programming interfaces (APIs), NetSuite offers robust connectors and integrations with other software platforms as well. Its extensive native functionality may meet all of your needs, but if you want to bring your own customer relationship management (CRM), sales tax management or supply chain management application with you, NetSuite will be able to integrate directly with that platform (e.g. Avalara, Bill.com, Vertex and more).
3. Lower total cost of ownership.
When you remove the hefty infrastructure and extensive resources needed to support an on- premises ERP, you wind up with a better TCO over time. With NetSuite, the other key cost advantages include lower CAPEX expenses (subscriptions are an ongoing operating expense), built-in security protocols, and 99.98% system uptime (versus JDE, which requires a high-availability disaster recovery plan to be put in place). And where JDE requires development expertise to manage any updates and customizations, NetSuite’s updates are all managed by the software developer itself.
4. Built in ecommerce.
Nearly all companies need ecommerce platforms these days, and NetSuite boasts SuiteCommerce and SuiteCommerce Advanced platforms. JDE users, on the other hand, must add third-party applications to manage their ecommerce storefronts. The benefits of having a native, integrated ecommerce platform include better inventory planning and more. NetSuite can automatically place temporary commitments on inventory when an order is placed online. “Inventory planning requires extra effort online, where people can easily select products and abandon their carts,” Scanlon explained. “JDE doesn’t have good mechanisms in place to handle this.”
5. User-friendly, mobile-compliant workflows and dashboards.
Because NetSuite’s user interface is easy to use and understand, users can focus on job-specific workflow training and reduce the amount of time it takes to navigate clunky ERP systems. For example, users can configure, publish and refine dashboards that their colleagues can use to work smarter, better and faster. And users can access and interact with these workflows and dashboards from their mobile devices. “These mobile capabilities are out-of-the- box with NetSuite,” said Scanlon.
6. NetSuite was born in the cloud and built for it.
Unlike the on-premises systems that have added cloud-based delivery models for some or all their applications, NetSuite was born in and built for the cloud, making it the most mature cloud software on the market. Since the company’s inception, customers have paid a subscription fee to access NetSuite’s technology without taking on any responsibility for its underlying infrastructure or system maintenance. That means no purchasing and setting up servers, no installing software, no testing and deploying patches, and no enduring lengthy, disruptive upgrades. “Security, disaster recovery, SOX compliance and uptime guarantees are all part of your subscription service agreement with NetSuite,” Scanlon said. “Your ERP system becomes a predictable line item cost that would otherwise be variable spend in the typical JDE administrator’s life.”
7. Implementation, administration and training are easier, faster and more affordable.
It takes considerably fewer resources to set up an instance of NetSuite and train people to use it than it does with JDE. NetSuite customers don’t need a database administrator or other technical resources to maintain the system’s underlying infrastructure; it’s all put in place and managed for them. Even better, these processes are transparent for NetSuite users, who just know that the system will be on and ready to go when they need it.
8. NetSuite support growing, global organizations.
Companies like Williams-Sonoma, SoFi, Optiv and Unilever’s Hourglass division all use NetSuite to run some or all of their global operations. Applicable for a large, multinational conglomerate or a startup enterprise—and all points in between—NetSuite manages consolidations, subsidiaries, multi-currencies, multi-languages, localizations and other complexities of doing business worldwide.
Ready, Set, Go!
Built to scale for major companies across many industries including wholesale distribution, manufacturing, food and beverage, health and beauty, retail, software, professional services and others, NetSuite breaks down the barriers related to on-premises ERP platforms and leverages the power of the cloud to democratize enterprise software for organizations of all sizes. Whether they’re currently shopping around for a new ERP system, counting down the days for their current systems to be sunsetted, or anticipating a time when heir current solutions will no longer be supported, organizations rely on GSI to help them evaluate and implement NetSuite. They can then add more functionality as needed without having to worry about infrastructure, staff resources
and expense.