Evan Goldberg, Founder and EVP at Oracle NetSuite provided the keynote address at the company’s SuiteConnect event in London. Attended by more than 800 people, the company made several announcements including the UK launch of NetSuite Analytics Warehouse. The company says it is the first and only prebuilt data warehouse and analytics solution for NetSuite customers. NetSuite Analytics Warehouse enables organisations in the UK to simplify data management and accelerate time to insights. According to Goldberg, “It brings together, in one place, critical business data like financials and inventory to help make better more informed decisions. It combines your NetSuite data with other sources of data, including the easy import of internal and third-party data.”
Today’s climate is causing enterprises to seriously think about the fundamentals of their business. According to Goldberg, this includes, “Acquiring and growing customers since a business can’t do anything without customers. Creating and delivering great products or services which is why the business exists in the first place. Furthermore, organisations need a fantastic team, and for businesses to be sustainable, they need to optimise cash and profits.”
The new roadblocks for business
Goldberg discussed in detail the numerous challenges faced by businesses including the unpredictability of the supply chain, inflation and labour shortages. “Customers are focusing on the bottom line and making sure they’re efficient and productive everywhere in their business,” he added.
Goldberg highlighted the new roadblocks to business success, particularly in the supply chain. Some brands and retailers are moving their manufacturing, others are moving warehouses to ensure they can get goods to customers. Increasingly, the workforce is working remotely, which involves putting new infrastructures to support this new hybrid approach to work. “Organisations need great tools for collaboration, and customers are meeting brands in new places. As a result, businesses are going online like never before and requiring different types of order management tools to get their product to the customer,” Goldberg added.
Words of advice
To deal with these challenges, business departments often choose the tool that works best for managing specific departmental problems. However, it may solve the immediate issue, but ultimately when departments choose different tools, it can lead to something that Goldberg calls “The hairball”. A mess of tools from different vendors, often generating inconsistent data across different systems that the business needs to manage. According to Goldberg, “The lack of visibility causes more expense and slows everything down. Managers are constantly chasing down data and, consequently, cannot manage the business effectively with this hairball.”
Goldberg advises enterprises need to ensure employees are productive and collaborating to avoid – The Hairball. “They must become agile and flexible in terms of changing the business to the latest changes in the world. We’re urging everyone here at SuiteConnect to go full Suite ahead.”
Focus on user experience
Speaking at a separate media and analyst session at SuiteConnect, Goldberg confirmed NetSuite were focused on the business user experience. “Customers can’t afford expensive training and especially when users are doing so many different things. Oracle is investing heavily in the business user experience. Expect to see many more announcements coming soon. We have announced some of the new connectors and there will be more at the next SuiteWorld Conference in October.”
AI and Machine Learning is also expected to play a key role for NetSuite, as the company positions itself to be more helpful for its business users. The company already has capabilities in areas like the supply chain with a tool called the supply chain control tower. A solution that predicts risk in your supply chain using AI.
Enterprise Times: What this means for business
Full Suite ahead was the main theme of the SuiteConnect event. Evan Goldberg explained to the audience the new ways NetSuite are helping make the day-to-day operations and financial management of businesses easier. The idea is that business managers can spend more time, energy and resources on their company’s key aims and objectives. Needless to say AI and machine learning are expected to play critical roles in future for NetSuite products. The key for the company will be keeping a finger on the pulse of changing trends and needs of customers. Hence today’s SuiteConnect events.
