Las Vegas - US-based Oracle NetSuite is introducing localized and Philippine-specific products and methodology within the next two years to expand its market presence in the country beginning with SuiteSuccess, and to scout for partners for its newest accounts payable (AP) Automation in Asia such as for banks and finance companies.
Oracle NetSuite Executive Vice President and Founder, Evan Goldberg said they will increase the company’s exposure in Asia. In the region, its largest market is Japan and in the ASEAN bloc, it is Singapore. The Philippine market is not that significant yet in terms of NetSuite products, but they are maintaining its biggest business process outsourcing operation (BPO) in the country outside of the US.
Goldberg, in a press briefing during the three-day SuiteWorld 2022 global event in Las Vegas said he is confident NetSuite’s presence in the Philippines will grow overtime. “We’ve had successes in the Philippines. (We) have a really strong understanding of the Philippine market and it’s been one of the best performers outside of (main market),” he told journalists and analysts on Wednesday, Sept. 28 (US time).
However, much of NetSuite challenges in bringing in more solutions and products in Asia come from regulatory issues such as taxation, treasury and local compliance to government requirements.
“Every region has its own particular issues we’re trying (to resolve such as accounting and taxes). We’re adding functionalities in countries like India, Australia – it’s not part of Asia but we kind of lump them (with Asia). It’s incredibly diverse and so much going on (for example) in Korea. Obviously laws for every country are all very different,” said Goldberg.
He added that it is a continuous challenge and a step by step process to make sure NetSuite will be able to serve the needs of a particular market that they want to penetrate. “(It’s) making sure that we really serve the needs of the businesses in that country before we start to expand. That’s working with partners, initial pilot customers” to build an effective footprint and platforms, said Goldberg.
Goldberg said that since a new, and upgraded SuiteSuccess is coming soon to the Philippines, it’s an indication that NetSuite considers the country as a mature market, after Japan and Singapore.
Advanced SuiteSuccess
In a separate interview with Manila Bulletin, NetSuite Vice President of Strategy, Just Cowan, said the Philippines is a target market as well as the rest of Asia for its global expansion. “But, because of tax, treasury, local compliance, it would just take time to get there but the goal would be to cover any NetSuite market with these features,” he said.
NetSuite is rolling out an advanced edition for SuiteSuccess for the Philippines and Singapore market. Cowan described SuiteSuccess, which is a methodology with a deep and wide platform, as a product that might be localized for certain markets where NetSuite targets specific conditions for a particular market.
For the Philippines, NetSuite will be releasing a start up financial edition for SuiteSuccess, four years after initially offering its basic version.
“SuiteSuccess is everything from the way the products are built with all the roles, the data, the dashboards, the demo that the customers get to see. (It’s a) whole user experience for the first time they see NetSuite. What they get in the end has been 100 percent built for that market, for that industry. So, SuiteSuccess is kind of the secret sauce of NetSuite. I do know that the Singapore and the Philippines are on the future roadmap,” he said.
As to timelines to the release of the new SuiteSuccess editions, Cowan said: “I will say probably less than two years.”
Basically, Cowan said SuiteSuccess can still be customized and customers can make changes. The most important thing is that the cloud enterprise planning system or ERP implementation comes down from taking a year for large companies down to three months. “For small businesses, (it’s) down to one month. That’s the idea of SuiteSuccess, it takes a complex process for most companies down to a very short period of time,” he said.
With SuiteSuccess, regulatory issues are no longer considered problematic since it will be built-in already. “It would have been already taken cared of. (It’s) prebuilt in a way, almost pre-configured, pre-customized as much as we can until we have to get into companies or specific customers. That’s the idea of SuiteSuccess,” said Cowan.
For now, Cowan said the strategy is centered on its SuiteCloud development network and their partners, and while they are interested to onboard native applications built within NetSuite – “I think for those markets that our products are not released, that’s when we lean on different partners to come in and help us.”
In ASEAN, Philippines and Singapore are considered the more mature markets for NetSuite products, after Japan which is not part of the trade group.
Cowan said they continue to search for partners. NetSuite partners are differently categorized as alliance partners, AP Automation partners, solution partners, BPO partners, SDN partners, among others.
“I think that in Singapore or Philippines or anywhere else in the Asia Pacific region, we do have partners that can help innovate a particular bank or technology, it just wouldn’t be a native solution within a product yet,” he said.
New products for global markets
During the SuiteWorld 2022 event, NetSuite announced several products it will offer such as AP Automation to increase the accuracy and speed of processing bills and making payments.
In a statement, NetSuite said AP Automation is the solution for “time consuming and labor-intensive accounts payable processes”.
“This is the only solution that embeds banking services into a cloud enterprise planning (ERP) system, helping businesses improve profitability by making it easier and faster to process bills and pay vendors all from within NetSuite,” it noted.
NetSuite also announced other new offerings such as NetSuite SuitePeople Workforce Management to assist businesses “manage labor costs and profitability” by enhancing employee engagement by automating routine tasks such as scheduling staff, tracking employee hours worked and calculating wages.
NetSuite also introduced NetSuite Ship Central which is a mobile application to improve warehouse operations, eliminate manual processes, and accelerate customer deliveries.
NetSuite likewise launched NetSuite CPQ or “Configure, Price and Quote Solution” to help companies to grow their sales and to “deliver a seamless buying experience for customers.”