In an age of instant gratification when it comes to information and entertainment, I often complain about how often books are overlooked anymore for learning and reference. Truth be told, print will never be dead, even if “print” will be an outdated term when paper finally does at long last become obsolete. So, I usually look forward to reviewing books. But, Netsuite for Dummies? Really?
I Don’t Hate Them:
I don’t hate the For Dummies line of books, nor do I condescend to them, but I hardly think they’re something that needs reviewing. What really is there to say?
Despite having many authors, all of these books manage to seem like they’re written by the same writer. Unless you read a ton of them, and start to see differences in humor and styles of analogy and so forth, they really are all pretty cookie cutter and samey.
Do they Work:
They’re certainly workable as introductory learning to familiarize yourself with a concept enough to work with it on a basic to medium level. They’ll get you going quickly, and get you being productive sooner than you might be otherwise.
They usually have a lot of useful pictures to show you what you’re doing, and good, jargon-free explanations of why and how things work. So, they do effectively teach, and they use text and visuals to cement the process.
The layout of these books usually has a solid index that makes it easier to jump to the information you need rapidly, which even fancy, expensive text books are often hurting from lacking in.
How about Netsuite:
Netsuite is a very easy system, but if you’re new to CRM, or new to a mostly digital medium, SaaS and modern CRM software can seem like a bit of an abstract concept to come to terms with. So, a beginner’s book on the topic needs to establish a good, down to earth understanding of the more abstract parts of it.
This book … doesn’t do it as well as I think it ought to. This, after I just said there’s little differentiation on these books aside from topic. But, it kind of glosses over those things, and I have to worry that it may result in real true grasp of the whole thing in the long run.
I also have to think the pacing on this one is a bit rushed. While Netsuite for Dummies is obviously meant to be a pretty fast-paced move from zero to moderately informed, this is a bit too fast-paced to really be as effective as it could be.
The Real Problem:
These books will leave you in a limbo between intermediate and advanced, and once you tackle more clinical and advanced literature on the topic to advance further, the major paradigm shift might be a bit jarring.
So, I suggest supplementing this with other introductory materials, if you’re going to tackle intermediate and advanced texts on the topic, to avoid this shock.
Now, I’ve sound a bit down on Netsuite for Dummies, but I still see the good it could do, but I’d hold out for the next revision when they undoubtedly fix that timing and lack of hammering home the abstract.