When you host an event in Las Vegas, people expect you to go big. First class venues, a big audience, awesome presentations, famous key-note speakers, top notch entertainment and of course T-Shirt guns. NetSuite SuiteWorld 2019 completely lived up to these expectations. But that’s not what got us excited the most. The announcement of so many new (food industry focused) functionalities, interface enhancements, customer services, technical optimizations, new productivity tools and integrations between modules is what made our heads explode.
What is SuiteWorld?
SuiteWorld is NetSuite’s annual customer and partner event where new products and services are launched. Just like the previous edition the event was hosted in The Sands Convention Center (part of The Venetian) in Las Vegas. Over 3000 NetSuite customers and partners attended the event.
Fresh new NetSuite stuff
The automatic upgrading process of NetSuite 2019.1 is in full affect at this moment. So, what are the new features in 2019.1 that were emphasized during the key-notes and general product session? Planning and Budgeting, TAX-enhancements, the new user interface and the incredible power of SuiteAnalytics were touched on extensively. NetSuite also showed us what they are working on in future releases. Unleashing the potential and power of the suite itself to be exact, by integrating all elements (HR, WMS, e-Commerce, CRM, etc) by means of SuiteAnalytics (BI).
For example: keeping track of employee performance in SuitePeople by importing WMS-data and analyzing this data with SuiteAnalytics. This way you will get insight in how fast individual employees pick orders, how many errors they make and what time they are inactive in between. This data is displayed with clear graphs in SuitePeople and helps you decide what to do with these employees. Do they need more individual training, or do you need to take a closer look at the picking process in general?
Another example: SuiteAnalytics can help you optimize the way items in a SuiteCommerce webshop are displayed, by integrating CRM-data. This way items with the most margin or fast runners can be shown on top for example, and personalized interfaces with relevant displayed items will be shown for B2B and B2C customers that visit the website (as a logged-in guest of course).
Another cool feature that they are working on is the NetSuite assistant for time entry. This is a chat-app on your phone in which you can give NetSuite orders. NetSuite will check the time and your geographical location and propose what to register (by checking your agenda and Outlook-items). You only have to confirm. Great functionality for companies who have people out in the field.
NetSuite for the food industry
Unlike most generic ERP-systems, NetSuite really focusses on specific industries by providing them a rich out-of-the-box package that contains pre-configured functionalities, KPI’s, dashboards, reports and an implementation methodology. They call this bundle of sweetness SuiteSucces. In the US they released a SuiteSucces version for the food manufacturing industry, which will also become available in Europe. During a break-out session dedicated to the roadmap for Warehouse Distribution and Manufacturing, NetSuite announced an incredible amount of upcoming enhancements and new features for the food industry. This makes it for us, as a 100% food focused NetSuite partner, so much easier to provide our customers with a complete solution.
NetSuite Brainyard
As a marketing driven organization, I really got excited about a new initiative from NetSuite called Brainyard. This free service helps NetSuite customers with dedicated business research and benchmarking. NetSuite Brainyard consists of three elements: business research, benchmark data and performance analysis & advice. Business research includes state-of-the-industry reports covering seven industries, while Benchmark Data has business insights from 16,000 NetSuite customers and third-party business performance data. Performance analysis and advice offers practical guidance on how to improve your organization.
NetSuite entertainment
NetSuite is known for its lighter take on key-note presentations compared to competitors like Microsoft and SAP. The suite is more accessible and fun to work with, so why shouldn’t that reflect on the presentations and marketing in general? Style over substance as ‘famous social media guru’ Han Guy Sie would preach. To be honest, I had some good laughs during the key-note with comedian Jason Sudeikis, but he didn’t add much to the substance. Perhaps key-note speaker on Day 2 Shaquille O’Neill (DJ Diesel for friends) said it best when he was asked what he was up to these days: “I try to make people happy with whatever they are doing.” This quote matches the NetSuite philosophy spot-on: We want to help people succeed with whatever they are doing.
During SuiteWorld several regional subsidiaries and partners hosted parties. I was lucky enough to be invited the incredible NetSuite EMEA party hosted by Lisa Walden, along with my friends from BlueHorseShoe. But the absolute highlight was Glofest at Club KAOS (The Palms Casino). Great party, great location, great catering and of course the one and only DJ Diesel. Iggy Azealia also took the stage for two songs, but she’s no DJ Diesel.
SuiteWorld, you were amazing, see you next year.
Blog by: Frank Bolt