Sometimes your day can feel like information overload. Emails pile up, calendar invites need to be accepted or created, documents are emailed back and forth, and contacts need to be created or updated. Much of this data needs to be shared with others in the organization, but it often is not. Your team desperately needs 360-degree visibility into important communications. Whether you are in the researching or demoing phase, or have already made the decision to implement a powerful NetSuite and Outlook email integration solution like CloudExtend, here are the top four steps to follow to prepare your team for a successful onboarding and seamless user adoption.

1. Create an internal process

Create an internal process document that is easy for users to follow and ensure they stick with it. If there are important processes that your team must adhere to, be sure to document this process to help eliminate any communication silos in the future. It’s easy for users to fall out of practice and miss getting valuable information, such as emails, into NetSuite.

2. Determine which records to attach to

An integration app like CloudExtend lets users attach emails to transaction records as well as entity records. If your organization has a long sales cycle and works off NetSuite Opportunities you may want to attach emails (and events) to Opportunity records. If you’re working on shorter sales cycles, you may want to attach emails at the Contact level. With CloudExtend Outlook you can even attach an email thread to NetSuite just once and the entire conversation is visible in NetSuite without any user action required.

3. Clean up, avoid email clutter, and automate when you can

Just because it’s easy to attach an email to NetSuite does not mean every email belongs there. Don’t inundate NetSuite with emails that are not useful. If you or your colleagues will not benefit from seeing an email in NetSuite, just leave it out. This makes it much easier for others to see the important emails when they visit NetSuite. If you’re certain the back/forth mails in a thread will be important and your integration offers automation (such as CloudExtend’s Autopilot) consider using it to make future email attachments truly hands-off.

4. Measure accountability and drive adoption

Spend a few minutes per week to monitor usage right down to the individual user. Leverage the power of NetSuite to see emails and events by sender/recipient, entity, and more. Have the mindset of “if it isn’t in NetSuite, it didn’t happen.” NetSuite saved searches can be used to determine the number of emails attached to NetSuite. You can even build your own dashboard to track usage over time.

Floorex saved 20 hours weekly by implementing CloudExtend Outlook for NetSuite

Floorex is a family owned floor coating business that struggled with getting important information across different departments into NetSuite CRM. They were concerned that communication silos would be created if they continued their current processes. The company originally started using the native Outlook tool within NetSuite, but when that was phased out, NetSuite recommended CloudExtend Outlook for NetSuite.

“We saved over 20 hours weekly with CloudExtend Outlook, and now everything is so much easier. Records are easier to keep updated because, in just a few clicks, the entire conversation with attachments is synced to the appropriate NetSuite records. It’s been a game-changer for us!”

–Tony Reynolds, Co-Owner and Director of IT, Floorex

Read the full customer success story.

Try CloudExtend Outlook for NetSuite for free.