Customer: BioSafe Systems · Industry: Chemical Manufacturing · Solution: eXtendFiles · NetSuite customer since 2014
At a Glance
| The challenge | NetSuite file cabinet at 98 GB of a 100 GB limit and facing a potential service tier upgrade |
| The solution | eXtendFiles connected to Amazon S3, plus a nightly migration routine for RF-SMART warehouse images |
| Annual savings | $60,000 by avoiding the service tier upgrade |
| File cabinet usage | Down from 98% to under 30% |
| Warehouse impact | Every outbound shipment is now photographed across four warehouse locations |
About BioSafe Systems
BioSafe Systems is a family-owned manufacturer of biodegradable crop protection, sanitation, and water treatment products, headquartered in East Hartford, Connecticut. The company specializes in peroxyacetic acid products and biopesticides serving agriculture, horticulture, animal health, and water treatment markets.
With approximately 80 employees and $40 million in annual revenue, BioSafe has run on NetSuite since 2014. Nearly the entire company works in NetSuite every day, along with 10 warehouse and manufacturing users spread across four warehouse locations. Documents such as picking tickets, bills of lading, product images, and shipping paperwork are exchanged with most of BioSafe’s customers and vendors.
The Challenge: A NetSuite File Cabinet 60 Days From Full
After a decade on NetSuite, BioSafe’s file cabinet had become what their NetSuite administrator describes as “an unorganized dumping ground for files.” There was no consistent folder structure, files were frequently misfiled, and there was no good way to search for or query documents.
Then there was the storage problem. BioSafe’s file cabinet had grown to more than 98 GB of its 100 GB allowance. Based on their file cabinet growth rate, they were probably less than 60 days away from facing a costly service tier upgrade with NetSuite.
That upgrade would have moved BioSafe to a Premium Tier Cloud Service at an added cost of roughly $60,000 per year, not for any new functionality, but simply to keep storing files. (For more on how NetSuite storage tiers work, see our guide to NetSuite file storage limits.)
The administrator tried to solve the problem manually first by cleaning up old files and freeing about 10 GB. But with new documents and images accumulating every day, cleanup alone could never keep pace.
Warehouse images made the problem worse
A major source of that growth was the warehouse. BioSafe wanted photographic proof of every product leaving its facilities, often palletized and carefully wrapped for shipment, along with images of picking tickets and bills of lading.
Before the project, that process was painful. Warehouse staff used personal cell phones to take photos, emailed the images to themselves or moved them to a computer, and then uploaded them to NetSuite by hand. Every one of those images landed in the already-overflowing file cabinet.
At the same time, BioSafe was also starting to roll out RF-SMART with it’s image capture feature on company-issued handheld devices to modernize this process. It would make capturing images far easier, which also meant the file cabinet would fill up even faster.
Why BioSafe Chose eXtendFiles
BioSafe had one firm requirement beyond solving the storage problem: the solution had to be a ‘Built For NetSuite’ application offered by an established NetSuite SuiteCloud Developer Network (SDN) partner. Their NetSuite consulting partner, BSPNY, strongly recommended the eXtendFiles SuiteApp. Just as important was confidence in the team behind the product.
“Working with a long-time SDN partner that came highly recommended by our NetSuite consulting firm was very comforting as a NetSuite administrator. I felt really good with the people I worked with at eXtendTech. They offered a great solution that was a great fit for our needs. They were confident, and that made me comfortable: ‘This is what we do, this is what we’re good at.'”
-Paula Boeglin, NetSuite Administrator
Because eXtendFiles is storage-agnostic, BioSafe wasn’t locked into a single cloud provider. eXtendTech’s delivery manager walked the team through every storage option to handle their requirements, and BioSafe chose Amazon S3 as its external storage.
The administrator gathered the details and presented the solution internally, and BioSafe’s CFO approved the purchase. As the administrator puts it, “the trust factor with eXtendTech was key in the decision-making process.”
The Implementation: Solving Two Hard Problems
1. Migrating and normalizing years of legacy files
Over the years, BioSafe’s NetSuite account had accumulated many custom, non-normalized hyperlink fields pointing to files on transaction records. The eXtendTech team migrated these legacy files out of the file cabinet in groups, moved them into eXtendFiles, and tagged each one with a custom file type matching the type of document it represented, such as bills of lading, shipping labels, and picking tickets.
The result was a consistent, normalized way of attaching files to records. With eXtendFiles in place, it no longer mattered how many files were linked to a NetSuite record. (Planning a similar project? Read our guide to NetSuite file storage migration.)
2. Keeping RF-SMART images out of the file cabinet
The images captured by warehouse personnel required special handling. eXtendFiles offers an API that lets applications bypass the NetSuite file cabinet entirely, but the RF-SMART application could not be customized to call it. To make matters more complex, RF-SMART saved images into multiple different file cabinet folders.
The eXtendTech technical team built and deployed custom migration scripts that run every night, picking up the images that RF-SMART captured that day and relocating them through eXtendFiles to BioSafe’s Amazon S3 storage. Each image stays linked to its NetSuite record, whether an Item Receipt, Item Fulfillment, Work Order, or Assembly Build, while the file itself no longer consumes file cabinet space.
Training built around the people using it
Operations and customer service team members received formal eXtendFiles training and helped decide which document classifications (file types) BioSafe would configure. Warehouse users were trained twice: once when eXtendFiles went live, and again after RF-SMART was rolled out.
Because users helped shape the setup, adoption came quickly. They saw immediately that documents were easy to find on NetSuite records instead of being buried under the native Communications tab.
The Results
$60,000 a year saved, and a file cabinet that stays under 30%
eXtendFiles allowed BioSafe to avoid the Premium Tier upgrade entirely, saving roughly $60,000 per year. With the nightly migration routine running, file cabinet usage has dropped from over 98% to under 30 GB, about 30% of capacity, and it stays there.
Every shipment documented, across four warehouses
With RF-SMART handhelds and eXtendFiles working together, warehouse users at all four locations capture more images, faster, and can upload several at once.
“Unlike before we implemented, everything is now being captured before things go out the door.”
Anyone can find any file
Documents are now clearly visible on NetSuite records, and eXtendFiles image thumbnails let users preview files directly from list views and saved searches without opening them.
“Being able to search and locate files has become so much easier leveraging saved searches. With eXtendFiles, anyone in our organization can easily find files and is no longer wasting time searching through the NetSuite file cabinet.”
Adoption that exceeded expectations
The biggest surprise wasn’t technical.
“While I was confident in the eXtendFiles application and the team delivering it, I was pleasantly surprised how well our team members accepted and adopted it, especially in our warehouses. I had no idea it was going to be as easy as it was for our end users.”
Users particularly appreciated the SuiteApp’s native-first approach: eXtendFiles works inside NetSuite rather than sending people to a separate system.
For the NetSuite administrator, the payoff is simple:
“The best part of implementing their solution is that I no longer have to worry about files or file storage.”
What’s Next for BioSafe
BioSafe also does bespoke equipment manufacturing and plans to explore the eXtendFiles Collaboration Edition for sharing and managing project documents with outside parties, the same capability that helped Vault Pressure Control cut PO approval time in half.
Advice for Other NetSuite Customers
Asked what she’d tell a peer struggling with NetSuite file management, BioSafe’s administrator didn’t hesitate:
“It’s a no-brainer. Talk to the eXtendTech experts and trust in what they say.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens when a NetSuite file cabinet reaches its storage limit? Once a NetSuite account exceeds its file cabinet allowance, the customer typically has to purge files or move to a higher service tier. For BioSafe Systems, that meant an upgrade to a Premium Tier costing roughly $60,000 per year.
Can NetSuite files be stored in Amazon S3? Yes. eXtendFiles connects NetSuite to external storage including Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, SharePoint, Google Cloud, Dropbox, Box, and Oracle Cloud. Files stay linked to their NetSuite records while the data lives in the external storage.
Does eXtendFiles work with RF-SMART image capture? Yes. At BioSafe, RF-SMART captures warehouse images into the file cabinet, and a scheduled nightly routine moves them through eXtendFiles to Amazon S3, keeping them linked to Item Receipts, Item Fulfillments, Work Orders, and Assembly Builds.
Can existing NetSuite file cabinet files be migrated to cloud storage? Yes. BioSafe migrated its legacy files, including files referenced by custom URL fields on transaction records, into eXtendFiles and classified each by document type during the migration.
Is Your NetSuite File Cabinet Filling Up?
If your file cabinet is approaching its limit, or your team is tired of digging for documents, eXtendFiles can help you avoid costly service tier upgrades while making files easier to find.