NetSuite Inc., a provider of cloud-based financials/enterprise resource planning (ERP) and omnichannel commerce software suites, announced significant new features designed to help wholesale distributors optimize their operations across warehouse management, e-commerce, order management and procurement. These new features are designed to enable wholesale distributors to adapt to rapidly changing customer expectations, competitive pressures and global scale. The enhancements announced demonstrate NetSuite’s accelerated product innovation across all industries and for wholesale distribution in particular.
Wholesale distributors today confront significant challenges in the form of rising customer expectations for business-to-business (B2B) commerce, increasingly distributed supply chains and greater pressure on margins. Additionally, new opportunities in the form of mobile computing, the Internet of Things and a global customer base made possible by the Internet present their own challenges. NetSuite provides innovative distributors with a complete and connected business suite with scalable, intelligent, easy-to-use features that link together financials, e-commerce, inventory and customer data—enabling them to transform their business to meet the needs of the modern customer.
“Rapidly evolving customer expectations, increased competition and global distribution networks are forcing wholesale distributors to innovate and adapt in order to survive,” said Jim McGeever, president and COO of NetSuite. “With these enhancements, NetSuite provides a unified system with the tools they need to transform their business today and the flexibility to adapt to the challenges of tomorrow.”
The enhancements announced deliver key benefits for wholesale distributors across warehouse management systems (WMS), e-commerce, order management and procurement.
WMS Lite for Nimble Distributors
Growing and innovative distributors often require many of the automation and scanning capabilities in the warehouse that their larger counterparts enjoy, but have few options besides legacy on-premise solutions. NetSuite WMS Lite extends NetSuite’s native inventory and warehouse capabilities with mobile radio frequency (RF) hand-held scanning. WMS Lite improves speed and accuracy through automation, and is ideal for less complex warehouses with less than 50,000 square feet or where significant optimization strategies aren’t required; retail stores that serve as a distribution center in an omnichannel world; and trucks, trailers and other non-traditional environments that can serve as distribution centers.
NetSuite WMS Lite provides wholesale distributors with the following benefits:
- Improved efficiency with barcode scanning. Replace manual warehouse processes with automation and RF mobile hand-held scanning.
- Increased customer satisfaction. Distributors can increase order fill rates and fulfillment accuracy while reducing shipping errors.
- Better visibility. Get real-time access into transactions and inventory movements as they are performed in the warehouse.
- Rapid deployment. WMS Lite’s capabilities can be added to an existing NetSuite implementation in a matter of weeks without major process changes or disruptions.
B2B e-Commerce for Manufacturers and Distributors
Building on its longstanding history as a platform for distributors extending into e-commerce, NetSuite released enhancements that support the following wholesale distribution processes, including:
- Multi-channel purchasing support.
- Google Tag Manager.
- Password protect site.
- Login to see pricing.
- Cancel order.
- Application performance sensor.
- Alternative payments.
Order Management for the Modern Distributor
The release of NetSuite Intelligent Order Management helps wholesale distributors meet rising customer expectations and streamlines the constantly evolving complexities of omnichannel order orchestration. Distributors can now automate how to best fulfill orders based on their inventory availability and the configurable business rules they establish inside NetSuite.
New functionality includes:
- Order sourcing and allocation. NetSuite’s automatic location assignment allows vendors to optimize for reduced costs, faster delivery or a combination of factors to enable a fulfill-from-anywhere solution across all channels.
- Release for fulfillment. Merchants get control over their release-for-fulfillment process with a second automated process, which decides when to release orders and notifies each fulfillment location of which order to fulfill. Fulfillment managers get full visibility into the process—released orders, fulfillment status, order exceptions.
- Exception management. Automatically handle most order exceptions so the business scales with fixed headcount. NetSuite attempts to fulfill exception orders then informs the customer service representative or fulfillment manager of an unfilled order. Exceptions caused by inventory discrepancies are automatically flagged for resolution.
- Order management insight and key performance indicators (KPIs). Empower operations managers to measure their attainment of the perfect order with insight and intelligence, from promising and allocation to orchestration and fulfillment through to payments and returns.
Procure to Pay
NetSuite’s procure-to-pay capabilities provide an optimal user experience, allowing organizations to make intelligent purchases, buying at the right time and at the right cost, with an intuitive, simplified workflow and user interface.
Enhancements to NetSuite’s procurement capabilities include:
- Requests for quote.
- Purchase contracts.
- Vendor bill payment holds.
- Blanket purchase orders.
