Enterprise Systems Integration - NetSuite CRM and Microservices demo

COMP321 (Sec. 001) Enterprise System Integration

Professor: Thameem Peerkhan

Group 3 Members: Beltran, Tyrelle (301238290) Luzon, Thedyson Eduard (301127562) Solema, Jane Kristel (301193579) Pillai, Vishnu Rajendran (301222447)

A. NETSUITE CRM PACKAGE SOLUTION NetSuite is an all-in-one business solution that caters to the needs of small to large-scale businesses. NetSuite as a company utilizes its own software for its business needs. As such, NetSuite uses one of the best CRM (Customer Relationship Management) packages in the market today.

Like their customers. NetSuite has its own Account Manager, Consultant, and Support that assists the company in maximizing its CRM package. Below are the CRM packages the group chose, as well as its selection criteria: ●

Case Management: This package consists of a complete set of tools for support personnel to assist their clients. NetSuite makes sure that their clients’ clients are also well taken care of. NetSuite’s Case Management functionality is user-friendly such that cases can be searchable via keywords, customer name, etc. Like all its modules, this feature is fully customizable to suit their client’s needs.

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Partner Relationship Management (Prospects, Leads, Customers): This package facilitates the instantaneous exchange of information with customers and retains complete authority over all aspects of the sales and marketing approach that is centered on them. The functionality is very powerful: everything NetSuite revolves around the Customer almost 90% of the time. This package encompasses everything Customer: from collaborative marketing and promotional initiatives, lead handling, sales projection, pipeline management, order fulfillment, and partner compensation, to earnings.

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Knowledge Management: NetSuite’s SuiteAnswers is a library of everything NetSuite. From simple how-to’s to video walkthroughs, NetSuite makes sure that all the information the customer needs is

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at their fingertips. Need further assistance? NetSuite Support can easily be accessed via this package.

This is also affordability at its best: all NetSuite systems, regardless of the number of features, come with SuiteAnswers. ●

Customer Service Management: This package develops an automated system for managing cases that enables customers to submit their cases through the Internet, monitor their status, and respond using follow-up messages. Additionally, an online repository of information assists users in obtaining the information they require.

B. CRM IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY NetSuite started as a small company offering web-based accounting solutions. The concept of Customer Relationship Management was still largely unthought of in 1998, although, during this time, companies have already kept records of their clients, but usually for file-keeping purposes.

In 2002, NetSuite launched “NetSuite CRM”, and it later added features such as SalesForce Automation, lead and opportunity management, forecasting, and order management. Over time, NetSuite's CRM capabilities have expanded and evolved, and it is now part of the broader NetSuite ERP and CRM software suite. In this case, a Phased Implementation was the strategy NetSuite utilized to offer its CRM packages.

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C. MODULES/SUBSYSTEMS WORKFLOW

Figure 1: CRM Workflow for Case Management The Case Management workflow shows us how the actors make use of NetSuite’s Support Module to make sure that each issue has a proper and timely resolution. To kick off this event, a customer files a ticket and the system categorizes it whether it is software or non-software related. Appropriate parties grab the tickets and

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manage them and offer an appropriate and timely remedy. The customer decides if the solution is to her satisfaction and has the power to close the ticket.

Figure 2: CRM Workflow for Knowledge Management

NetSuite’s SuiteAnswers is one of the most powerful tools a customer can access. In this diagram, Support Analysts create a knowledge base article that can aid customers in resolving software issues on their own.

Meanwhile, Product Managers create knowledge base articles to announce new features and releases. The Knowledge Base Manager reviews these articles to check if they are at par with NetSuite’s KB article standards (for

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instance, articles should be written from the third person point of view and should be free of grammatical errors).

Once the articles have been double-checked, they are then published online.

Figure 3: CRM Workflow for Lead Management The above diagram is a general overview of making a Sale from a Lead using the Oracle NetSuite’s Lead Management module. A form is embedded on the company's website. Once a potential Customer submits the form, the information is saved in the CRM temp database for new Lead records. Existing Lead/Prospect/Customer automatically gets assigned to a representative who handled them previously.

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Figure 4: CRM Workflow for Customer Service NetSuite has always been at the forefront for providing the best Customer Service and after Sales Support.

The diagram above shows how a Customer Service Representative provides ample and relevant support to Customers.

D. USE CASE DIAGRAMS

Figure 5: Case Management Use Case Diagram

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Figure 6: Lead Management Use Case Diagram

Figure 7: Knowledge Base Use Case Diagram

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Figure 8: Customer Service Use Case Diagram

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E. CONCEPTUAL INTEGRATION ARCHITECTURE DIAGRAM

Figure 9: NetSuite’s Cloud-Based Integration Deployment Diagram

NetSuite revolutionized cloud-based ERP by being the first company to implement this system.

The above architectural deployment diagram is just a gist of what NetSuite has to offer. The processing power is all done in the Cloud. As demonstrated in the above diagram: ● Leads and Prospects are connected to Customers. Prospects are converted to Leads when a Quote is processed. When Quotes turn into Sales, Leads become Customers. ● Cases are based on Customers. All cases are created by searching for the Customer Record first.

The system verifies that the Customer’s status is active. If it is, a case can be created. ● Transactions are based on Inventory (Goods) and Customers. We cannot have a Transaction Record without a Customer and goods sold.

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The above diagram also demonstrates that users can connect to the NetSuite website directly and do their transactions from there. Another scenario also plays out wherein a Customer has their own website, and uses NetSuite as their database backend. In this case, individuals connect to the Customer’s websites, and all the data is stored in NetSuite’s infrastructure.

F. INTEGRATION PROTOTYPES I.

CASE MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION SCENARIO

Figure 10: Case Management Integration Scenario using Kafka

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In this scenario, Kafka was used to present the communication between a “Producer” and a “Consumer”. To show the Case Management integration, a topic is set (“Cases”). Information containing a “user” (a list of Customers) and “item” (a list of Issues, or Cases) is sent from Producer to Consumer.

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CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION SCENARIO

Figure 11: Customer Management Integration Scenario using mock-up REST and POSTMAN

In the above scenario, REST was used to demonstrate how the system sends data using a JSON format. Postman was used to showcase how the information is being “GET”. Customer information used in this exercise includes Account ID, First Name, Last Name, Phone, and Email.

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III.

CAMUNDA INTEGRATION SCENARIO

Figure 12: Integration Scenario featuring a mix of REST and Camunda

In this scenario, Camunda is used to demonstrate the flow of information. The data being sent is a combination of a Customer Name and Phone number. The screenshots above show how Camunda works: the process is user-friendly as it is being implemented by a set of objects much like workflows. The video presentation that comes with this document will show a demonstration of how this is done.

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G. CONCLUSION The group chose NetSuite as a company to demonstrate the capabilities of its product. With this company, the group was able to learn much about ERP, EAI, CRM, Business Processes, Use Cases, and Workflows. The group was able to collaborate and work as a team to research and come up with ideas based on real-life scenarios and past work experiences. The Integration and Tools demonstrated in the lab exercises helped the team members appreciate how NetSuite works. The issues we discovered around Integration and Tools are its complexity. Comparing the scope and breadth of NetSuite, its integration must be truly complex. However, studying such complex integrations might be timeconsuming and challenging for students. The lab exercises gave the students an idea of how it works.

APPENDIX A: REFERENCES “NetSuite Customer Relationship Management” https://www.netsuite.com/portal/products/crm.shtml “NetSuite Applications Suite Architecture Overview” https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/netsuite/ns-onlinehelp/bridgehead_4719630979.html "Assignment 2 Group 3 Mock API in Postman", Lab 4: Mock API in Postman https://youtu.be/NqHYWYTTtbs “COMP 321 Lab 5”, Lab 5: Event-Driven architecture/Kafka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4QfihM9edE “thedysonL comp321 lab6”, Lab 6: Orchestration pattern/Camunda https://youtu.be/TM89FNNwkcU

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