NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM

THE RESULTS

Implementing NetSuite has not only enabled the National Army Museum to establish a significant online presence in the form of its new NetSuite Web store but, because of NetSuite’s cross- platform capabilities, it also meant the charity didn’t have to migrate from its Mac environment to PCs, which would have had prohibitive cost implications.

The full NetSuite application enables integration between the accounting function and the onsite shop in relation to stock levels and marketing campaigns and, in the near future, to accurate visitor figures. It also allowed the National Army Museum to create an e-commerce environment which they didn’t have before.

“We now have a fully integrated electronic point-of-sales (EPOS) solution and, through NetSuite, were able to create a Web store which updates our inventory stock supplied from the shop in real-time,” explains Phil Sharp, Systems/Project Manager for the National Army Museum.


THE CHALLENGES

The National Army Museum had a static website with no e-commerce capabilities. It has always offered its exhibitions, galleries and a public events programme to the public free of charge but a business review indicated that an online presence would be vastly enhanced by a Web store.

The Museum had been using Astra Accounts as its accounting package but an upgrade was needed which would have been costly and didn’t provide the flexibility and cross-platform capabilities that were required for their Mac environment.

Participation at external events also proved difficult for the accounting system as all transactions had to be handled manually. In order to sell its collections of paintings, books, clothing, replica medals and posters, staff would have to take a float to these events, record transactions manually and do the same when they returned to the office. So an EPOS system which could integrate flexibly in real-time with NetSuite was vital.

“In essence, we needed something that would allow us to integrate all our business processes with an EPOS and an e-commerce solution,” says Phil Sharp.

“I investigated products from Sage, Microsoft and Oracle but none of them had the cross platform capabilities, the flexibility and the low maintenance I was looking for. NetSuite’s cross-browser functionality and the ability to integrate with our marketing database to track campaigns were additional attractions.”

“Because NetSuite is browser-based and works within the Mac environment, I didn’t have to install PCs — this would have been essential with any other solution,” Phil Sharp comments.


“The single view of the real-time financial position of all our departments that we now have is excellent and is especially useful to senior management”

Phil Sharp - IT Manager