3 Simple Steps for Setting Up Your Metric and Reporting System in NetSuite OpenAir

Reports are fundamental to providing the information needed to run your business. Keeping your Professional Services organization focused on what is important is critical to achieving the goals of the business. The NetSuite OpenAir system has an extensive set of reporting capabilities. By following these three simple steps you can set up a metric and reporting system in NetSuite OpenAir that aligns your organization focused on the same goals.

1. Identify Your Metrics

The first step is to identify the metrics that are important to your organization and those that are aligned to your business’s goals. We recommend you limit the number of metrics so that you can focus your team on the right information. There are easily 50 or more metrics that can be identified and tracked within a Professional Services organization, but it is better to focus on perhaps 10. Some of the important metrics include:

• Utilization – billable and productive
• Project margins
• Delivery efficiency
• Capacity
• Backlog
• Forecast against plan
• Budget versus actual hours

There are several different ways to look at and understand your metrics. The NetSuite OpenAir dashboard lets you set up as many charts as needed to view the health of your organization at a glance. Can’t find the metric you need in the standard reporting values set? NetSuite OpenAir allows custom calculation creation to measure what you need when you need it.

2. Develop Your Standard Reports

When it comes to Professional Services Automation, it’s important to create a standard set of reports that people will be able to understand. NetSuite OpenAir offers some robust reporting capability, so the last thing a business wants is several different staff members creating reports with a range of different data that no one really understands. It’s not consumable, it’s not user-friendly, and it doesn’t allow people to focus on what they should be monitoring to meet their business objectives.

OpenAir reporting offers the ability to manage report creation and usage. You can identify the report owners and the people who will be using the report. You can also set data control filters which will focus resources on the information important to their day to day business.

3. Setup A Governance Model

Report ownership, controls, and maintenance are important to ensure the standard report set is adopted and the reports grow and change with the organization. You need to consider who will own the reports, who will be in charge of making enhancements and what the maintenance review process should be.

Start by identifying how employees will be trained and who in the company will provide that training. When developing a training program, it is vital to ensure that your employees understand what OpenAir reporting means, what metrics are identified via reporting, and how to use the reports for each of their roles in the organization.

From an ownership point of view, it’s a good idea to set a single user as the owner of all standard reports. This can help avoid a great deal of confusion, particularly with newer employees and those new to the system, on which reports should be used regularly.

NetSuite OpenAir allows you to do a great deal with your metrics and reporting. If you would like to learn more how you can set up or optimize your metrics and reporting system, we offer a reporting workshop, or just contact TOP Step Consulting.