By Olivia Cahoon
Oracle NetSuite held SuiteWorld18 from April 23 to 27, 2018 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV. As NetSuite’s largest annual conference, the event is designed for NetSuite customers, partners, and developers.
SuiteWorld offers attendees the opportunity to explore NetSuite’s ecosystem, network face-to-face, and contribute to the evolution of cloud computing services. The event’s four-day agenda included one-on-one interviews, keynote speakers, customer spotlights, workshops, and breakout sessions across different subject tracks catered to all levels of users and developers.
Customer Inspiration
SuiteWorld18 kicked off with opening keynote—Ready, Set, Grow—featuring Jim McGeever, executive VP, Oracle NetSuite. McGeever dived into inspirational customer growth stories including the latest NetSuite product launches. With over 175 breakout sessions, NetSuite customers represented 80 percent.
The keynote featured customer speakers Kara Goldin, CEO, hint, Inc.; Rachel Zoe, CEO, Rachel Zoe Inc.; Matthew Prince, CEO, Cloudflare; Sylvie Cosgrove, CIO, Cloudflare; and Mike Brinker, principal, Deloitte Consulting.
In just a decade with NetSuite, hint, Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of unsweetened, fruit flavored water, grew its family-run business into a multimillion dollar company. Started by Goldin, hint selected NetSuite to support its rapid growth in the beverage market, scale business, and ensure products are manufactured as close as possible to the point of distribution.
“To have our voice heard in such a crowded space, we needed to couple all of our startup energy and enthusiasm with business processes that allowed us to operate like a much larger firm. NetSuite has given us a platform to grow our business so that we can focus on delighting our customers,” says Goldin.
With NetSuite, hint avoids IT complexity and automates inventory and order management practices with financial and accounting processes from an early stage.
Debut Products
During the keynote, McGeever announced SuiteCommerce—designed to help businesses launch an online store within 30 days. The ecommerce product enables small businesses that often don’t have time, money, or technical resources needed to seamlessly take their business online using a modular e-commerce platform.
“With SuiteCommerce, businesses can quickly and easily launch, manage, and enhance their ecommerce site. From day one, they get a single, unified solution that supports their entire business and will be the first and last system they will ever need,” says McGeever.
In addition to SuiteCommerce, Oracle NetSuite also announced 14 new editions of SuiteSuccess, 20 major enhancements to its core application, new SuiteAnalytics capabilities, the addition of artificial intelligence and machine learning to the NetSuite Cloud ERP, and localized product capabilities and customer support for businesses in Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, and Mexico. NetSuite is currently available in 199 countries and will be localized in various languages.
The event also examined Oracle’s 2016 acquisition of NetSuite. McGeever shared that the last 18 months have been the company’s best in history including the highest customer retention, employee retention, and customer satisfaction rates.
Mark Hurd, CEO, Oracle, who Skyped into the event, stated that Oracle’s acquisition of NetSuite has gone exactly as they intended it to. “We bought NetSuite to grow NetSuite, take it more globally, add more features, and go into more micro-verticals.”
SuiteWorld Show Flow
The show floor featured 125 NetSuite partners, sponsors, and fast-growing customers that demonstrated how their services and solutions can help attendees succeed.
Customers presented products and services achievable by NetSuite’s offering including Alex’s Lemonade Stand, Blue Microphones, Corkcicle, Enviroscent, Groupon, LootCrate, Philz Coffee, Serena & Lily, and Steiner Sports. Highlighted SuiteWorld18 sponsors like Avalara, avidxchange, celigo, Deloitte Digital, and Dell Boomi presented a variety of solutions including accounts payable automation, digital consultancy, and cloud integration services.
Suite Gurus were also available for customers to receive help with NetSuite questions. Attendees had the opportunity to choose from a range of experts who helped them understand best practices and solve problems.
In addition, Oracle NetSuite added a little fun and entertainment into the event with games, live music, meet and greets with all-star athletes, performers, prizes, and the Gig Rock Show.
Get Connected
During the closing keynote, Jason Maynard, senior VP, strategy and marketing, Oracle NetSuite, offered new methods to help NetSuite customers grow. Earvin “Magic” Johnson, CEO, Magic Johnson Enterprises, joined Maynard and offered insight about his NBA playing career, success as a business man, and role as president of basketball operations for the Lakers.
SuiteWorld18 offered attendees educational and networking opportunities, inspirational customer stories, and a little added fun. We look forward to next year’s event in Las Vegas at the Sands Expo and Convention Center.
For more information about SuiteWorld18, check out the Software Magazine Podcast here.
Jul2018, Software Magazine
