You have NetSuite running your finances and inventory. Salesforce (or HubSpot, or Zoho) managing customer relationships. A logistics platform handling shipping and fulfilment. Maybe a warehouse management system on top of that.
Each system does its job well. Together, they're a nightmare.
Customer data lives in three places, and none of them agree. Orders entered in the CRM don't appear in the ERP until someone manually creates them. Shipping updates from logistics never make it back to sales. Your team spends hours every day copying data between systems that should be talking to each other.
Sound familiar?
ERP data integration doesn't have to be this painful. Here's how to connect your systems without losing your mind—or your budget.
Why System Integration Is So Hard
Before we fix it, let's understand why connecting enterprise systems is notoriously difficult.
Every system thinks it's the centre of the universe
NetSuite thinks it owns the customer record. So does Salesforce. So does your logistics platform.
Each system was designed to be the "source of truth" for its domain. They weren't designed to share nicely with others. When you try to connect them, you're essentially asking three control freaks to collaborate.
Data models don't match
A "customer" in NetSuite isn't the same as a "contact" in Salesforce isn't the same as a "shipper" in your logistics system.
NetSuite thinks in terms of billing addresses and payment terms. Salesforce thinks in terms of opportunities and activities. Logistics thinks in terms of delivery locations and service levels.
Mapping these different concepts onto each other is where integration projects go to die.
APIs are inconsistent
Modern systems have APIs. That's the good news.
The bad news: every API is different. NetSuite's SuiteTalk works nothing like Salesforce's REST API, which works nothing like your logistics provider's webhook system. Each requires different authentication, different data formats, different error handling.
Building integrations means becoming an expert in every system's quirks.
The edge cases multiply
The happy path is easy. Customer created in CRM, synced to ERP, order placed, synced to logistics, shipment confirmed. Beautiful.
Then reality hits:
- What happens when the customer exists in one system but not the other?
- What if the same customer has different addresses in different systems?
- What if an order gets modified after it's synced?
- What if the logistics system is down when you try to sync?
- What if a record fails validation in the target system?
Every edge case requires handling. The edge cases outnumber the happy paths 10 to 1.
The Integration Approaches (And Their Trade-offs)
There's no perfect solution, but there are options. Each has a place depending on your situation.
Point-to-point integrations
The simplest approach: connect each pair of systems directly.
How it works: Build a custom integration between NetSuite and Salesforce. Another between Salesforce and logistics. Another between NetSuite and logistics.
Pros:
- Straightforward to understand
- Can be highly optimised for specific use cases
- No additional platform to manage
Cons:
- Complexity explodes with each new system (n systems = n×(n-1)/2 connections)
- Each integration is a separate maintenance burden
- No centralised visibility or error handling
When to use: You have only 2-3 systems that need connection, the data flows are simple, and you have development resources.
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
Platforms like Workato, Boomi, MuleSoft, or Celigo sit in the middle and manage connections.
How it works: Each system connects to the platform once. The platform handles data transformation and routing between systems.
Pros:
- Pre-built connectors for common systems (including NetSuite, Salesforce, major logistics providers)
- Visual workflow builders reduce coding
- Centralised monitoring and error handling
- Adding new systems is easier
Cons:
- Monthly subscription costs ($500-$5,000+ depending on volume and complexity)
- Still requires configuration expertise
- You're dependent on the platform's connector quality
- Complex transformations may still need code
When to use: You have multiple systems to connect, data flows are moderately complex, and you want to minimise custom development.
Data warehouse as integration hub
Instead of syncing systems directly, extract data into a central data warehouse and use it as the source of truth.
How it works: All systems feed data into the warehouse. Reporting and analytics happen there. For operational needs, data flows back out to systems that need it.
Pros:
- Single source of truth for reporting
- Historical data preserved
- Can handle complex transformations
- Decouples systems from each other
Cons:
- Adds latency (not real-time)
- Doesn't solve operational sync needs directly
- Requires data engineering expertise
- Additional infrastructure to manage
When to use: Your primary need is reporting and analytics across systems, rather than real-time operational sync.
Hybrid approach
Most mature integrations combine approaches: iPaaS for operational sync, data warehouse for analytics, and occasional point-to-point for high-volume or latency-sensitive connections.
A Practical Integration Roadmap
Here's how to approach integration without getting overwhelmed.
Step 1: Map your actual data flows
Don't start with technology. Start with understanding what data actually needs to move where.
Interview the people who work with these systems daily:
- What data do you copy between systems manually?
- What information do you wish you had from another system?
- What breaks when systems get out of sync?
- How time-sensitive is each data flow?
Document specific flows:
- "When a deal closes in Salesforce, we need to create a customer and sales order in NetSuite"
- "When an order ships, we need the tracking number back in Salesforce for the account manager"
- "When a customer address changes in NetSuite, it should update in the logistics system"
Be specific. Vague requirements lead to vague integrations.
Step 2: Define your source of truth
For each type of data, decide which system owns it:
- Customer master data: Usually the CRM for prospect/customer details, ERP for financial data
- Product data: Usually the ERP or a dedicated PIM
- Order data: Usually the ERP once the order is confirmed
- Shipping/logistics data: The logistics platform
- Pricing: The ERP or a dedicated pricing system
When systems conflict, the source of truth wins. Other systems receive updates from it, not the reverse.
This is a business decision, not a technical one. Get stakeholders aligned before you build anything.
Step 3: Start with the highest-pain integration
Don't try to connect everything at once. Pick the integration that's causing the most daily pain:
- The one that consumes the most manual effort
- The one that causes the most errors
- The one that blocks other work
Build that integration first. Get it stable. Learn from it. Then move to the next.
Step 4: Design for failure
Every integration will fail eventually. Networks go down. APIs change. Rate limits get hit. Data validation fails.
Build failure handling from the start:
- Retry logic: Transient failures should retry automatically with backoff
- Dead letter queues: Failed records should go somewhere visible, not disappear
- Alerting: Someone should know when sync fails
- Manual intervention: There should be a way to re-process failed records
- Idempotency: Running the same sync twice shouldn't create duplicates
The integration that handles failure gracefully is worth more than the one that's faster on the happy path.
Step 5: Monitor and maintain
Integration isn't a project; it's an ongoing capability.
Set up monitoring:
- Are syncs running on schedule?
- What's the error rate?
- What's the latency between systems?
- Are there records stuck in error queues?
Schedule regular reviews:
- Are the integrations still meeting business needs?
- Have source systems changed in ways that affect integration?
- Are there new data flows that need to be added?
Budget time and resources for maintenance. Integrations that are "done" and ignored become integrations that break at the worst possible time.
NetSuite-Specific Integration Tips
Since NetSuite is often the centre of wholesale and distribution operations, here are specific considerations:
Use SuiteScript for complex logic
NetSuite's SuiteScript lets you run custom code on NetSuite events. For complex integrations—where you need to validate data, apply business logic, or handle edge cases—SuiteScript is often cleaner than trying to build all the logic externally.
Example: When an order is created, a SuiteScript can validate, transform, and push to your logistics system in a single transaction.
Understand NetSuite's API limits
NetSuite has concurrency limits on API calls. Hit them and your integrations queue up or fail.
Design integrations to:
- Batch records where possible instead of one-at-a-time
- Use async operations for non-urgent syncs
- Schedule heavy syncs during off-peak hours
- Monitor API usage to stay under limits
Leverage saved searches for data extraction
For outbound data flows (NetSuite to other systems), saved searches are often easier than raw API queries. Build a saved search that returns exactly the data you need, then have your integration pull from that.
Watch out for customisation complexity
NetSuite is highly customisable. Custom fields, custom records, custom transactions. Each customisation can affect integrations.
Document your customisations and their integration implications. When someone adds a custom field, ask: does this need to sync anywhere?
Common Integration Mistakes to Avoid
Learn from others' pain:
Syncing too much data
Not everything needs to sync everywhere. Every field you sync is a field that can break, conflict, or confuse.
Sync only what the receiving system actually needs. A logistics system doesn't need customer payment terms. The CRM doesn't need every inventory transaction.
Ignoring data quality
Integration amplifies data quality problems. Garbage in NetSuite becomes garbage in Salesforce becomes garbage in logistics.
Before you integrate, clean your data. Establish data quality rules. Bad integrations often aren't integration problems—they're data problems.
Building for today's volume only
Your integration works great at 100 orders per day. What happens at 1,000? At 10,000?
Design for growth. Batch operations. Async processing. Scalable infrastructure. The integration you build today should handle tomorrow's volume.
Forgetting about people
The best integration is useless if people don't trust it or understand it.
Train users on what to expect. Explain what syncs, when, and how to spot problems. Create runbooks for common issues. The human side of integration matters as much as the technical side.
When to Get Help
Some integration projects are DIY-able. Others need professional help.
Consider expert help when:
- You have more than 3-4 systems to connect
- Data transformations are complex (different structures, business logic)
- Real-time sync is required
- You lack internal development resources
- Previous integration attempts have failed
- The business impact of integration failure is high
The cost of expert help is often less than the cost of a failed DIY attempt. Integration projects that drag on for months, or that work 90% of the time (leaving 10% of records broken), are more expensive than doing it right the first time.
The End State Worth Working Toward
When integration works:
Your team stops being data couriers. Nobody spends their day copying information between systems. They do actual work.
Systems agree with each other. The customer record in the CRM matches the ERP matches logistics. Disputes about "whose data is right" disappear.
Processes flow automatically. Deal closed to order created to inventory allocated to shipment dispatched—without manual steps.
You can trust your data. Reports make sense because they're built on consistent, synchronised data.
Errors get caught, not buried. When something fails, you know immediately. You can fix it before customers notice.
This isn't a fantasy. It's what properly integrated systems look like. And it's achievable without losing your mind—if you approach it systematically.
Struggling to connect your NetSuite, CRM, and logistics systems? Book a call with our team. We've done this before and can help you find the fastest path to integrated operations.
