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Robert Israch

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Sales/Marketing, NetSuite

144 points

Broad experience running a variety of different areas of marketing for companies, including NetSuite, Intuit, and GE. Avid entrepreneur.

Robert Israch recommends this answer by Len Green

Aug. 5, 2011

NetSuite vs. Sage: is ERP in the cloud for real now?

Cloud is always an option to consider...when it comes to evaluating how to use the functionality you need and what your organization's priorities are. First and foremost, functionality needs to be the driver.
For many companies, SaaS solutions will have the functionality they need and ... more

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

Robert Israch and 20 other people answered this question

June 20, 2011

What is the best back-office software for SMBs?

"SMB" is a very broad category so the answer to this question depends on how you define SMB.
If you are more focused on the "S" (Small) in that acronym, then you likely want to look systems like QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online, Zoho, etc and you ... more

Information Technology

Robert Israch and 10 other people answered this question

May 17, 2011

How do you balance customizing ERP vs. the risk and expense?

The assumption that customizing an ERP system can cause items to break during upgrades is not necessarily the case. The more modern, sophisticated SaaS platforms, such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite, allow for customizations to automatically transfer along with product upgrades throughout the year.
Having said ... more

Information Technology

Enterprise Resource Planning

Robert Israch and 6 other people answered this question

May 17, 2011

How can organizations speed up the roll-out time of an ERP

SaaS ERP implementations are often faster than on-premise deployments but, even with a SaaS ERP option, you should plan on having around a 3-month implementation time frame.
- In addition to the pointers listed above by Bob, its important that you have a capable dedicated ... more

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

Robert Israch and 2 other people answered this question

April 27, 2011

Is integration with existing systems a major obstacle for cloud-based ERP?

I agree with all of the previous comments. There is not much of a difference between integration using a Cloud versus an on-premise system.
The only major difference is that customization and integration code will travel forward automatically during upgrades with Cloud applications like Salesforce.com ... more

Enterprise Resource Planning

Robert Israch asked a question

April 26, 2011

What are the strongest web retargeting advertising services?

Advertising & Marketing

Advertising & Media

Robert Israch and 5 other people answered this question

April 23, 2011

What are the top questions an ERP buyer should ask a vendor prior to purchase?

Really strong contributions so far. I particularly agree with the earlier comments around the time-to-go-live, TCO, and customer references.
I would also add:
- ROI: What evidence does the ERP provider have around their solution's ability to generate ROI and how quickly can one expect that ... more

Information Technology

Robert Israch and 11 other people answered this question

Dec. 12, 2010

ERP Trends: What the top ERP trends to watch in 2011?

1. SaaS and Cloud computing continue getting bigger and making more of an impact on the ERP space. Small and midsized businesses are increasingly moving to the cloud as their preferred method to run their business and now larger enterprises are implementing cloud technologies to ... more

Robert Israch and 9 other people answered this question

Dec. 12, 2010

CRM Trends: What are the top CRM trends to track in 2011?

1. Social media integration: No question that being able to measure the ROI and downstream benefits from click to engagement to lead to sales within your CRM and build profiles around those folks responding to your programs is of huge value and something CRM systems ... more

Customer Relationship Management Strategy

Robert Israch and 15 other people answered this question

Nov. 30, 2010

Any recommendations for good marketing automation consultants?

Spear Marketing is a great firm I have worked with.
Rob

Marketing Auotmation Consultants

Marketing Automation

Robert Israch and 3 other people answered this question

Nov. 23, 2010

Where can I learn about the upcoming rule changes for accounting?

Proformative.com is a great finance community that provides information on the new EITF and other revenue recognition rules.
Rob more

Accounting & Audit Services

Accounting Help

Accounting Practices

Robert Israch and 3 other people answered this question

Nov. 23, 2010

What are some painpoints of growing companies still operating on QuickBooks?

I agree with the previous 2 postings.
I think data entry issues related to QuickBooks can be particularly pressing. Oftentimes, QuickBooks customers have customer and revenue data in multiple systems, including QuickBooks for bookkeeping, Excel for managing inventory, fulfillment, and more complicated financial transactions, maybe ... more

Robert Israch and 9 other people answered this question

Nov. 9, 2010

Which ERP vendors have a reputation of serving small businesses?

It depends on what you mean by "small business". If you are an under 10 or under 20 employee company, QuickBooks is likely your best solution. NetSuite is the leading web-based ERP system with 6,600+ customers and focuses primarily on high growth and midsized businesses ... more

Erp Software Solutions

Robert Israch and 2 other people answered this question

Nov. 5, 2010

What are the most important items you include in an RFP or RFQ for a CRM?

A few key areas to have in there:
- Lead-to-Cash Management
- Customer upsell and renewals management
- Sales, marketing, and customer service management
- Real-time reporting
- Rep visibility in to order status, inventory, payment status, customer service issues
- ROI reporting on marketing ... more

Customer Service

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Robert Israch and 9 other people answered this question

Nov. 5, 2010

What are the challenges in implementing CRM in small businesses?

I would add that, with their small IT departments, small businesses have a lot of difficult integrating their sales / CRM data with their order management and accounting processes and systems.
Rob more

Customer Service

Robert Israch and 7 other people answered this question

Oct. 31, 2010

What are some benefits to choosing a web-based CRM?

Here are 6 major benefits:
1. Subscription-based pricing: You pay as you go, often on an annual basis, unlike conventional on-premise systems where you have to make a major up-front investment in licenses, hardware and software. You benefit from better cash flow and far greater ... more

Customer Service

Information Technology

Robert Israch and 8 other people answered this question

Oct. 29, 2010

How much is too much?

We don't touch our contacts with HTML emails more frequently than 1 time every 2 business weeks.
Rob more

Email Marketing

Email Marketing Campaign

Email Marketing Strategy

Robert Israch and 2 other people answered this question

Oct. 28, 2010

How can a medium-sized firm use ERP to improve its bottome line?

If you are a fast-growing or midsized company, the primary benefits of a strong ERP system would be:
- Get more accurate, more timely visibility in to performance across your entire business (cash flow, GL, lead, inventory, orders, customers, etc)
- Increase productivity by automating ... more

Robert Israch and 1 other person answered this question

Oct. 20, 2010

Where can I go to find the most current Revenue Recognition policies?

Here is an article our CFO wrote on preparing for FASB's new revenue recognition rules:
http://www.netsuite.com/portal/landing/eitf-08-01-best-practices-for-adoption...

Accounting Policies

Robert Israch and 20 other people answered this question

Oct. 13, 2010

Would you rather have a VP of Sales who was a great tactician or sales strategist?

I agree that it all depends on the lifecycle of the organization. I would say ideally you want one person stronger in strategy but who is also willing and capable of executing on the tactics and then you have another person who is a great ... more

Robert Israch and 14 other people answered this question

Oct. 12, 2010

What is the state of branding in today's marketing? How is it different?

I think it depends on your business model and maturity. Branding still has its place but that piece of the pie may be smaller than is used to be, at the expense of more lead generation oriented activity, and brand activity is changing.
In my ... more

Robert Israch and 7 other people answered this question

Sept. 17, 2010

What marketing automation vendor provides the most flexible custom fields?

Adding custom fields of almost any sort within NetSuite is easy. It also has a built-in grapical workflow engine to create drip marketing tracks very easily and any other workflow paths you might want to create. People have built functional MRP systems on top of ... more

Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation Campaign

Marketing Automation Features

Robert Israch and 10 other people answered this question

Aug. 22, 2010

CRM account management features?

If you need a CRM with built-in sales quoting, NetSuite should be very high on your list. NetSuite is one of the very few CRM systems with built-in sales quote generation. To Eric's point, the reason NetSuite can do this well while the vast majority ... more

Account Management

Conversation Tracking

Robert Israch and 6 other people answered this question

June 15, 2010

Can you tell me stories about integrating social tools & traditional CRM?

We have integrated InsideView with our CRM system (NetSuite) and the sales reps rave about it because it allows for them to easily identify key company organization changes, new connections, and other key activities all within our instance of NetSuite.
Rob more

Customer Service

Robert Israch and 46 other people answered this question

June 12, 2010

Small Business Social Media: Does it even work?

In addition to the benefits of it being free and a source of viral marketing, social media can be very beneficial to your SEO rankings which can bring long term quality traffic to your web site.
Rob more

Small Business Consulting

Robert Israch and 1 other person commented on a brief

Jan. 4, 2010

10 Features to Consider for Any ERP Solution

Great article!
I agree with all of the areas noted but would add a few more:
- Fulfillment: Hand-in-hand with inventory, an ERP system should be able to automate the shipping and fulfillment processes, provide customers with self-service access in to their order status, and ... more

Robert Israch commented on a brief

Dec. 7, 2009

Focus Speaks: Top Enterprise CRM Solutions and Vendors

A good CRM for customer service should provide service reps with seamless visibility to all customer interactions. Reps should have a universal view of each customer at their fingertips including details of all past purchases, real-time views in to inventory and fulfillment status, pending sales ... more

Customer Service

Robert Israch and 13 other people answered this question

Nov. 11, 2009

Is traditional marketing dying?

Traditional marketing is not dying but its certainly losing ground to areas of marketing that are more measureable and accountable. Branding will always be important but its harder to quantify its value versus lead generation and other programs and if someone has tight or decreasing ... more

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