Goldberg: Practical value key for AI in NetSuite ERP

NEW YORK -- NetSuite ERP is regarded as one of the first SaaS business application platforms. The company rode the internet wave to growth by serving several of the growing companies that also launched at the time.

While NetSuite pioneered the market for cloud-based ERP, the market has evolved in size, number of players and emerging tech such as the onset of large language models (LLMs). NetSuite's customers are primarily companies that want comprehensive applications that take a practical approach to new technologies, according to Evan Goldberg, NetSuite's co-founder and executive vice president at Oracle NetSuite.

Evan Goldberg

At the Oracle NetSuite SuiteConnect Conference earlier this month, Goldberg discussed the current state of innovative technologies such as generative AI for business applications and how NetSuite ERP takes advantage of developments by its corporate parent, Oracle.

Editor's note: This Q&A has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

NetSuite is one of the first SaaS ERP companies. What are some highlights of the development of SaaS ERP, particularly for the SMBs that NetSuite targets?

Evan Goldberg: You can't overstate the impact of the internet over [NetSuite's] 27 years. We've seen companies that could have never been formed before it, new types of companies and new business models based on the internet, companies that never could have scaled as quickly before. They scale not only just in their business's size, but also in the complexity of the business. Manufacturers know that they have to sell to retailers, but they also want to sell directly through their own store. They're doing that at a much earlier stage, so that scaling and complexity -- some based on the internet, some on changes in the market and having to compete with the likes of Amazon in that level of convenience -- has been a big challenge for fast-growing companies. That's what we've had to respond to over the years.

How will AI, particularly generative AI, change things?

Goldberg: I anticipate that AI will have a similar impact on businesses and how they interact with customers. We all know how terrible it is to call one of these customer service lines. Those are going to get much better, and that represents a great opportunity for small companies to be able to provide a high level of service without having to create a big expensive service organization. AI presents similar types of opportunities to fast-growing companies, but if they don't take advantage of these opportunities, they risk being eclipsed by other companies that do.

How can you demonstrate that AI is providing value to NetSuite ERP customers?

Goldberg: We're trying to be practical about it and figure out where this new technology can have the most impact in the system. We listen to our customers who say things like, 'We find it hard to build the reports that we want because it's a complex system and we need to know where all the data is.' That's what these LLMs are very good at -- sifting through lots of data and figuring out how to surface the right things. That's where something like [NetSuite's CPQ AI Assistant] comes in, which enables users to have a conversation to deal with the complexity of configuring products. You want [to assist users] through an agent that's 'looking over your shoulder' to make sure that you're aware of all the [configuration] possibilities.

How does NetSuite collaborate with Oracle to take advantage of technology like AI?

Goldberg: The collaboration with Oracle happens on several levels. First, Oracle builds business software for giant enterprises, and there are a lot of things that are different between giant enterprises and fast-growing, small-to-midsize businesses, but there are a lot of similarities as well. [Some NetSuite features] have taken some of the advances [Oracle has made] for very large companies like Enterprise Performance Management and Autonomous Data Warehouse and scaled them to be appropriate for our customers, both in price and complexity. On AI, Oracle is applying enormous resources to AI, and all of the AI that we surface in NetSuite comes from OCI Generative AI services. This is Oracle's tool that lets you use AI flexibly and securely with different LLMs inside Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. NetSuite is served from OCI, so your data never leaves that environment.

There's a trend with ERP systems toward more industry verticality. Does NetSuite ERP offer editions for specific industries?

Goldberg: A lot of [NetSuite ERP] features are horizontal -- some things like CPQ [configure, price and quote] or field service management apply to a smaller set of industries. But these hybrid companies don't always classify as clearly into a certain vertical. They may start out in manufacturing, but then move into retail. Nevertheless, there are a lot of commonalities, and we address that with SuiteSuccess, an edition of NetSuite that's tailored for your type of business, your size, your geography and the industry you're in. There are SuiteSuccess versions for wholesale distribution, manufacturing, retail and several more. We bundle together the best practices that we've learned from working with thousands of companies that are alike. NetSuite is flexible and agile in terms of customizing the system, but you don't want to do this everywhere. It's about being able to marry standard functionality that's appropriate for your industry and specialized functionality that's specifically for you because that's where you differentiate.

Customizations can be an issue for enterprises that have on-premises ERP systems. How does NetSuite deal with customizations as a SaaS ERP provider?

Goldberg: We have ensured that any customizations you make in NetSuite will work forever across upgrades. You wake up in the morning and have all these new NetSuite features [in a new version], but your customizations all still work. Everyone's on the same version of NetSuite, so we can't leave anyone behind. With on-premises products, people get stuck in old versions because they did a customization that doesn't work in the new version.

Jim O'Donnell is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget who covers ERP and other enterprise applications.