At GBS, we work closely with our clients to help them utilize NetSuite to the fullest. Sometimes that means customizing features to meet their specific needs. You may not know that NetSuite was built to support the development of custom applications. It’s about starting with a powerful platform and finding ways to tweak, modify or add to it to make it even more functional and efficient, so your processes can become more functional and efficient along with it.
Take the case of a current customization one of our top developers is working on. One of our clients needs to update many item records on a regular basis — we’re talking about thousands of records — in NetSuite, but they were running into trouble with Map/Reduce.
You’re probably familiar with the Map/Reduce function in NetSuite, but if you’re not, Map/Reduce is a script within NetSuite that allows companies to process large amounts of records, like sales orders that they need to invoice on a regular basis.
For our client, the problem they were running into was a matter of time. They were using Map/Reduce to update upwards of 1,ooo item records regularly, and it was taking 15 minutes to complete the task. But that wasn’t the only time problem they were running into. If more than one department needed to process records at one time, people would be put into a queue. They had to wait until the first batch was done before the second batch could be processed. And at 15 minutes a crack, the last person in that queue would be waiting for their turn for a long time. In this age of instant digital everything, that lag time was a big hassle, inconvenience, and a drain on productivity and efficiency. Our developer found that situation to be unacceptable, and decided to get to work finding a way to solve the problem.
So, he began working on a NetSuite customization that takes the Map/Reduce task and improves on it tenfold.
The new feature he developed allows more records to be processed at one time, so there’s no waiting while other departments process their records. In addition, the whole function is infinitely faster than before, and triggered from the front end from a Suitelet within NetSuite.
The client who was waiting 15 minutes to process records can now do it in five seconds. And nobody has to wait in the queue.
We’re happy to report the client is thrilled with the end result of our customization. That got us thinking. Processing records is a standard function for most organizations that deal with inventory, sales, vendors and many other areas of business. Many of our clients can benefit from this customization.
Right now, our developer is broadening that customization and making it scalable to implement for all clients.
At Green Business Systems, we’re all about customizing the power of NetSuite to better meet our customers’ needs. Contact us today!
