Tech-Powered Growth: Highlights of SuiteWorld 2021
Riveron experts recap highlights from Oracle NetSuite’s 2021 SuiteWorld conference, including three critical superpowers for growth and pillars of successful technology implementations.
In support of this year’s largest gathering of NetSuite users and partners, Riveron sponsored Oracle NetSuite’s annual conference, SuiteWorld. Among the many compelling sessions and conversations at the event in Las Vegas, NetSuite founder Evan Goldberg’s visionary discussion centered on growth, and he noted that technology can supercharge businesses in three critical ways.
GROWTH SUPERPOWER #1
Automation drives velocity
Manual and repetitive tasks result in employee fatigue, furthering an already strained labor force. By contrast, a successful modern finance approach requires automation —and more. To automate processes strategically with technology, organizations must fully adopt the concept to elevate the type of work conducted by professionals, especially for those within accounting and finance functions. Strategic technology implementations and integrations will drive a successful future state across several scenarios, whether a company becomes a public entity, acquires a new business, or grows organically or otherwise. Automation within a business process will not only offer efficiencies from initial quote to final payment and beyond, but it will also ultimately reshape the role of the accounting and finance function as a driver of proactive business decisions and overall profitability.
GROWTH SUPERPOWER #2
Insights are revealed through data
Approached properly, insights enabled by data can sharpen a company’s ability to compete, although data can also be a pitfall in scenarios such as integrations, in which companies are often enticed by information while being unable to sift through all the digital chaos. Because data-related practices differ highly between companies, achieving high-quality data can be particularly challenging during an acquisition integration. When used with care, data can help a company wade through the diverse set of decisions and criteria used to make proactive, strategic business decisions. And despite the possible pitfalls or challenges, insights are necessary fuel for businesses, and leaders today must take action to optimize each organization’s data and its supporting technologies.
GROWTH SUPERPOWER #3
Agility ensures adaptability
Agility is not merely an approach for technology projects; when used successfully, agility is a mindset that can reshape the way businesses respond to customer needs and help organizations remain relevant. Companies seeking next-level growth need to enact agile methods to guide business strategy, meet customer needs, and realize (sometimes unforeseen) full growth potential. Particularly in today’s market, as a competitive labor market continues, companies should ensure adaptability exists to contend with one certainty: constant change.
Realizing a vision for growth aided by technology
Beyond this year’s conversations surrounding growth superpowers, participants at SuiteWorld examined current pain points of users and gained insight regarding the product roadmap for NetSuite. In addition, Riveron’s team presented a session on relevant approaches for using this technology to enable business success.
THE ROADMAP
Looking ahead, NetSuite seeks to make enhancements that will help companies automate, gain insight, and adapt
NetSuite announced some new features to support the benefit and vision of utilizing the three critical superpowers of growth. Future product enhancements have been designed to help steer organizations through current business conditions, such as newly-announced automation for accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) functions, analytics, and banking connectivity. The new enhancements will assist with operational efficiency, which is particularly helpful during a time when many businesses are contending with labor scarcity.
User organizations may wish to engage an implementation partner that offers broad capabilities, expertise in business processes, and tap into NetSuite’s latest product enhancements. Companies will be able to realize maximum return on investments (ROI) on technology and gain more efficient workflows by using the technology to harness key strengths across people, processes, and technology.
APPROACHES FOR SUCCESS
The right implementation approach can help businesses grow
Regardless of the reasons for scaling up, businesses today are finding it increasingly important to transform organizations, and critical initiatives are often anchored to the three critical superpowers highlighted at this year’s conference: automation, data-backed insights, and agility.
Revealing some of the strategic and tactical ways that organizations can enact change and realize new possibilities, Riveron presented a session title Acquisition Integration and Complex Transformation Powered by NetSuite, which examined how clients often work with advisory partners to approach transformative engagements.
The session discussion underscored a business-first approach to implementing complex NetSuite solutions, and the pillars of successful implementations include (1) program governance, (2) effective business process design, (3) integrated systems and information, (4) advanced data and analytics, (5) data migration, and (6) upskilling people and capabilities.
When organizations and implementation advisors focus on these six pillars, implementing NetSuite can offer a scalable platform to support rapid growth, whether organic or growth through acquisition.
When implementing technology, an effective business process design is of key importance, and companies and their advisory teams should fully examine the procure-to-pay, and record-to-report, and quote-to-cash processes. For example teams can start from the beginning at the quoting process, then examine how the orders will flow into the system procurement, to payment, through recording and reporting those transactions. A full end-to-end business process review is essential in complex transformation scenarios to allow implementations teams to properly understand the needs and goals of the business and allow platforms such as NetSuite to be tailored in appropriate and scalable ways.
The combination of pillars outlined in this framework can also help organizations stay on track (aligning efforts to business outcomes) while ensuring budgetary and timeline success. To take a deeper dive into this approach and learn how several clients successfully implemented NetSuite technology, watch the full session recording.
