Key Takeaways from NetSuite’s 2019 Suiteworld

On April 1-4, 2019, Riveron sponsored SuiteWorld in Las Vegas, the largest gathering of NetSuite users, partners and potential customers with over 7,000 people in attendance.  Our Riveron team was there listening to customers, learning more about the product roadmap and advising on leveraging the full capabilities of the platform.  Here are our key takeaways from SuiteWorld 2019:

Continued Investment

We believe Oracle will continue to invest heavily into NetSuite to ensure it is as a leading ERP platform that meets the demands of an ever-evolving economy.  Oracle CEO, Mark Hurd, was part of the keynote stating how the acquisition of NetSuite was, and still is, a great investment.  Having the CEO in attendance speaks to the commitment Oracle has to NetSuite, the continued investment in the product, and the research and development Oracle conducts will benefit NetSuite customers.

Impactful Product Enhancements

NetSuite continues to listen to the voice of the customer by enhancing and adding to its platform.  This year they highlighted SuiteSuccess’ new vertical-specific capabilities, a fully integrated planning and budgeting cloud service (PBCS), international editions and much more.  NetSuite also unveiled multiple enhancements to its existing product suite including new analytics through SuiteAnalytics, enhancements to their ASC 606 revenue recognition module, 30 new extensions to SuiteCommerce, updates to the Oracle Bronto Marketing platform, new SuitePeople capabilities, and additional project management and supply chain automation for extended use in the manufacturing space.

At the event, Brainyard was launched as a tool for companies to assess how they are doing in comparison to other companies in a similar vertical industry leveraging data collected using research, benchmarking, and performance analysis.  Most companies can evaluate how they are doing against their own benchmark but most want to understand how they are doing compared to others in their industry.

Growing Abundance of 3rd Party Tools & SuiteApps

As NetSuite continues to expand in multiple industries, so does the application ecosystem around the platform.  Riveron noticed a large increase of third-party tools and SuiteApps that can extend the application, provide additionally functionality or fill a niche area of need.  Applications around document management, API integration, security and automation tools are being used or evaluated by attendees.  We were able to evaluate these solutions and better understand the partner’s roadmap, so we can guide our clients to the best solution to meet their specific needs.

Continued Growth

With over 16,000 customers NetSuite is gaining more market share and surpassing other ERP platforms.  It was announced there are 21 new country localizations to support customers across the world’s largest economies.  New global trade management capabilities and SuiteTax API show the commitment to establishing a global footprint.  We heard that more companies go public on NetSuite than any other ERP system, demonstrating how NetSuite can scale from the start-up company to a large global publicly traded company.

Users Still Desire More

A consistent theme echoed throughout the conference was that although NetSuite and third-party solutions are feature-rich, user-friendly, and customizable, the technology itself does not solve the customer’s pain or meet the business needs.  It is only when implemented properly with a comprehensive business process review that customers truly get the desired measurable outcome.

Throughout the conference, Riveron met companies who are using NetSuite but need to optimize their environment to ensure they are using the application properly and taking full advantage of the product. In addition, a lot of companies are interested in scaling their current NetSuite instance, and integrating third-party tools to streamline their processes. As a common theme in the discussions, users agreed that in order to meet their expectations, it’s more about the people and process over the technology.

Riveron is able to help companies optimize the NetSuite platform, and other technology platforms— solving real business needs and pain points.