3 Ways to Stop Spending So Much Time on NetSuite

In today's competitive business landscape, the efficiency of sales processes can make or break a company's success. However, a startling reality faces many sales teams: they're spending far less time on actual selling than one might expect.

Numerous surveys have revealed a concerning trend: salespeople spend less than half of their time actually selling. A particularly eye-opening study conducted by Salesforce showed that salespeople dedicate less than 30% of their time to their primary function - selling.

But why is this happening?

The answer points largely to two critical tasks: time spent prospecting and completing admin tasks. In the retail sector, for instance, U.S. merchants report spending nearly 6.5 hours on manual administrative tasks consisting of time-consuming activities like order processing, invoicing, and inventory management.

Enter NetSuite:

One tool that retailers are all too familiar with - and often spend significant time navigating - is NetSuite. As an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, NetSuite powers end-to-end sales order management for many retailers. While it's a powerful platform, its complexity can lead to increased time spent on order management tasks.

At the heart of this time crunch is the sales order process. 

What’s a sales order? 

A sales order is a critical internal document in the procurement process and is created by the seller, or vendor, that confirms the sale of goods or services to the customer. It’s used to  help businesses track inventory and orders quickly and accurately. 

While crucial, managing these sales orders can be time-consuming, especially if a business is receiving a large volume of orders. 

Below are three effective strategies companies can employ to save time on sales orders, streamline their processes, and boost overall productivity.

Solution #1: Standardize Your Sales Order Templates

Creating a standardized template for sales orders can significantly reduce time spent and minimize confusion. A well-designed template should include the following:

• Sellers company name/address
• Purchaser contact info (name, address, phone number, email)
• Order date
• Shipping and/or delivery date
• Product information
• Price (before taxes)
• Taxes and other fees
• Terms and conditions 
• Signatures of both buyer and seller
• Other relevant information

The benefits of standardization extend beyond just speeding up the order creation process. It facilitates quicker understanding and processing of each order by all stakeholders, from sales representatives to fulfillment teams. This uniformity leads to:

• Fewer queries and misunderstandings
• Faster approvals
• Smoother order fulfillment
• Reduced training time for new team members

Solution #2: Implement an Automated Sales Order System

A report by McKinsey reveals that 30% of sales-related activities can be automated, and sales order processing is one of them.  Solutions like Pantry offer powerful automation tools that can transform your order management process. Here's how an automated sales order system can help:

• Instant generation of sales orders from customer purchase orders
• Automatic population of order details, dramatically reducing manual data entry
• Integration with inventory management systems for real-time stock updates
• Instant order confirmation to customers

The benefits of automating this process include: 

• Reduced error rates compared to manual entry
• Improved customer satisfaction through faster processing and communication
• Better data accuracy for forecasting and planning
• Freeing up sales teams to focus on relationship-building and strategic activities

Furthermore, 90% of teams who incorporate AI report higher levels of productivity than those who don’t.

Solution #3: Leverage an EDI Solution

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has become the standard for doing business with big-box retailers, and for good reason. Implementing an EDI solution can significantly streamline your sales order process and big-box retailers typically require EDI. 

The world of EDI offers a variety of choices and companies should select an EDI provider based on their unique needs. Traditional EDI Providers like SPS Commerce and TrueCommerce are known for their extensive retail network and integrations; however, they may require significant time and resources to implement and configure for each individual trading partner.

Modern-day solutions like Crstl and Orderful have user-friendly interfaces and a quicker onboarding and configuring process relative to legacy EDI solutions. 

It’s worth noting that Pantry AI is working closely with Orderful to develop a bespoke EDI product. This collaboration aims to combine Pantry AI's expertise in sales order automation with Orderful's innovative API-driven EDI approach, potentially offering a powerful new option in the EDI landscape.

Deciding on a Sales Order Strategy

By implementing these strategies - standardizing templates, automating sales order systems, and leveraging EDI - companies can significantly reduce the time spent on sales orders. This not only increases efficiency but also allows sales teams to focus on what they do best: selling.