What Is NetSuite Connector? (And Is It Your Best Option?)
NetSuite is a powerful all-in-one solution for your organization, but does it have all the data you need? Your teams rely on tons of data to close high-priority projects, navigate obstacles to your organization’s growth, and ensure a consistent, high-quality experience for customers and clients. That’s why many teams trust NetSuite Connector to integrate this popular platform with a dozen data sources.
Let’s explore this tool, see what it can do for you, and find out if it’s the solution you need.
What is NetSuite Connector?
NetSuite Connector is a built-in integration solution that allows NetSuite users to connect all systems involved in managing their ecommerce business. By centralizing data from these systems in NetSuite, merchants can standardize and improve the customer experience at all stages of fulfillment. Order information can be pulled from marketplaces like Shopify, customer information from CRM software like Salesforce, and shipping data from a third-party logistics partner. That makes NetSuite your central hub for running every aspect of your ecommerce business, whether you’re a solopreneur or an enterprise-sized organization with sales throughout the world.
For most integrations supported by NetSuite Connector, setting up your integration is as simple as:
- Logging into NetSuite Connector.
- Clicking on the connector and account you want to integrate on the left menu.
- Go to Settings, then Credentials.
- Configure the account you want to connect.
- For example, if you were integrating Shopify, you would enter your shop’s name in the Shopify Shop Name field.
- Click Save Settings then Authorize Account.
This ease of setup makes NetSuite Connector an attractive option for merchants looking to centralize their ecommerce data. But is it necessarily the best option?
What are some drawbacks of NetSuite Connector?
While NetSuite Connector is easy to set up and has the advantage of being native to your NetSuite environment, it does have some drawbacks.
Limited customizability
NetSuite Connector offers a basic integration option when compared to other providers. Without direct intervention from the support team, these integrations can’t be fully customized the way an iPaaS platform like Unito can. If your needs fall beyond the scope of NetSuite Connector’s basic functionality, you’ll struggle to get value out of its integrations.
Limited integrations
Because of its focus on ecommerce, NetSuite Connector is only really suited for organizations that sell products online directly to customers. Project managers, salespeople, and software developers won’t find the integrations they need here.
But even ecommerce merchants may not find the integration they need. NetSuite Connector only supports:
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- Adobe Commerce
- WooCommerce
- Amazon Seller Central
- Amazon Vendor Central
- eBay
- Walmart
- Salesforce
- ShipStation
- Amazon MCF
- Oracle Symphony POS
That’s only a total of 12 integrations, fairly limited compared to other integration solutions.
It only supports cloud-based systems
While most ecommerce platforms are cloud-based, tools like Salesforce can be used on-premise for enhanced security and data governance. Since NetSuite Connector only supports cloud-based tools, you won’t be able to use its integrations with your on-premise installations. This alone can be a dealbreaker for some organizations.
What are some other NetSuite integration options?
NetSuite Connector is far from the only option available, whether you need to sync ecommerce tools or other systems your organization depends on day to day. Most of these options are also found in NetSuite, while another is hands-down your best option for building a true 2-way sync from NetSuite to dozens of other tools.
Built-in NetSuite options
If you don’t want to leave NetSuite to integrate your systems, here are your options:
- SuiteCloud Platform Integration: This platform allows your software developers and engineers to design, test, and deploy custom integrations for the tools you rely on most. Its main advantage is that it can support both cloud and on-premise tools. That being said, it can require some significant investment of technical resources depending on your needs.
- NetSuite Data Warehouse: If you’re looking for a solution that’ll centralize data from throughout your NetSuite apps, imported CSV files, and more, then this might be the solution for you. While it’s not quite the same thing as NetSuite Connector’s simpler integrations, it’s a powerful option for building your data integration infrastructure.
- SuiteApp.com: NetSuite’s marketplace for third-party apps has fifty apps specifically for integrating NetSuite with other tools. Examples of available integration include Jira, Bill, Outlook, and Square.
Other automation and integration options
If you think you need a third-party integration solution to connect NetSuite with other systems, you can look at the following:
- Zapier: This automation solution is easy to set up and troubleshoot, though it only supports basic one-way automations. These automations can be chained in succession to support more complex workflows, but this requires some degree of technical skill.
- HubSpot Data Sync: If HubSpot is a lynchpin for your workflows, then its built-in Data Sync functionality may be a strong option for integrating it with NetSuite. Note that this won’t support connections from NetSuite to other systems, however.
- Tray.io: This option is what’s known as an iPaaS (integration platform as a service), an all-in-one platform for integrating multiple tools. It supports hundreds of integrations, though these integrations aren’t as deep as those provided by other options.
While these choices can all help you set up automations with varying degrees of difficulty, there’s only one platform that powers a true 2-way sync between NetSuite and other systems with robust customizability and a faster deployment than the competition.
Unito: your best option for integrating NetSuite
Unito is a robust and customizable 2-way sync solution for NetSuite and dozens of other tools, including Jira, ServiceNow, Smartsheet, and Asana. You don’t need to invest any technical resources into deploying Unito. Most Unito users don’t come from technical backgrounds, and their teams start seeing results in days instead of months.
Unito flows build two-way relationships between NetSuite and other tools, allowing your work to flow seamlessly between tasks, deals, contacts, and more.