SUCCESS STORIES

Real stories, real resultsā€”the Vindasius way

Software company minimizes expensive ERP rework by addressing process inefficiencies first

Feb 04, 2025

Overview

A SAAS solution provider wanted to redesign its ERP solution and integration points to fix manual workload issues.  Vindasius Advisory began by focusing on the company’s processes and uncovered the ERP fixes needed were minor; it was the process and data structure that were the primary cause of the manual effort. This case study details the importance of process understanding prior to any ERP Implementation fix.

 

Client Description

A technology company that sells platform access to semi-custom services that provide competitive programming challenges for use while recruiting engineering talent. The company uses Salesforce as its CRM and source of truth for all customer attributes, orders and commission calculations.  The company uses NetSuite to generate all financial related documents and reports such as customer invoices and revenue recognition statistics.

 

Problem

The company had implemented an integration intended to automate the exchange of sales order processing between the two systems (Salesforce and NetSuite), but it was still taking two weeks to invoice an executed sale due to  extremely manual workaround steps in the process.  The company was looking for a solution provider to fix the integration.

 

Solution

Vindasius Advisory was recommended to management as a consultant who not only understood the specific technical integration well, but also had detailed experience with several similar order-to-cash projects focusing on the process, internal controls and technical accounting requirements.

We always start with an understanding of the current process, with an associated process map outlining all of the perceived issues.  With this process map, we quickly determined that the primary cause of the problem was that sales orders were configured in Salesforce on a per-item basis.  Multi-line orders were being processed as separate orders linked to one master contract.  The customer needed to be invoiced as if it was one order, so each order that came into NetSuite had to be manually reviewed, and, if multiple lines existed, cancelled and manually combined into one order in the system.

Additionally, fixes were also suggested to address the following process issues:

  • No “review” of the order for completeness and accuracy was done in Salesforce
  • Customer records had no change controls and billing information was constantly being overwritten
  • Contract summaries were not performed, and at least 3 steps in the process required a full manual contract review
  • Information updated in NetSuite on the order was not synced back into Salesforce – requiring searches through both systems when looking for information
  • For certain sales, the “item” used in Salesforce was a placeholder and thus had a different meaning on every order which had to be investigated for the correct accounting implications.

Re-implementing the ERP without addressing process issues would have been costly and ineffective, requiring expensive customizations to consolidate orders in NetSuite due to the lack of a master key reference. Data errors would persist, demanding ongoing manual reviews to ensure accuracy.

To overcome these challenges, it was critical to first establish a master key for Salesforce orders to enable automatic consolidation in NetSuite. Review processes were needed before syncing to ensure data integrity, along with security measures to limit unauthorized changes to customer data. Item integration with NetSuite was also essential to eliminate "placeholder" items.

Without these fixes, the integration would have continued to rely on manual corrections and costly customizations, undermining efficiency and accuracy.

 

Outcome

Understanding the process is the foundation for solving any problem, especially when implementing ERP systems. While ERP tools can streamline tasks, aligning automation with a well-defined process ensures that all scenarios are handled correctly, preventing costly downstream manual fixes and inefficiencies.