Is your NetSuite investment delivering the returns you promised the board? Or is it just another line item on the monthly P&L?

For many CFOs and CIOs, NetSuite constitutes one of their largest software pipeline items. But the industry data reveals a shocking truth: you’re probably not even using half of your ERP system! Just 26-27% of workers functionally use their company’s ERP.

If you’re paying for 100% compliance and only getting 26% of the value in use, you have an ROI leak.

The answer is a NetSuite Health Check an assessment that helps you achieve peak performance by identifying the bottlenecks, weak features, and procedural inefficiencies with your existing setup. But historically, the cost of the health check itself has been a stumbling block to it becoming routine.

In this guide, we’ll break down precisely what the ROI that can be measured from a NetSuite optimization project is and why the “cost” of a health check just might be the easiest obstacle to overcome (hint: because LST Consultancy is changing it up).

The Cost of the Status Quo: Why “Doing Nothing” is Expensive

Before we can discuss gains, we must measure the losses. So, many hesitate to audit it because “it all works perfectly well.” But “fine” is expensive.

• The Data Quality Tax: Gartner research shows that low data quality costs businesses $12.9 million per annum on average. In NetSuite, this comes to life as out-of-date inventory data, inaccurate forecasting, or reconciliation being done manually outside the system because “you can’t trust the system numbers.”

• The Efficiency Gap: Do your teams continue to use Excel to massage data extracted from NetSuite? If that’s the case, you are being charged for automation you aren’t using. Organizations that leverage NetSuite operational analytics to the fullest realize a 30% increase in operational efficiency. If you’re not doing that, you’re leaving money on the table.

Measuring ROI: 3 Hard Numbers for Your CFO

If you are trying to justify a NetSuite Health Check, you can’t stay with squishy “better user experience” type benefits, and if you go strictly financial, it’s harder. Here are three core elements on which to construct your business case:

License & Infrastructure Optimization (Immediate Savings)

Shelfware is modules or user licenses that were bought during the initial implementation but were never deployed.

• The Metric: Total Annual License Cost vs Active Utilization Rate.

• The Win: Finding 10 non-employees and/or a premium module that has gone unused for 12 months (value of more than) $10,000 to $50,000+ at renewal time.

Efficiency of Process & Labor Savings (Ongoing Savings)

Measure the time wasted on manual workarounds by your team.

• The Metric: (Hours Spent on Manual Tasks per Week) * (Average Hourly Wage) * 52 weeks.

• The Win: If a Health Check shows that you’re dunning or bank reconciliation (which NetSuite can do natively) automation is saving your finance team 10 hours a week, that’s roughly $25,000–$30,000 in annual productivity gained back.

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