Today NetSuite kicks off its annual customer event, SuiteWorld 2023, again in Las Vegas. NetSuite is now 25 years old, and founder and now executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, Evan Goldberg, kicks off the keynote. Based on the pre-briefings, SuiteWorld 2023 is primarily about doing more with less. NetSuite mainly focuses on a significant efficiency gain.
During the keynote, time is set aside for several announcements. NetSuite, like every other SaaS vendor, is adding generative AI features to its solutions. However, NetSuite is also paying attention to more traditional AI features because generative AI is much more effective when bundled with other AI algorithms.
In addition, NetSuite is introducing new field service management and enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions. There are also noteworthy new features for finance and customer experience professionals focused on better business processes.
Goldberg focuses on where NetSuite came from, the route it has taken, the solutions that have been added and where it stands today. NetSuite provides mid-market solutions and now has more than 37,000 customers. Last year, we brought you a comprehensive interpretation of exactly what that mid-market means and which organizations NetSuite is of interest to.
Suite Up
In addition to doing more with less, Goldberg states that this SuiteWorld is also about Suite Up. Namely, he argues that customers get more results from the various NetSuite solutions. For example, he states that NetSuite customers sell more, up to four times as much, because processes run more smoothly.
He also dwells on organizations that have lots of systems that are not connected and cause problems in, for example, the organization’s financial management. Tying solutions together is essential, but at the same time, NetSuite sees opportunities to bring more solutions to market that further eliminate the need for external tools. If you can do more processes and work from NetSuite and everything is done within that platform, you no longer need all those complex integrations.
NetSuite Enterprise Performance Management
One of them is NetSuite Enterprise Performance Management, Goldberg states that this is originally an Oracle enterprise solution, which NetSuite has adapted for the mid-market and can now be part of the NetSuite platform. These include; Planning and Budgetting, Account Reconciliation, Financial Close Management, Tax Reporting, Narrative Reporting, Profitability and Cost Management.
Planning and Budgetting
With planning and budgeting, AI can monitor all financial planning and forecasting, and it can calculate possible variations. It should make one spend less time analyzing all financial data by simply providing more insights.
Account Reconciliation
As organizations grow, the amount of transactions increases. Eventually, all of these transactions need to be linked to expense or sales records. With Account Reconciliation, millions of transactions can be linked to the correct sales or purchase invoices within seconds.
Tax reporting
This feature doesn’t need much explanation. Organizations that operate in many countries have to file tax reports in all those countries. With Tax reporting this becomes much easier, because NetSuite has studied all the requirements per country and adapted the reports accordingly. You can send tax reports quickly and automatically.
More financial control
NetSuite Bill Capture
Another new important addition to the NetSuite portfolio is NetSuite Bill Capture. According to Goldberg, a new generation of bill capture. This tool is able to scan an entire bill to detect customer data and all line items to automatically enter them into the financial records.
NetSuite Capital
Another tool Goldberg wants to touch on briefly is NetSuite Capital, a solution that can ensure your organization has more liquidity. Simply ensuring that more cash is present, reducing stress and providing a better balance in accounting. Within this solution, customers have features to speed up payments from customers. Making sure invoices and reminders get out faster and automatically. It also works with NetSuite Pay, a solution that allows customers to pay quicker and easier in many different ways.
NetSuite Benchmark 360
More interesting is NetSuite Benchmark 360, a tool that allows you to compare all processes within NetSuite with the many thousands of customers NetSuite has in your industry. So you can better understand how well you are performing compared to other organizations and within your own region. In addition, NetSuite provides tips that allow you, as an organization, to improve processes further and be more successful. NetSuite has also developed several best practices that can help you achieve better results.
The data NetSuite uses for this is anonymized and secure. According to Goldberg, it does offer the best of the NetSuite ecosystem, namely the opportunity to learn from others.
NetSuite gets active in world of Field Service Management
NetSuite is also coming out with a field service management solution, which allows work to be scheduled and performed on-site. It is, of course, fully integrated into the NetSuite platform. So that people in the office can see exactly what the status of field work is, while people on site can see what jobs they still need to do that day.
This also means that there will be more user differences within NetSuite, which is why NetSuite is also coming out with a new licensing model.
New flexible licensing model
People on the road for field service management who need to do repairs or maintenance only need basic features. Like looking at your schedule and completing tasks. Even in a warehouse, the people picking orders are limited users within the NetSuite platform. NetSuite is now addressing that with this flexible licensing model. That should also provide cost savings for some customers.
NetSuite Analytics Warehouse
NetSuite already had the NetSuite Analytics solution, but it is now being expanded to include NetSuite Analytics Warehouse. This solution collects and centralizes data from various sources. With this, it can help organizations visualize all that data with the help of AI. By adding AI, the data can be better understood and visualized. The goal is that this will allow NetSuite customers to discover patterns faster and better understand what is going on in their warehouse, allowing them to make better decisions.
Customer 360 and new NetSuite UI
Also new within NetSuite is Customer 360. An overview of a customer from the CRM where all of the customer’s data is collected and easily displayed within the NetSuite platform. In addition, NetSuite uses generative AI to display a so-called Insight of the customer. This is a brief summary of recent activities within the customer profile.
New within NetSuite Customer 360 is NetSuite’s new corporate identity. After years of research, Oracle presented Redwood in 2019. A design style or theme that should take all Oracle applications to the next level. Within NetSuite, Customer 360 is the first solution to use Redwood. Eventually, all solutions will start using Redwood.
Text Enhance is the first step of generative AI
NetSuite is taking the first step in adding generative AI with Text Enhance. One can simply briefly indicate what should be included in a text, after which the Text Enhance button can be pressed. Depending on the context, a text is then generated. After all, a product page text differs greatly from text on a quotation or in an e-mail towards the customer. We also made a short video of this:
Conclusion
NetSuite celebrates its 25th anniversary and is seizing that moment to take the entire platform to new heights. The number of announcements, new products and features seems to be much more than in past years. The growth of NetSuite as a platform and amount of customers also appears to make the platform grow faster.
We see in all the announcements mainly a line in which more and more is automated, processes are improved or made more efficient, which seems to drive the message of doing more with less an actual reality. Many solutions are available immediately, and some features are coming soon. Customers will start using them, and we will see whether the efficiency gains envisioned by NetSuite will materialize.