Demand Solutions Group

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

AOptix is a biometrics company. We build devices that help track iris prints or fingerprints or facial identity. These technologies are used to authenticate identities within organizations or systems that require the highest standards of security, privacy, and safety.

What is your position?

I’m the director for business systems. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Demand Solutions Group?

I’ve worked with Demand Solutions Group in several different capacities and within several different companies. AOptix is a startup company. We were looking to implement a backend system that would be able to grow and scale with us. We needed help with the deployment of a short-term ERP/CRM [enterprise resource planning/customer relationship management] system because we didn’t have the necessary expertise in-house. After some preliminary discussion, NetSuite was chosen as our preferred solution.

SOLUTION

What was the rationale behind selecting the NetSuite compared to alternative ERP/CRM solutions?

I’ve worked with quite a few systems in the past, but NetSuite is very easy to implement and customize. You can customize screens, customize forms, and customize fields without ever modifying the source code. It’s easy enough to use for somebody who’s non-technical, like myself. That was a key factor in our decision-making process. Having a cloud-based solution was also advantageous because we didn’t want to invest in a physical hosting infrastructure.

How did you select Demand Solutions Group as your solution partner for this endeavor?

I’m trying to remember how we first came across them, because it was four companies ago that I started collaborating with them. I believe they may have been referred to me along with a small set of other highly qualified vendors.

Could you describe the scope of one of these projects? For instance, did it involve custom visual design, backend functional development, training, or support?

The current relationship with them is specifically for a system implementation. They help us to understand what our business requirements are, and then to take our business requirements and actually implement those into NetSuite. In that sense, they’re responsible for deploying and configuring the entire system to our specific business and technical requirements.

The implementation process itself is fairly typical. We bring in some core users and stakeholders to evaluate usage, expectations, and performance. We then use that feedback as the basis for refining our requirements. We take the conceptual map and build the functionality, and then we test the system. Once we’ve tested the functionality we go back and fine-tune it. Once we feel like we’ve made the appropriate improvements and fixes, we test it again. We follow that process with each of the core components. They also instruct our staff on best practices and basic troubleshooting approaches. We have a retainer with them for ongoing support.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms?

I don’t even remember what the exact cost was, but it was probably within the range of $75,000 to $100,000.

When was the implementation completed?

Two and a half years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

We came up and running quite easily. We didn’t have a lot of very complicated requirements. I think the business users really thought that they had complicated requirements. They’re pretty normal business challenges that a system like NetSuite is able to handle. I would say that our implementation was uneventful in that we didn’t have any go-live issues. I know that sounds strange, because most companies tend to experience at least some go-live issues. In that sense, I would say the lack of user-facing defects and bugs in the system at launch is a real testament to their expertise.

When working with Demand Solutions Group, is there anything you’d consider special or unique about their approach or methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors you’ve worked with?

Their methodology, I forget what the exact term used for it, but it’s a very iterative cycle, and the results have been outstanding. I’m not sure if they’re the firm that uses it, but it’s a very effective process. It allows people to feed in their requirements, to think that they understand everything that they want, but you don’t always know everything that you really need or would like to have. The process reveals all of the areas you missed or never thought about. It’s nice to be able to use the system, to test it, and to refine it. I think it helps to get the users buy-in, that you could change the labels on the field, change the process a little bit, add a field that they’d like to have, any of those things. The process made people feel a little bit more comfortable with the new system that they were about to inherit.

In retrospect, are there areas you think Demand Solutions Group could improve upon, or are there things you’d do differently as the client before initiating a project of this nature?

I honestly think that the implementation was a great match for AOptix. We had users who were slow to adopt, slow to accept the changes, slow to realize that they had a lot more power than they’ve ever had before, but that’s a natural part of change. To me, it was a relatively slow implementation, but largely a result of the kind of attention that our users were able to give. While you can speed up an implementation, you can’t speed up the mental ability for people to digest and process information. That’s a very human challenge.

It wasn’t a very complicated implementation in my book. I’ve done this so many times in the past. It could have been completed within a few months, but I doubt our users would have been able to use or accept the system under those rapid circumstances. Our rollout timeline was definitely appropriate for our user base.

BACKGROUND

Could you describe your organization?

I work for Zendesk. We’re one of the leading suppliers of customer service software, delivering the software as a service. We have more than 40,000 customers, and we’re still a privately held company. 

What is your position?

I was formerly the director of business systems. I’m now the director of business metrics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Demand Solutions Group?

Primarily, we needed a high-speed implementation in order to keep up with a rapidly growing company with an international presence. We needed both additional analytical support as well as some knowledge of NetSuite products. Our previous system wasn’t capable of scaling with our growth and increasingly complex business activities. 

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of this project?

It was primarily system configuration and deployment of the general ledger, accounts payable, fixed assets, and accounts receivable modules. It also involved primary integration between payroll and to our billing systems Zuora, which we handled in-house with their guidance.  

Had you selected the NetSuite solution prior to your relationship with Demand Solutions Group, or were they part of the selection process, too?

No. We selected NetSuite prior to that and, as part of our reference calls, before we signed documents with NetSuite. We got some advice from a couple of different references that had used Demand Solutions Group before, and they were very satisfied with their services.   

How did you select Demand Solutions Group as your partner for this endeavor?

We were originally planning to engage NetSuite’s services. We got some good feedback from our reference calls about Demand Solutions Group. It turned out, one of my former colleagues had used and worked with them closely at eMeter, and he reached out to me and said, “Hey, you should really be considering these guys.” We also had some contractual issues with NetSuite. They wanted to bill us for all of the services in advance. We asked them to put things on a milestone basis, and they basically were not able to do that. At that point, we decided to find a third-party implementation partner. That’s when we approached Demand Solutions Group. 

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms?

I cost roughly $50,000. We have an ongoing $4,000-a-month service agreement with them for support. 

When was this implementation completed?

The initial stage was finished in October of 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or anecdotal feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

I’d say the primary thing is our company has grown from 200 employees to close to 600 employees in the two years since we implemented the solution. The basic framework that we laid out is still working. The core account structure and business process structure are still intact despite our continued expansion. The framework has kept up with three or four international subsidiaries, considerable tax regulations, and our expanding analytical endeavors with all of our incoming data. 

In terms of business metrics, I could give you specifics, but my sense is that our accounting team has grown less as a proportion of the company as a whole. We’re really getting a lot of value out of the system. 

When working with Demand Solutions Group, is there anything you would consider unique or special about their approach or methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors you’ve worked with in the past?

The ability to continue performing ongoing maintenance on a set rate per month, basically it becomes like an additional subscription amount per month for the services. That was unique, and I thought that was a good way to do it. Outside of that, they're extremely adept at evaluating and understanding business processes in order to identify areas for improvement. That's not always the case with IT vendors. 

In retrospect, are there areas you think that they could improve upon, or are there things you'd do differently as the client before initiating a project of this type with Demand Solutions Group?

The only place where we felt like we had to go get additional expertise was around some international accounting practices. Having more depth in that area would be valuable. There are some specific accounting issues, technical specific issues that NetSuite doesn’t cover or the functionalities within NetSuite can’t seem to handle. As a result, we had to design our own workarounds from scratch, which was frustrating and time consuming. It would have been nice for them to come to us and say, “Hey, we’ve seen that our customers have had these problems, and here’s how they worked around them in the past, or be aware of this kind of problem.” We kind of stumbled into the challenges ourselves. 

Do you remain confident that NetSuite will continue to meet your business objectives, both strategic and functional, into the foreseeable future?

The other place where we found a functional hole in NetSuite was in the accounting terminology, VSOE requirements. It simply doesn’t meet our needs. We had to go out and get another product to do that. It would’ve been nice to understand that before we bought the product. We didn’t know, we didn’t understand it at that time. I can’t see us switching away from NetSuite, but I think we’ll have to continue to use peripheral products. For example, we bought a product to do professional services accounting, time, and project tracking. We bought a full product to do this revenue accounting. We’re looking at buying a full product to do employee expense reporting, etc. It’d be nice if the NetSuite product kept up with state-of-the-art practices and functionalities. 

BACKGROUND

Could you describe your organization?

Our organization is EVault, Inc. We’re a subsidiary of Seagate Incorporated. We are a backup data recovery service. Corporations utilize our services to backup the data and their databases and any valuable information they want to keep secure. That could be anything from emails, hospital records or MRI and X-ray images, attorneys’ client lists, etc. We keep that data safe and secure. If companies experience some kind of disaster, we can recover their data, so they don’t lose time or value.

What is your position?

I’m the corporate consultant. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Demand Solutions Group?

We were using a fairly archaic accounting system. We weren’t very functional in what we were trying to do and what we were trying to accomplish. We decided we were going to look for a new solution and decided on a NetSuite/Salesforce combination. Right now, we’re using Salesforce, but it’s not linked in our ERP [enterprise resource planning] system. We have about five or six different systems we’re using. They don’t operate with one another, which makes it very difficult to conduct our business and maintain consistent information. When we decided to go with this integrated solution, we knew we needed a team to implement it correctly.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of this project?  

They were the project lead; they really did everything. They helped us with the discovery process. We evaluated everything: Our business processes, policies, procedures. They helped us go through that and then implement the new system, which meant redesigning how we did our business and then deploying the new process. They really took the lead in helping us not just as information architects, but they also did the design, the coding, the backend work, testing, training, and support. 

Had you selected the Integrated NetSuite/Salesforce solution prior to the relationship with Demand Solutions Group, or were they a part of the process for identifying and then choosing the solution?

It’s a combination of both actually. When we were looking at ERP systems, we really liked NetSuite, but the sales team was pretty much embedded into Salesforce and the functionality that it offered. It was a debate on whether we force them out of Salesforce to NetSuite, or we integrate the two and link them. Demand Solutions Group helped us with that decision and indicated that they wouldn’t necessarily need to be mutually exclusive. When you’re working in one, it’s passing information back and forth so seamlessly. The logo on it says Salesforce, but you’re really passing information back into NetSuite and extracting information from NetSuite as well. It’s really the perfect combination. 

How did you select Demand Solutions Group as your partner for this endeavor?

We interviewed several potential vendors, and they seemed to have the best team. One of the people on our team had actually worked with them before, and he was already familiar with their capabilities. We were impressed with their presentation and were confident they could deliver. 

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative monetary terms?

It was more than $2 million in total. 

When was this implementation completed?

We’re actually in the final stages of the implementation right now. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or anecdotal feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

I’m not sure about statistics. They’ve been very effective at helping us look at what really is. Quite frankly, we went from a company that really didn’t utilize best practices or sophisticated processes to a much more complex and efficient company. They were really impressed with the engines they built for us behind the scenes. They were very effective at taking processes that were quite antiquated and making them state of the art. We’ve essentially gone from using an abacus to a sophisticated computer. It’s not that the abacus didn’t work; it’s just hard to scale your business and grow with that instrument. The limitations were simply too much, and we were inhibited entirely. All of that has changed. 

When working with Demand Solutions Group, is there anything you would consider unique or special about their approach or methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors you’ve worked with?

I would say it’s their heavy involvement and their level of commitment to the project’s success. They really take ownership of the process. There are times when we would be waiting for some information, and I would get an e-mail at 1 a.m. indicating that they were still working in order to meet our specified deadline. They stayed up all night to get ready to go for the next morning. They are very time conscious and well aware of our constraints and needs. They took on roles that with most clients they probably wouldn’t have to. They did it because of the way we do things here. They really stepped in and did things that we couldn’t because we didn’t have the skill set for it or we didn’t have the time. That’s what impressed me most. 

In retrospect, are there areas you think they could improve upon, or are there things you’d do differently as the client for initiating a project of this type with Demands Solutions Group?

Not so much from their point of view. They really stepped up. This was a very challenging implementation for them, and for us. They never gave up and they held our feet to the fire as best they could. Perhaps the one thing, in hindsight, is we should have paid more attention to that. We should have listened to them a little bit more at times and maybe at the same time we should have had them holding firm with us and forcing more of their thought into our minds. Sometimes, it’s simply not enough to have someone listening to you, but make sure that they’re doing it and internalizing what you’re saying. At times, if they could have been a bit firmer, but I’m not sure that they could have. That would be my only criticism. I don’t know if that’s necessarily a criticism on them, or if it’s simply a part of the process.  

With regard to the integrated NetSuite/Salesforce solution, do you remain confident that it will continue to meet your business needs into the foreseeable future?

Absolutely. One of the major problems that they had to tackle was something we couldn’t do. Our billing system is quite unique in the way it does things. It’s very complicated, and it’s one of those billing systems with rules that you have exceptions for almost everything. We had trouble implementing that core functionality. We couldn’t ever implement an effective system until Demand Solutions helped us design and implement it. They were somehow able to automate the process that was manual up until that point.