We’re live in Las Vegas for the second day of SuiteWorld 2022, the annual conference hosted by ERP and CRM company Oracle NetSuite.
Yesterday, we heard from Evan Goldberg, EVP and founder of NetSuite, who announced a raft of platform updates spanning finance and accounting, sales, HR, ecommerce and more.
But in today’s keynote, we’re set to find out more about the company’s product roadmap and its focus for the year ahead.
In the meantime, check out our in-depth coverage of the event so far:
- NetSuite’s latest addition could be a blessing for firms on a shoestring budget
- NetSuite founder: I’m not worried about the smaller players
- NetSuite to automate one of the most painful business tasks
- NetSuite upgrade could breathe new life into struggling sales operations
Welcome to SuiteWorld 2022
We’re live at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas for the first day of SuiteWorld 2022 and this reporter will be bringing you all the latest NetSuite announcements from the show.
We’ll also be speaking with from spokespeople responsible for product and go-to-market strategy at NetSuite, who will no doubt be eager to tell us what they’ve been working on.
Over the course of the event, we’ll be updating this blog with coverage of the two main keynote addresses (starting at 09:00 PT/18:00 BST on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29), so bookmark this page or stay tuned.
Opening keynote
We’re in place at Caesars Forum, waiting for the opening keynote to begin. We’ll be hearing from Evan Goldberg, NetSuite founder, as well as other executives about the latest upgrades coming to the company’s ERP platform.
As ever, the emphasis will be on streamlining accounting functions, automating core business processes and helping customers make sense of their data.
Strangely, while we wait, we’re being treated to a remix of ‘Hits from the Bong’, by Cypress Hill.
There’s now a troop of neon drummers on stage, and a few guys doing BMX tricks. Good old IT conferences…
Evan Goldberg on stage
NetSuite EVP and founder, Evan Goldberg, takes to the stage to kick off the session.
To illustrate the breadth of the NetSuite offering, Goldberg begins with an anecdote about an organization that faces problems across accounting, sales, inventory management and more as it attempts to scale.
The updates we’ll hear about today are designed to address precisely these challenges.
Announcement: NetSuite CPQ
Off the back of the acquisition of Verenia earlier this year, NetSuite is launching an upgrade for its platform designed to help companies navigate complex sales processes with greater ease.
NetSuite CPQ is a new service that is said to make it simpler for sales teams to configure, price and quote (CPQ) their products to a high degree of accuracy.
By introducing a greater level of efficiency to the pricing process, NetSuite hopes to save customers from time-consuming administrative tasks (such as double-checking product configurations) and increase profitability.
For more, read our full write-up here.
Announcement: NetSuite Ship Central
To help companies streamline inventory management and expedite picking and packing, NetSuite is launching Ship Central, described as an “end-to-end” shipping solution.
By giving warehouse workers access to new packing and shipping facilities both on mobile or kiosk, NetSuite thinks it can help customers optimize fullfilment operations and eliminate manual processes.
Announcement: SuitePeople Workforce Management
Next up, something for the HR department. NetSuite is rolling out a new service to help organizations create shift schedules in a simple way, from a single dashboard.
The service also forecasts demand, to predict how many employees will be needed to deliver optimal customer experience. “We’re finally done with the paper punch cards,” Goldberg explains.
Announcement: NetSuite AP automation
This is perhaps the most significant update of the lot. NetSuite has detailed a platform expansion that should help accelerate the arduous accounts payable (AP) process for customers.
NetSuite AP Automation is described as “the only solution that embeds banking services into a cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) system”.
The objective is to make it simpler and quicker to process bills and execute vendor payments from within NetSuite, thereby taking the pain out of one of the most time-consuming accounting tasks.
For more details, read our full write-up here.
NetSuite AP Automation is now available in the US, with the first 1,000 customers set to benefit from a 50% discount.
That appears to be the end of the product updates. Goldberg is about to welcome to the stage a number of customers to talk about their experience with the platform.
The customers and partners spoke about a variety of challenges, from complexities involved in tax processes, to the need to drive efficiency as the economic environment becomes more challenging, to speedbumps involved in the shift towards ecommerce.
Pitch competition
NetSuite has now invited to the stage three startups, which will pitch to a panel of judges, including Goldberg. Apparently, each have earned a place in the company’s incubation program.
- Chipper: a service that helps students pay off their debt and apply for “forgiveness” programs
- OpticSurg: a platform designed to give a broader selection of people access to high-quality healthcare
- UInclude: a company focused on providing inclusive writing training for employees
“The accelerator program is designed to help startups by putting NetSuite in their hands at the earliest possible moment,” says NetSuite.
“We’re also using our talent and resources to enable the growth of a diverse range of entrepreneurs in the earliest stage. Startups are the future of our industry.”
Keynote comes to a close
“Today, I talked about what’s happening now. Tomorrow, you’ll hear what’s happening next,” says Goldberg, as he brings the opening keynote to a close.
Later today, the press will have a chance to pose questions to Goldberg directly.
Goldberg speaks to the press
Following this morning’s keynote, Goldberg fielded questions from the press on a variety of topics. Here are a few of the most interesting soundbites:
On customer priorities:
“In an environment in which it’s hard to find skilled people, you want the ones you do have to be as productive as possible. Right now, it’s all about minimizing the burden of manual processes.”
“Companies should be able to expect to make the most bang for their buck from the new hires they bring on.”
On implementation challenges:
“Generally, unlike many vendors, we try to show you during the sales process exactly what you’ll be using. Instead of showing a facade, [then building from scratch when the customer makes a purchase], we demo exactly what you’re going to get.”
On acquisition strategy:
“With our acquisitions, we’re trying to help customers do things more easily, to eliminate manual processes. The most important thing is how well we’ll be able to integrate them into NetSuite.”
On potential to be ‘out-flanked’ by smaller specialists:
“We’ve spent a lot of energy on making sure NetSuite can scale, but we’ve got to make sure customers aren’t losing anything when they come to us.”
“But I’m not worried [about the smaller players]…because of our scale and sophistication.”
That’s your lot from day one of SuiteWorld, but we’ll be back tomorrow with coverage of the second keynote, in which NetSuite will offer a glimpse of the projects it’ll be working on in the months to come.
Good morning from SuiteWorld
It’s day two of SuiteWorld 2022 and we’re here at Caesars Forum covering the main sessions.
To recap, NetSuite yesterday unveiled a raft of updates to its platform, designed (as ever) to help customers streamline and automate business processes across a range of functions.
The headline announcement was the introduction of AP automation, a new service that automates the accounts payable process. The objective is to make it simpler and quicker to process bills and execute vendor payments from within NetSuite, thereby taking the pain out of one of the most time-consuming accounting tasks.
We’ll soon be heading into the day’s main keynote session, which should tell us more about the company’s vision and product roadmap for the year ahead.