Oracle sent me the video of the product session at SuiteWorld which could not be webcast live when I wrote the post Unfair to NetSuite?
Of the 7 webcast keynotes I watched at Oracle MBX/MCX and at SuiteWorld this was the most relevant to me as an analyst. Gary Wiessinger, EVP Products did a nice job covering a wide range of product topics.
Here are some thoughts after watching this session
- Oracle has a nice early testbed for its OCI and autonomous database. 3 years from now NetSuite will look unique in a market where most other application vendors are being platformed on Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba and other clouds. Time will tell whether that flavor of "unique" is something to celebrate.
- Oracle is also helping NetSuite become more global. However, I found the global metrics NetSuite shared a bit confusing. At last year's SuiteWorld they said they had users in 199 countries, this year is was up to 212 countries. Their web site still says 110 countries. Much more important is how many countries they support with functionality, languages and local presence. They said they added 21 new countries with local functionality. Their web site says they support 20 languages. All good progress but would be nice to see how many two-tier implementations they have sold with Oracle apps at HQ. How deep is the local functionality - most countries have provinces, unique nuances.
- Where Oracle does not appear to be helping NetSuite is in verticalization. I saw a slide from SuiteWorld which showed NetSuite supporting 7 verticals - Retail, Wholesale Distribution, Manufacturing, Software, Services, Agencies and Nonpofits. At the last SuiteWorld, Paul Farrell shared with me they were moving into micro-verticals. What Gary showed this year went the other way. They would qualify as two "macro-verticals" - Products and Services. At that level of abstraction, the functionality is largely horizontal. To me, commitment to verticals means showing 2-3 unique operational systems of record in an industry - claims processing in insurance, clinical systems in healthcare etc. - not just a couple of features.
One thing I definitely appreciated - even though it was a bit corny, the beginning of the session had a nice tribute to founder Evan Goldberg, one of the original cloud pioneers who continues to be a nice, approachable executive.
