The NetSuite Podcast

In this episode of the NetSuite Podcast at SuiteWorld 2025, we are joined by the NetSuite Customer Success team to discuss how they are helping businesses unlock the power of AI. The conversation marks an exciting milestone with the launch of NetSuite Customer Success AI Services! Nat Rosenthal, GVP of customer success at NetSuite, and Reg Singh, vice president of education services at NetSuite, share how customers can optimize their use of the suite with our education services including NetSuite Advanced Customer Support, Learning Cloud Support, and more.

On this episode of the NetSuite Podcast at SuiteWorld 2025, Craig Sullivan, GVP of product management at NetSuite, and Patrick Puck, GVP of AI strategy, engineering, and design at NetSuite, share how the next generation of NetSuite is here.

Brian Chess, senior vice president of technology and AI at NetSuite, and Gary Wiessinger, senior vice president of application development at NetSuite, join the NetSuite Podcast at SuiteWorld 2025 to share the latest product updates coming to the suite, and how AI in NetSuite is designed to meet you where you work, helping your business improve efficiency, clarity, and growth. They'll dive into how NetSuite is a platform where AI automates workflows, accelerates close times, and delivers predictive insights across finance and operations. Plus, they share how these latest updates are changing the way customers interact with NetSuite, and where the future of NetSuite is headed.

Get a sneak peak into the SuiteWorld 2025 product keynote! In this exclusive pre-keynote NetSuite Podcast, we'll preview what you can expect from the SuiteWorld 2025 product keynote. Hear what's ahead as Brian Chess, senior vice president of technology and AI at NetSuite, and product leaders gear up to reveal groundbreaking AI features and enhancements. Plus, learn about real-world success stories from EALgreen and Continental Battery Systems, who are using AI to break through business barriers. Tune in to discover how NetSuite is redefining what's possible for organizations everywhere!

At SuiteWorld 2025, the NetSuite Podcast welcomed Tim Naddy, vice president of finance at the Savannah Bananas, and Nick Araco, founder of CFO Alliance, for a dynamic conversation on finance leadership, innovation, and growth. Together, they shared how bold financial strategies can fuel creativity while keeping the business sustainable. Tim discusses what makes the Savannah Bananas more than a baseball team—how they scaled from selling just a few tickets to selling out major league stadiums nationwide, while also running merchandise, media, and live entertainment operations. He explains how NetSuite provides the foundation to manage multiple revenue streams and operational complexity while maintaining focus on fans and growth. Nick reflects on building CFO Alliance into a trusted network for finance leaders and shares how CFOs are navigating today's toughest challenges—from scaling globally to embracing AI. Both guests emphasize the importance of CFOs as storytellers who must balance data-driven insights with clear communication to drive organizational impact.

Kimberlee Duval, vice president of finance at Cymbiotika and Sam Levy, senior vice president of growth strategy at NetSuite, join the NetSuite Podcast at SuiteWorld 2025 to discuss the journey of one of the fastest-growing wellness brands. From rapid direct-to-consumer growth to breaking into major retailers like Target, Cymbiotika has transformed how it operates while staying true to its mission. Kimberlee shares how the finance team guided the move to NetSuite to support global expansion, streamline order management, and manage the complexities of sourcing ingredients across multiple currencies. With more than a dozen NetSuite implementations under her belt, Kimberlee explains how ERP has been the foundation for Cymbiotika's growth, including the role of NetSuite Advanced Customer Support (ACS) in driving ongoing success. Sam provides perspective on how NetSuite helps businesses like Cymbiotika navigate operational change, adopt AI, and scale efficiently. Together, they discuss how NetSuite's unified platform simplifies distribution, marketing, and financial management, while unlocking the flexibility wellness brands need to adapt to evolving business models.

Get a sneak peek into the SuiteWorld 2025 executive keynote! In this exclusive pre-keynote NetSuite Podcast, we'll reveal what's in store as Sam Levy, NetSuite's SVP of growth and strategy, is joined by industry leaders from Cymbiotika LLC, Savannah Bananas, Granite Partners, and Shopify. Discover the key topics and customer stories that will be highlighted—ranging from funding growth to global expansion—and learn how these businesses are thriving with an unstoppable "no limits" mindset. Tune in to get inspired and make the most of SuiteWorld 2025!

From the keynote stage to the podcast studio, Evan Goldberg, NetSuite founder and executive vice president, joins the NetSuite Podcast at SuiteWorld 2025! He shares why NetSuite was built for AI and dives deeper into the exciting AI innovations and product updates coming to the suite. He shares how NetSuite has evolved from its early days above a hair salon to becoming the world's leading cloud ERP where business meets AI. Evan explains how NetSuite is helping businesses unleash the power of artificial intelligence and looks ahead to the future of NetSuite and AI.

John Herman, founder and CEO of BERO, joins the NetSuite Podcast at SuiteWorld 2025 to share how the fast-growing beverage brand is redefining what it takes to scale in today's competitive consumer market. From the early conversation with Tom Holland that sparked the idea for BERO, to expanding into major retailers like Target, John shares the pivotal moments that shaped the company's journey, and how the company has been using NetSuite since day one to gain a foundation of clarity, efficiency, and agility—helping the business make faster, better decisions.

Join us on the NetSuite Podcast for a front-row seat to all the excitement of SuiteWorld 2025! We're bringing you exclusive conversations with NetSuite executives and customers, along with a look at the latest product innovations and AI enhancements coming to the suite, and what this year's theme of "No Limits" means for our customers. Discover how leaders across industries are using NetSuite to drive growth, manage complexity, and prepare for an AI-powered future. From global expansion strategies to financial transformation and supply chain optimization, these conversations highlight how businesses are adapting to change and unlocking new opportunities. You'll also hear about the latest updates to NetSuite products, including how AI is embedded to improve efficiency, enhance decision-making, and empower teams to achieve more with less complexity. Whether it's executive perspectives, customer success stories, or a preview of product advancements, the NetSuite Podcast delivers the insights you need to prepare your business for what's ahead.  

Learn more about NetSuite for software companies: https://tinyurl.com/47pfsx78   In this episode of the NetSuite Podcast, cohost Ian McCue sits down with Pate Henderson, executive director of finance and administration at OPIE Software, a practice management software provider for prosthetics and orthotics clinics. They start the episode by discussing OPIE Software and its mission [1:55]. Pate then dives into the company's adoption of NetSuite and why it was the "Goldilocks" system for them [14:14]. Ian and Pate conclude the podcast episode by discussing what's next for OPIE Software [31:31].   Follow Us Here: Pate Henderson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-henderson-mba-894603108/ OPIE Software: https://www.opiesoftware.com/   Contact NetSuite Sales - https://social.ora.cl/6009wKalv Learn More about NetSuite ERP - https://social.ora.cl/6003wKaxv Learn More about NetSuite HCM - https://social.ora.cl/6007c4Kih Learn More about NetSuite Analytics & Reporting - https://social.ora.cl/6007c4znL NetSuite Customer Success Stories - https://social.ora.cl/6005c4zt9   Follow us here: LinkedIn: https://social.ora.cl/6000wKFhC X (Twitter): https://social.ora.cl/6007wK2zD Instagram: https://social.ora.cl/6003wK2Hv Facebook: https://social.ora.cl/6005wK2Dv   #OPIESoftware #FinancialExecutives #NetSuiteERP #NetSuiteSuiteBilling #NetSuiteACS #NetSuiteCRM #MedicalSoftware #ERPforSoftwareCompanies --------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript: How NetSuite Helps OPIE Software Improve Patient Care    00:00:00:00 - 00:00:42:02  Unknown  Welcome to Perspectives on Health and Tech podcast. Brought to you by Oracle Health. In this series, we have conversations on creating a seamless and connected health care world where everyone thrives. Let's get started. Welcome to perspective Oracle Health and Life Science podcast. I'm your host today Danny Gladden. I'm a licensed clinical social worker and general manager of behavioral health and social care here at Oracle Health.    00:00:42:04 - 00:01:13:15  Unknown  As we step into the month of May, we recognize Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and highlight progress in mental health care. I'd also like to give a special shout out to our nurses across Canada and the U.S. as we celebrate National Nursing Week. Thank you for your unwavering dedication and compassion. Social workers and nurses make great teams.    00:01:13:17 - 00:01:45:04  Unknown  Today, we're honored to be joined by a leader in mental health care innovation. Please welcome Doctor Gillian Strudwick from Kim H. The center for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital and one of the world's leading research centers in its field. So, Jillian, welcome. Before we dive into big topics here, can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about the great workhappening at Kim?    00:01:45:06 - 00:02:12:14  Unknown  Thank you, Danny, and thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this great podcast. So I might break this into two sections. First, I'll introduce myself, and then I'll tell you a little bit about the organization that I'mfortunate to work for. So I'm Doctor Jillian Strudwick, I'm a registered nurse, and I've worked primarily in mental health clinical settings here in Toronto, Canada, and also in other parts of Canada and internationally.    00:02:12:16 - 00:02:41:21  Unknown  Currently, I am the inaugural Chief Clinical Informatics Officer at Kam H, representing our nurses and all of our non physician health disciplines like social work. And I have a couple of other hats as well. So one is that I'mthe head scientist of the Digital Mental Health Lab. And I'm also the scientific director of our Digital Innovation Hub, which is about really accelerating our work in this digital sphere and research practice, education and beyond.    00:02:41:22 - 00:03:10:04  Unknown  So that's about me. But I'll move on to talking about Kim H. So Kim H is CAMH, the center for Addiction and Mental Health, and it's Canada's largest mental health and addictions teaching hospital. We think Kim and I think there's lots to suggest that we're we're true in saying this, that we're world leading research and education center in mental health, and we're located right in the heart of downtown Toronto.    00:03:10:05 - 00:03:35:20  Unknown  But we serve people across our province, Ontario and across the country as well. So in terms of a few numbers that I'll share with you. We've had, just over 16,000 emergency department visits in the last year. Over 40,000 patients that were treated. Over 80,000 virtual care appointments. And I'll, I'll provide a few more numbers here as well.    00:03:35:21 - 00:03:59:20  Unknown  Almost 8000 rtms visits, 60 million and new research funds and more than a thousand articles published. I think you get the point that there's a lot going on at camp, and it's a great place to be. You know, I have been on your campus a number of times and always appreciate that your campus is right in the heart of of Toronto.    00:03:59:22 - 00:04:31:11  Unknown  In, in, in a bustling area. And I think there's there's no greater way to reduce stigma than, you know, placing, such a well-respected, mental health and addiction treatment organization right in the heart of the city. Whereas if you go to many other communities, you'll kind of see the mental health hospitals and treatment providers kind of on the outskirts of town, really appreciate, campus role right there in the heart of, Toronto.    00:04:31:13 - 00:04:55:13  Unknown  And I think this goes into something, Jillian, you speak about passionately, which is the idea that mental health treatment is social justice for our audience. Tell us what you mean by that. Why is it an important lens? Social justice. Which you view your work? Yeah. I think it's a quite an important point that you bring up, Danny.    00:04:55:15 - 00:05:24:18  Unknown  And it's something we're really proud of. Talking about that mental health work is social justice work. And so, part of doing social justice work is to be informed in this space. And part of being informed is understanding that mental illness disproportionately affects marginalized communities, who are also often facing barriers to things like accessing care. And this could be due to racism, poverty, stigma, geography.    00:05:24:18 - 00:05:59:06  Unknown  And I could continue. So on and so forth. So and Kim H. We see mental health is deeply rooted in social justice because access to care, dignity and treatment and prevention are, are not, equitably distributed. Kim advocates for policies and systems change that ensure mental health care is not a privilege, but but a right. And so that's really our social justice lens, framing and shaping the last few statements that I made.    00:05:59:08 - 00:06:31:01  Unknown  So, we have done some work more recently, in the last couple of years on dismantling anti-Black racism, which has become a more formalized organizational commitment. And so I'll just read a section from one of our documents around dismantling anti-Black racism. And, excuse me for it sounds like I'm reading here because I'm reading from a document, but, system, systemic anti-Black racism is a barrier to high quality health care for black patients at Kim H.    00:06:31:01 - 00:06:57:09  Unknown  And across the health care system, the data lay bare with those in black communities have signaled for decades discrimination and oppression based on race delays, care and harms individuals on their way to recovery. Racism also has a negative impact on the quality of work life for black staff. Beyond the damaging emotional and psychological consequences. It limits their career trajectory and it goes on from there.    00:06:57:11 - 00:07:30:21  Unknown  And so I bring this out as one of the many initiatives that the organization is committed to. And as a result ofthis commitment, this public commitment. You can read what I just read on on our website, Kamchatka, that there's a number of activities that the organization is doing everywhere, from doing offering more culturally appropriate therapies to education for staff, staff, support groups, creations of processes that support equity, lots of advocacy work with the government.    00:07:30:23 - 00:07:58:14  Unknown  And so a lot of this work is ongoing. But this gives you sort of a more grounded, more concrete example of some of the the ways in which we look at social justice as being so related to mental health. My goodness, you know, the, the, the social work, the social worker in me is just grinning from ear to ear, as you describe, you know, the foundation in which camp is, is caring for folks.    00:07:58:14 - 00:08:34:14  Unknown  You know, I'm, still like, licensed, clinician. And I'm licensed in Missouri and Alaska. And, you know, particularly I think about, state like Alaska, with a disproportional number of folks who are part of, who are Alaska Native. And we see, you know, those communities so much generational trauma and the impact, you know, and the impact that oppression, you know, has on, sort of repeating traumatic occurrences across the generations.    00:08:34:14 - 00:09:04:15  Unknown  And so, so very important, I think, an important perspective to look at the, the experience of mental health and the treatment of mental health through, social justice lens. Jillian, I just appreciate that that, that that is a focus of, Kim H. And I'm, I'm sure the indigenous populations, your organization works with, you see a similar, you know, similar experience in the those in the, in Alaska here.    00:09:04:17 - 00:09:32:18  Unknown  Now, as we pivot here thinking about, you know, you'r

Learn more about NetSuite Planning and Budgeting: https://tinyurl.com/ra6wa79k   In this episode of the NetSuite Podcast, cohost Megan O'Brien sits down with Jonny Holmes, director of finance at Bomb Party, a direct-to-consumer jewelry company that offers surprise jewelry reveals through live online parties. Megan and Jonny start by discussing Bomb Party, its growth and how Jonny ended up the company [1:43]. They then cover the impact of tariffs on Bomb Party and how the company is using NetSuite Planning and Budgeting to help navigate them [4:08]. Jonny concludes the podcast episode by giving some advice to business leaders trying to navigate global trade variability [17:29].   Follow Us Here: Bomb Party: https://www.bombparty.com/   Contact NetSuite Sales - https://social.ora.cl/6009wKalv Learn More about NetSuite ERP - https://social.ora.cl/6003wKaxv Learn More about NetSuite HCM - https://social.ora.cl/6007c4Kih Learn More about NetSuite Analytics & Reporting - https://social.ora.cl/6007c4znL NetSuite Customer Success Stories - https://social.ora.cl/6005c4zt9   Follow us here: LinkedIn: https://social.ora.cl/6000wKFhC X (Twitter): https://social.ora.cl/6007wK2zD Instagram: https://social.ora.cl/6003wK2Hv Facebook: https://social.ora.cl/6005wK2Dv --------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript: How Social Selling Company Bomb Party Uses NetSuite to Navigate Tariffs    00:00:00:00 - 00:00:36:20  Unknown  Hello, NetSuite listeners. Thank you so much for tuning in to the NetSuite Podcast. I'm Megan O'Brien, co-host of the podcast. We have an extra special episode in store for you all today. We know tariffs are top of mind for many businesses right now, and companies are figuring out the best way to handle them. So we invited Jonny Holmes, director of finance at Bomb Party, which is a direct-to-consumer jewelry company that offers surprise jewelry reveals through live online parties.    00:00:36:22 - 00:01:10:04  Unknown  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend checking them out. Customers purchase mystery items such as rings, necklaces or earrings, which are unveiled during these events, adding an element of excitement to the shopping experience. We discuss how Bomb Party has been using that sweet specifically, and that's what planning and budgeting and that sweet analytics warehouse to address tariffs, plan for addressing possible future trade policy changes, and the advice he has for business leaders trying to navigate global trade variability.    00:01:10:05 - 00:01:43:12  Unknown  So stay tuned. You're not going to want to miss this episode. You're listening to the NetSuite Podcast where we discuss what's happening within NetSuite, why we're doing it, and where we're heading in the future. We'lldive into the details about the software and the people at NetSuite who are behind all the moving parts. We'llalso feature customer growth stories discussing the ups and downs of running a company, and how one integrated system can help your business continue to scale.    00:01:43:14 - 00:02:09:19  Unknown  Let's just jump right in. So to kick us off, could you tell our audience a bit about Bomb Party and what you do at the company? Yeah. Bomb Party is a network marketing company. We started about eight years ago. I've been here for the last two years. So what we do is we the company, it really thrives on this surprise and delight type of marketing.    00:02:09:21 - 00:02:36:15  Unknown  And so what that means is it is kind of like, well, you're just ordering products or jewelry in our case, and you don't really know what you're getting. So it could be one of maybe 30 different rings or earrings or necklaces or something, whichever one you order. And so that is like the driving force around. Everything that we sell, and especially from our owners, is that they want to surprise and delight customers.    00:02:36:15 - 00:03:00:08  Unknown  And so everything that we sell drives that. So we sell rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, all sorts of things. And they all are sold in that type of thing where we sell to our wholesale reps that buy in bulk from us, and then they turn around and sell it to the end consumer. Most of it, they do it online.    00:03:00:10 - 00:03:20:14  Unknown  A lot of it's through TikTok, you know, so maybe use other social media platforms. But for the most part, they'reusing TikTok and they sell these pieces of jewelry, on what we call a party. And it's just a live party. So they get on and customers join their party on TikTok. They place an order for whatever it is and then, live on TikTok,    00:03:20:14 - 00:03:43:19  Unknown  The rep reveals what they have. And so it could be one of many different styles that we have for that collection. And then there is a chance that you could win, like a genuine diamond. So it's just it could you could get anything. And so that really is like that business model of surprise and delight has really driven the growthin my opinion.    00:03:43:20 - 00:04:14:19  Unknown  I mean, there's other factors too, but I think that that business model has really driven bond party to, to grow significantly over the past few years. I mean, we're seeing lots and lots of growth, which is awesome. And then, you know, I've been here, like I said, for two years, and I lead the finance group. So I came on to help implement NetSuite ERP, a topic that is top of mind for many of our listeners right now is tariffs as of right now.    00:04:14:19 - 00:04:38:02  Unknown  What's the impact of tariffs on Bomb Party. Oh man. It's crazy because we source literally everything we source from China. And so in the tariff world, as many of you probably know, if you don't I don't know where you hit then. But, I mean, China has been hit the hardest, and we have no idea where that's going to lead.    00:04:38:04 - 00:04:59:15  Unknown  You know, like it was a few weeks ago when they announced all the tariffs, and then they escalated. And then the next week they escalated again. And, you know, we are, we had a few, maybe panicked, leadership type meetings at our company about what to do. And can the company withstand some of this and what are all our options.    00:04:59:15 - 00:05:20:14  Unknown  And, you know, so, like, I don't think I can understand the impact of how it's going to, you know, we don't know exactly how it's going to change or impact the business. But I can't overstate how much it will be part of what we do moving forward. You know, it's something that we just didn't consider at all six months ago.    00:05:20:14 - 00:05:48:12  Unknown  And now it's something that's at the forefront of almost all of our sourcing decisions and all of that sort of thing. One thing that's really interesting that I wanted to touch on is your use of NetSuite. So how have you used NetSuite Planning and Budgeting to model the impact of tariff changes? Yeah I mean that tool honestly it'sbeen instrumental in in all of the analysis that we're doing from a from a financial perspective on tariffs.    00:05:48:13 - 00:06:17:00  Unknown  You know, it just allows you to build forecasts in a relatively short amount of time. So like if you go through and if you do all the legwork to set up your items and your systems and your sales forecasts and your everything, you know, if you put all the data in and if you go through a little bit of pain of doing the work to get the info into NSPB like it allows you to really quickly throw together a forecast.    00:06:17:00 - 00:06:40:22  Unknown  And so, you know, we really recently just finished our go live with NSPB. And so there was when the tariffs hit us, right when we were like going through our user training and that sort of thing. And so a lot of my job was I had to get the system up and going. So there was a lot of, you know, prep work and groundwork of getting all of the inputs correct.    00:06:40:22 - 00:06:59:00  Unknown  But then as soon as all those tariffs started to hit, it was so easy for us to just plug in different scenarios. You know, on the tariff side, it mostly just impacts your product costs. And so we could input all of the different product costs for each of our collections that we're planning on selling throughout the year.    00:06:59:02 - 00:07:22:10  Unknown  We can change what we think is going to happen to the demand. So the number of units that we sell, and it'sjust so high because such a high-powered system that you can plug in those numbers, refresh, and in a matter of minutes, you have, like, different versions of a forecast. You know, it's something that I think, like as a finance professional, I'm very Excel heavy a lot of times.    00:07:22:12 - 00:07:45:13  Unknown  And it's something that I could totally build in Excel, but it would have taken me so long and so many, different Excel crashes. And because it's just it's a lot of data and it's just crushing through and trying to crunch everything and Excel just can't handle it. And NSPB just takes an amazing format that you could build in Excel, and it just makes it seamless.    00:07:45:13 - 00:08:06:13  Unknown  Why it was so fast and easy honestly, like it's been it's been a game changer for me. Like if I ever go to if I were to ever go to another company to implement NetSuite, like I would probably just bring in NSPB to start. Like to me it's, it's that it's been that great for me. I mean, it's just saved me so much time in so many different areas.    00:08:06:14 - 00:08:32:10  Unknown  And not just on the forecasting side, like on the report building side. I mean, I love NetSuite. It's the best system that I've used by far. And in NSPB, you can set it up where honestly all you do is you just refresh, in your Excel smart view, and it po

Learn more about NetSuite Customer Success: https://tinyurl.com/kyuapfmn   In this episode of the NetSuite Podcast, cohost Megan O'Brien is joined by NetSuite's own Alexandra Wright, senior education and user adoption consultant, and Jessica Jennings, senior program manager, to discuss change management. They start by giving an overview of the change management topic [5:37] and how those implementing or expanding their NetSuite instance can incorporate it. Jessica and Alexandra then delve into NetSuite's specific methodology for change management [11:35]. They discuss the role of learning in change management [29:04] and conclude the episode with advice on where listeners can learn more [33:03].   NetSuite Change Management Vlogs: https://tinyurl.com/296ah7r7 Free Learning and Change Management Content: https://tinyurl.com/bdcdsn7n   Follow Us Here: Alexandra Wright: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrawright4/ Jessica Jennings: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicahannusch/   Contact NetSuite Sales - https://social.ora.cl/6009wKalv Learn More about NetSuite ERP - https://social.ora.cl/6003wKaxv Learn More about NetSuite HCM - https://social.ora.cl/6007c4Kih Learn More about NetSuite Analytics & Reporting - https://social.ora.cl/6007c4znL NetSuite Customer Success Stories - https://social.ora.cl/6005c4zt9   Follow us here: LinkedIn: https://social.ora.cl/6000wKFhC X (Twitter): https://social.ora.cl/6007wK2zD Instagram: https://social.ora.cl/6003wK2Hv Facebook: https://social.ora.cl/6005wK2Dv   #NetSuite #NetSuiteLCS #ChangeManagement #NetSuiteERP #ErpImplementation #SoftwareImplementation ---------------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript: 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:36:14  Unknown  Hey Suite listeners. Welcome to the NetSuite podcast. I'm Megan O'Brien, a co-host of the podcast, and today I'm excited to continue our Listen and Learn series. We started this podcast series with the goal of giving customers useful tips and tricks that will help them get more out of NetSuite. For part three of this series, we'retalking change management and how you can use it as a strategic lever to maximize your ERP software and create a more agile, responsive organization.    00:00:36:16 - 00:01:00:17  Unknown  So today we have two guests joining us, Alexandra Wright, who is a senior education and user adoption consultant, and Jessica Jennings, a senior education program manager, both from NetSuite. You actually might remember Jessica from a network podcast episode about a year and a half ago. We're so excited that she came back on the show in this episode.    00:01:00:18 - 00:01:34:10  Unknown  These two change gurus highlight the critical role of change management and aligning people and processes with new systems, ensuring sustained user adoption. They cover key factors like communication strategies, leadership engagement, and structured methodologies to drive success. So stay tuned. We're jumping into all this and more next. You are listening to the NetSuite Podcast, where we discuss what's happening within NetSuite, why we're doing it, and where we're heading in the future.    00:01:34:12 - 00:02:02:06  Unknown  We'll dive into the details about the software and the people at NetSuite who are behind all the moving parts. We'll also feature customer growth stories discussing the ups and downs of running a company and how one integrated system can help your business continue to scale. And welcome Alexandra and Jessica. We're so excited to have you on today to talk about something we hear a lot about in the software world, change management.    00:02:02:08 - 00:02:25:16  Unknown  We're excited to be here. So where are the two of you joining us from today? So I am joining you again from Austin, Texas. I had been on the podcast once before and loved it, so I'm glad to be back. But I'm still here in good old Austin, Texas. Yeah, and I'm joining from San Diego, California. Wow, look at you both in sunny, warm places.    00:02:25:17 - 00:02:54:12  Unknown  That sounds great. It really is. It is. I can't complain. Well, to start out, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves and your role in that suite? Yeah, I'd be happy to jump in here. My name is Alexandra. As mentioned, I have been with NetSuite for going on four years. And my background is actually in organization psychology, which is a super niche area of psychology.    00:02:54:13 - 00:03:25:10  Unknown  That's actually one of the fastest growing spaces in business, which is imaginable as we're in a point in time where it feels like everything is changing as rapidly as possible. So my job here at NetSuite is an education and user adoption consultant. And like I mentioned, I started here going on four years ago. And the business has evolved a lot and so has my role.    00:03:25:10 - 00:03:54:07  Unknown  And so a lot of the work that I do now is really focused on change management, helping our customers succeed with their not suite implementations, as well as working on some internal work. And, I'll follow up with that. And, that's great. I didn't I don't even think I have, as many fun things to share, but, I did have to pull up my calculator because I was like, shoot, I don't know how many years I've been with NetSuite at this point, but it's almost eight.    00:03:54:07 - 00:04:14:05  Unknown  I started at Oracle Customer Success and then moved into working at NetSuite. I actually supported a lot of our customers directly as a consultant and change management for quite a long time. But now I serve the team more in developing our change management content services, the program all around that.    00:04:14:07 - 00:04:34:15  Unknown  And it's such a passion area for me. So it's just a super fun area of work for me to come in and do every day. And I guess it keeps me loving my job, because now it's been almost eight years. So you're a part of NetSuite Education Services and Learning Cloud Support or LCS. Could you remind our listeners what your team does?    00:04:34:17 - 00:05:06:00  Unknown  Yes. So we're in LCS or Learning Cloud Support is a lot of times what you'll hear. So we are a part of the NetSuite Customer Success ecosystem. And our role is really serving NetSuite customers throughout their journey with learning and change management services, tools, content, you name it. To really just help them unlock more value out of their software and using NetSuite in their extended kind of, expansions and add ons, and also foster long-term adoption for their users long term.    00:05:06:02 - 00:05:33:23  Unknown  Now, for those who don't know, this marks another episode in our series of Listen and Learn with LCS. This is actually our third episode. I believe the other topics were NetSuite dashboards with IB, which I'm sure was a super fun session and reporting capabilities with Mark. So two phenomenal knowledge sources. Your listeners should definitely add that to your listening queue if they haven't already.    00:05:34:04 - 00:06:01:17  Unknown  Well, I can't wait to dive in a bit more. Can you tell us more about our topic of change management today? Yeah, absolutely. You know, I always like to start with when we're going through a digital transformation. It's so easy and, good to have a strong focus on the technology side of things. But in reality, we also, when going through a digital transformation, have this people side that's impacted too.    00:06:01:22 - 00:06:28:07  Unknown  And that's just as, if not more important than focusing on the technology change. If we don't have balance between managing the tech side and managing the people side through a change, having successful user adoption is honestly likely impossible. And it is just easy because your eyes just kind of turn to it to focus on the tech side. When you're maybe implementing something new or adding on additional modules to a software.    00:06:28:12 - 00:06:47:21  Unknown  But since that's what we are actively making decisions for, we want to remind, the listeners of this podcast that there are so many things that you could do to support the people side of your business during this time to and when you're including change management in your software initiatives, a big impact that we can make is risk mitigation.    00:06:47:23 - 00:07:13:20  Unknown  And because so much of the risk with digital transformations is really not actually the software working technically or not working in its technical state, but more that the software is not being adopted by the people.And I think, there is a crazy stat that I read the other day that said something like around 80 something percent of individual users are reluctant to buy in and accept a new software system, and that's a lot.    00:07:13:21 - 00:07:34:17  Unknown  So by taking the time to actually focus on that as well, and put as much energy and effort into setting our people up for success alongside our technology, up for success, that's really why, we want to be here to talk about that today. Who do you think we'll find the most benefit from today's topic? I mean, I would say everyone.    00:07:34:17 - 00:08:03:06  Unknown  Right? But specifically, our project leaders are managers and change drivers. The people who are really supporting the folks who are going to make or break the success of the change initiative. That makes a lot of sense. So if I am a customer considering NetSuite, implementing the system, or adding on to my existing NetSuite solution, what can I do now to consider change management?    00:08:03:11 - 00:08:37:04  Unknown  So that's a great question. And what I really want to start off by thinking about, especially if you are in those intro moments of implementing NetSuite, maybe you're in your initial conversations, or maybe you're adding on

Learn more about NetSuite for health and beauty companies: https://tinyurl.com/2uesmbsr   Tune in for the next installment of The CFO Agenda series featuring Jonathan Weiss, CFO of Raw Sugar Living, a health and beauty brand selling hair and body products with natural ingredients. Jonathan and cohost Megan O'Brien kick off the podcast episode by discussing Jonathan's background and what brought him to the CFO role at Raw Sugar [1:39]. They then delve into Raw Sugar's use of NetSuite and why having a strong tech stack is so important for the company [21:21]. Jonathan and Megan conclude the episode by discussing CFO priorities for 2025 [42:00].   Like what you learned? Subscribe Now! http://bit.ly/NetSuiteYouTube   Follow Us Here: Jonathan Weiss: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-m-weiss/ Raw Sugar: https://rawsugarliving.com/   ------------------------------------------------------------------ Episode Transcript:       The CFO Agenda: Raw Sugar Living's Jonathan Weiss    00;00;05;07 - 00;00;37;18  Unknown  Hello NetSuite listeners. Thank you so much for tuning in to the network podcast. I'm Megan O'Brien, a co-host of the podcast. Today we're continuing our CFO agenda series with Jonathan Weiss, CFO of Raw Sugar, a health and beauty brand selling premium hair and body products made of natural ingredients. You've probably seen their shampoos, conditioners and other products in their signature white bottles with bamboo tops around Target, Walmart, CVS, etc.    00;00;37;21 - 00;00;58;26  Unknown  We discuss Jonathan's path to the role of the CFO. Hint as not necessarily what you would expect. His perspective on the future of the finance function, the company's tech stack, and some of Raw Sugar's goals over the next year. So stay tuned. You're not going to want to miss this episode.    00;00;58;28 - 00;01;25;15  Unknown  You're listening to the NetSuite Podcast, where we discuss what's happening within NetSuite, why we're doing it, and where we're heading in the future. We'll dive into the details about the software and the people at NetSuite who are behind all the moving parts. We'll also feature customer growth stories discussing the ups and downs of running a company, and how one integrated system can help your business continue to scale.    00;01;25;18 - 00;01;59;04  Unknown  Hi, how are you doing today? Afternoon. This is such a treat. Thanks a lot. Yeah. Well, thanks for coming on. I mean, let's go ahead and just jump right into the questions. So could you talk a bit about your past roles and your path to where you are now? Sure. Well, it's been a long road, but it started with UCLA, undergrad and had this awesome liberal arts education and yet was also able to take about 8 to 10 accounting classes.    00;01;59;04 - 00;02;25;08  Unknown  And from that, I started out at KPMG in New York, working in the audit side, luckily got assigned into the manufacturing retail space, liked it, but didn't love it to be honest, and started kind of my journey to where I am now because, I jumped over to the consulting side and started kind of hoping different partners answer different problems for large corporations.    00;02;25;11 - 00;02;54;28  Unknown  Went off to business school back at UCLA because I wanted to be back in the LA market and then had a great, lucky opportunity when I was about 30, where two founders who had created a fashionable scrubs business long before that was the thing. And I came on kind of as a consultant and would eventually became their partner, and for seven years grew this into a business that really I loved and enjoyed.    00;02;55;01 - 00;03;21;03  Unknown  And for the last 20 years, I've pretty much been doing the same role of CFO CEOs. Sometimes it's been for founders, sometimes it's been for public companies like LVMH. And then for the last eight years it's been with different private equity firms, a liberal arts degree taking accounting classes. You don't hear that very often now, but, it's something I advise all the people I work with because, you know, we'll talk about this.    00;03;21;03 - 00;03;43;27  Unknown  What is the role of finance and accounting now, and especially with outsourcing and big data? You know, at the end of the day, it's a value add. Understand what the information is telling you. And I don't think that's much different than reading a great novel or seeing a movie and trying to understand what it's trying to tell you who communication is.    00;03;43;28 - 00;04;06;20  Unknown  Major me likes that. Okay, so you ended up joining Ross Sugar close to five years ago. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about what Ross Sugar does? Yeah, sure. Ross Sugar has been around for about ten years. It's usually a white bottle with a bamboo top, but it was created ten years ago by two founders, Ronnie and Donna.    00;04;06;23 - 00;04;31;08  Unknown  And they had a really unique idea, which was they thought there should be clean products in the main aisle.Now, that doesn't sound like a big idea, but back in 2014, it was, and then they wanted it to look good on your shelf and your counter and your bathroom and your kitchen. And they wanted also to be something that you were proud of and a brand that you were proud of and uniquely.    00;04;31;08 - 00;05;03;01  Unknown  And we could talk about this a little later. They created a business model, not out of digitally native, but out of brick and mortar, and that made them really unique. And I think was really instrumental to their success. What is RawSugar's mission? I think it's evolved basically at scale. When I think about it. But the mission has always been the same, which is it's a kind of a belief that everyone deserves clean products, that there's a range just like the food we eat and the clothes we buy and the emissions we put out.    00;05;03;01 - 00;05;29;01  Unknown  We want to put better products into the market with better ingredients, but that people can afford. And our competitors are not the high-priced prestige brands. They're really Dove and Dial. And now native and love, Beauty Planet and all these other mass players that have come into the market that believe customers, consumers deserve a choice with better ingredients.    00;05;29;04 - 00;05;53;22  Unknown  Yeah, I feel like you guys were such trendsetters in that because it has become a huge movement. But I remember seeing your products around before, kind of all those other players came into it. Yeah, no. And you know, I think what's very great, what I love about our story is that's what drove the founders. And so they started out in liquid hand soap and some lotions and scrubs.    00;05;53;24 - 00;06;21;00  Unknown  Then they saw an opportunity in body wash. Then they saw an opportunity in hair. Then they saw an opportunity in kids. Then they saw an opportunity in Doe. And even this summer we launched a pet care because if we had a kids line, we thought, animals deserve, good ingredients too. So it's that's kind of where the ethos of the company comes from is this idea that there are these categories that need changing.    00;06;21;03 - 00;06;45;06  Unknown  Well, it's funny because now that I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking close to five years ago. So you kind of started at a very Covid time or start of a Covid you time. How did that how did that go? Yeah. You know, exactly. Covid. So made 2020. And sometimes I talk about RawSugar 1.00. Sugar 2.0.    00;06;45;06 - 00;07;18;04  Unknown  And today we're in the third, I think version of it, 1.0 is the Ronnie and Don, the story of creating and founding the brand and making an impact, especially at target. So 2.0, I like to think it was when I came in, I was the 11th employee and the business was doubling because of Covid. One reason because people needed soap too, is we had a very domestic based manufacturing model and we were sourcing some components from Asia, mainly Topps and Ronnie and Don.    00;07;18;04 - 00;07;42;09  Unknown  They realized that Covid was going to be something massive, and they invested in componentry. And so we were on shelf and got a lot of trial by a lot of people when our competitors were out of stock. And I came along because of that dramatic increase in the first 45 days of Covid, and I've been in the LA area for a long time, and this is kind of what I, I don't want to say specialize in.    00;07;42;09 - 00;08;10;27  Unknown  But really this journey of professionalizing a business, of allowing founders to do what they do and to create structure around that. But financial structure but also supply chain structure and channel structure and strategy. And so I kind of came in to help them scale this business. And so I was employee number 11. And today we're 40. So just to give you a sense of the scale of how much the business has changed since I'vecome along, that's amazing.    00;08;10;27 - 00;08;34;23  Unknown  Yeah, they probably were like, we need help ready to scale because everyone wants soap nowadays. Yeah. And just from a finance and accounting perspective, you know, I look back, the first thing I feel like I learned in business school. I love analogies. And our teams will laugh because I use them all the time. But like I think about backpacking and to be successful you need a great dashboard.    00;08;34;23 - 00;08;57;20  Unknown  You need to know where you're pointed and orient yourself. You need to know how fast you're moving. You know, you need to know the resources you require to get to where you want to go. And so I've always looked at this role that I play with the partner in the founders is to help them understand that because success creates a lot of challenges on a cash level.    00;08;57;20 - 00;09;17;05  Unknown  Surprisingly on an inventory level, on a channel

Learn more about NetSuite 2025 Release 1: https://tinyurl.com/m5c87ud5   Cohost Megan O'Brien dives into NetSuite 2025 Release 1, with several guests joining to cover the latest and greatest features included. To start off, Lisa Schwarz, senior director of product marketing at NetSuite, gives an overview of the first release of 2025 [1:31]. She covers some of the most exciting updates in 2025.1 and what customers can expect. Erik Klein, outbound product manager at NetSuite, joins next to give a breakdown of new AI capabilities [8:30]. Andrew Klockers, a principal industry product manager for healthcare at NetSuite, covers HIPAA compliance in NetSuite, as well as enhancements to Compliance 360 [21:41]. Lastly, Eyal Amir, senior director of product management at NetSuite, goes over three new NetSuite Connectors [32:55].   Follow Us Here:   NetSuite 2025.1 Homepage: https://tinyurl.com/m5c87ud5 NetSuite 2025.1 Release Notes: https://tinyurl.com/4ju3uj73 NetSuite 2025.1 Release Preview Test Account: https://tinyurl.com/7m3pkz78   Contact NetSuite Sales - https://social.ora.cl/6009wKalv Learn More about NetSuite ERP - https://social.ora.cl/6003wKaxv Learn More about NetSuite HCM - https://social.ora.cl/6007c4Kih Learn More about NetSuite Analytics & Reporting - https://social.ora.cl/6007c4znL NetSuite Customer Success Stories - https://social.ora.cl/6005c4zt9   Follow us here: LinkedIn: https://social.ora.cl/6000wKFhC X (Twitter): https://social.ora.cl/6007wK2zD Instagram: https://social.ora.cl/6003wK2Hv Facebook: https://social.ora.cl/6005wK2Dv   #NetSuite, #NetSuiteERP, #NetSuiteConnector, #SuiteCloudPlatform, #AI, #GenAI, #HealthcareCompliance, #Compliance360 --------------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript: 00;00;04;07 - 00;00;28;27  Unknown  Hey, listeners. Welcome to the NetSuite Podcast. I'm Megan O'Brien, a co-host of the podcast, and today I'm excited to dive into our latest product release. As many of our listeners know, we do two product releases per year. So this one is our first of 2025. NetSuite 2025 one is absolutely packed with a bunch of great new features and enhancements.    00;00;28;29 - 00;00;54;04  Unknown  The latest release brings new functionality across NetSuite Connector, Bill Capture, Field Service management, and the Suite Cloud platform, just to name a few. There are also great new SuiteApps and AI capabilities in there. We have four different guests breaking down the latest capabilities in detail and explaining how they benefit you. And if you're looking for more info, our sneak peak release blogs are now live on.    00;00;54;04 - 00;01;19;11  Unknown  NetSuite.com. See the links in the description on the app, so to check those out. Stay tuned, because we have a lot of exciting updates that you won't want to miss. You're listening to the NetSuite Podcast, where we discuss what's happening within NetSuite, why we're doing it, and where we're heading in the future. We'll dive into the details about the software and the people in next week who are behind all the moving parts.    00;01;19;13 - 00;01;32;05  Unknown  We'll also feature customer growth stories discussing the ups and downs of running a company, and how one integrated system can help your business continue to scale.    00;01;32;07 - 00;01;56;02  Unknown  Kicking us off is Lisa Schwarz, senior director of product marketing at NetSuite. Lisa will provide a quick preview of what's new in 2025 release one, including new AI-powered search capabilities and Suite Answers using NetSuite Expert. She also gives a refresher on how all our customers received the update, and what they can do to prepare for it.    00;01;56;05 - 00;02;23;23  Unknown  We have a few guests joining us to dive deeper into the new functionality and the NetSuite 2025 release one, but could you give us a quick overview of what we'll be covering? I sure can. We've got a greatest hits coming up for everybody. We'll be diving into the world of connectors. There's a bunch of new connectors which will be available in this release, so that will be interesting to get that update and hear about that.    00;02;23;26 - 00;02;52;13  Unknown  We'll be covering some great things around the SuiteCloud platform. That's always super interesting. And a lot of that includes some new AI developer tools and we'll also be exploring new things that are going around with necessary HIPAA compliance and some of our compliance. 360 solution. What's the one feature in this release that you're especially excited about or see as a big win for our customers?    00;02;52;15 - 00;03;26;14  Unknown  Oh one I'm not sure if I could round it down to just one, but kind of my, you know, quick wins or what's getting me excited. I think I would, you know, shout out because some shout outs to, NetSuite Expert, which is a new capability that's bringing AI search powers to Suite Answers, Suite Procurement, which is, one of our, new indirect procurement solution that includes partnerships with staples, and Amazon business.    00;03;26;17 - 00;03;55;08  Unknown  We've got some new specialized user roles for CRM, WMS, and view and approve. And these are particularly interesting for employees who only need access to specific records, reports, and tasks in NetSuite. So you don't have to always purchase a full user licenses. And then there's more pages becoming available in the Redwood UI. So getting some more refresh and a new look to a lot of things.    00;03;55;11 - 00;04;22;16  Unknown  I wanted to quickly touch base on the logistics of the release for any new listeners. Customers who have never been through this before, or those who just need a refresher. How does NetSuite deliver these new features to our users? Absolutely. So we do two releases a year. All 41,000 plus customers receive the updates. Everybody is on the same release using the latest and greatest version of.    00;04;22;16 - 00;04;47;18  Unknown  NetSuite, which is still amazing and always kind of blows my mind. This is the first release of the year. So with this release, accounts will be updated between mid-March through April. Each customer is assigned a date and a time that their NetSuite account will be updated. The date and the time of your update is published in the New Release Portlet on your.    00;04;47;18 - 00;05;06;05  Unknown  NetSuite dashboard, and your NetSuite admin will also get an email with this information. If for some reason this is not a good time for the update to happen. You can go and change the date and time via the CMS tool within NetSuite. So super easy to do that when it comes to the day of your update.    00;05;06;10 - 00;05;33;06  Unknown  You don't need to install or do anything. It's all automated. Accounts will go offline during the update time, which is scheduled for about a four-hour period downtime, but actually most accounts get updated in 60 minutes or less. And what can customers do to prepare for the update? We definitely encourage users to become familiar with what's in the release and try it out in a release preview account.    00;05;33;09 - 00;06;05;18  Unknown  So, you know, while accounts are updated automatically and all customizations come over in the update, it's great to test out, using your own data, workflows, integrations, and customizations. So there are no surprises. I don't know about you, but I don't like surprises now. So for those who are not familiar with the release preview account, this is a specialized test account that clones your production environment and has all the new features and updates in the release.    00;06;05;21 - 00;06;27;27  Unknown  So it's a great way. Also a safe way to test drive things out before you go live. It's free. You just need to have your NetSuite admin request it. Other than this podcast, how else can customers learn more about the 2025 release one. There's a bunch of ways people can learn more about what's in the release.    00;06;28;00 - 00;06;50;24  Unknown  First, you can read the sneak peek blogs, which are on NetSuite.com, as well as well as the release notes if you want a really long read. Which those are. And Suite Answers. You can watch, training videos, which are usually done on a lot of key features. Also hosted in Suite Answers. Download them there.    00;06;50;26 - 00;07;11;04  Unknown  I definitely encourage you to talk to your account manager on a more, you know, specific kind of basis where you can really look at, you know, what key features may be a priority for you guys. And then we've got some webinars. So watch and attend some of these webinars. We had a webinar covered all the new features.    00;07;11;04 - 00;07;36;24  Unknown  So we went, you know, in-depth on the features, which is available to now watch on demand. But there's also a release readiness webinar on February 26th, which provides tips on how you can get ready for the release, like using the release preview account we talked about as well as creating a test plan. This webinar will also be available on demand after the 26.    00;07;36;26 - 00;08;07;22  Unknown  And then last, we've got some SuiteConnect events, which we encourage everybody to attend. So these are one day events that are happening all over the world over the next few months. Definitely go to NetSuite.com under the events section. I'm sure you'll you can provide a link to that page as well. But check out the cities that will be coming to these events cover some of the new features in the release.    00;08;07;24 - 00;08;27;26  Unknown  You'll so kind of getting down to the next level of actually being able to also see some demos and things like that. So definitely check out the website and see if we're coming to a city near you, and we'll be sure to link to that and all these other great resources in our show notes. Thanks so much for joining us, Lisa.    00;08;27;28 - 00;08;54;16  Unknown  Thanks again for having me. This release brings several new AI features to NetS

Learn more about NetSuite Analytics Warehouse: https://tinyurl.com/2pynh34j   Tune in for the next installment of The CFO Agenda series featuring Brian Hogeland, CFO of Packer Fastener, a distributor of fasteners and industrial supplies. Brian and cohost Ian McCue kicks off the podcast episode by discussing Brian's background and what brought him to the CFO role [2:06]. They then delve into the biggest challenges Packer Fastener has faced as it has grown [11:07] and its use of NetSuite [16:09]. They discuss talent and the workforce and how automation is playing a role in the future of finance and accounting [23:40]. Brian and Ian conclude the episode by discussing CFO priorities for 2025, including incorporating AI [30:47]. ---------------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript: 00;00;04;10 - 00;00;34;10  Unknown  Hey, listeners. Welcome to the NetSuite podcast. I'm Megan O'Brien, co-host of the podcast. And today we're continuing our CFO agenda series with Brian Hogland. Brian is the CFO of Packer Fastener, a rapidly growing distributor of nuts, bolts and other industrial supplies. Brian sits down with NetSuite Podcast co-host Ian McCue and walks him through his background and how roles across finance and technology prepared him for the C-suite.    00;00;34;13 - 00;01;01;01  Unknown  He then explains how Packer Fastener has grown beyond its roots as a regional distributor, despite supply chain and inflationary challenges, as well as the specific framework its use to drive the business forward. The CFO explains how NetSuite helped the company manage its growing operations, which includes actively sourcing 30,000 items and specifically the value it's gained from NetSuite Analytics Warehouse.    00;01;01;04 - 00;01;32;08  Unknown  With new technologies demonstrating potential to reshape the work of the finance team. Brian shares what skills he thinks will remain critical for finance professionals. He also offers perspective on what he looks for when he's hiring and how leaders can attract top finance talent. Brian then sheds light on Packer Fasteners' ambitious plans for 2025. He walks through potential challenges, technology initiatives, and how he's preparing his team to leverage new AI tools.    00;01;32;11 - 00;01;39;29  Unknown  Stay tuned, because all of that and more is coming momentarily.    00;01;40;02 - 00;02;06;19  Unknown  You're listening to the NetSuite podcast, where we discuss what's happening within NetSuite, why we're doing it, and where we're heading in the future. We'll dive into the details about the software and the people in next week who are behind all the moving parts. We'll also feature customer growth stories discussing the ups and downs of running a company, and how one integrated system can help your business continue to scale.    00;02;06;21 - 00;02;27;16  Unknown  So, Brian, let's start with a bit about your background and who you are. Was your plan always kind of to work in finance and hopefully become a CFO one day? It was. I graduated from college in the mid 90s, and the internet was this really cool thing that had just popped at the time. So I was graduating, graduating with a degree in accounting.    00;02;27;19 - 00;02;48;11  Unknown  Really had been talking to a lot of CPA firms to come in and join them, but was really intrigued by this whole World Wide Web concept. I went into my library my last semester of college and actually bought tickets for the Grateful Dead. Actually sent in, like a money order back in the day. But, so it was this whole new, exciting environment.    00;02;48;14 - 00;03;11;02  Unknown  And, so while I had the, obviously the discipline and the skills to understand finance was really intrigued by this technology part. So a couple of years after I started my career with Arthur Andersen, I moved over into a technology consulting role and really just really had a lot of fun with that, embraced it. And spent probably the next ten years of my career doing technology.    00;03;11;03 - 00;03;32;00  Unknown  So it kind of went from being, you know, aspiring to maybe be a be like a CPA partner doing audits and tax work to maybe really hands on technology roles and, probably around 2010, I moved back into like a, typical finance role. So that's where I kind of started to do more of the progression, the typical financial leadership roles.    00;03;32;02 - 00;03;52;08  Unknown  And I guess why? Why did you decide to go back into kind of the traditional finance accounting side after being more on the technology side for a while? Yeah. You know, the sort of there's an analytical aspect of all the financials. Right. So, that was intriguing. The company I had worked for at the time had just onboarded a significant, Oracle, actually, ERP solution.    00;03;52;11 - 00;04;09;29  Unknown  And they were looking for somebody with a finance and technology background to kind of help stabilize that, then implementation. And it was a chance for me to really get back into the finance world, but still not have to stretch too far. Same company. Obviously, you know, the solution, the technology solution. So the kind of trading hats within the same company.    00;04;09;29 - 00;04;33;13  Unknown  And I'd be lying if I said, you know, getting the pager calls at 3:00 in the morning because somebody couldn't log in. I might have had a factor in that switch too. But yeah, I definitely, I liked the stability and the analytical nature of the finance teams. And as you kind of reflect on some of those, those past roles and your progression through your career, were there any particular positions that you feel like really helped you prepare to where you are today?    00;04;33;13 - 00;04;54;00  Unknown  Running, running a finance department for a really fast growing company. So I worked for a large transportation company, for 16 years. And as I moved back into that financial role that I mentioned earlier, there's certain stops along the way there that, there was a corporate accounting role focused really on an month and closed process. And, it's a large, large company.    00;04;54;00 - 00;05;19;02  Unknown  So you have to really gather a lot of different teams together and make sure that executing on a financial close, there's are very specific tasks that have to happen in certain orders. So kind of that monthly closed discipline and moved from there into an internal audit leader role. So focusing on, you know, the audit and compliance and risk management working with our board of directors at the time.    00;05;19;04 - 00;05;47;29  Unknown  We went through an initial public offering during my time with that, and I'd been through several IPOs in the past, but it was really you know, working with bankers and lawyers and, auditors through that process. And then again, a next evolution. That same company was into a more, like a segment controller role where you're focusing a lot on here's how a business financial person looks at, you know, things, who's partnering with some of the, the, or business leaders.    00;05;48;02 - 00;06;09;10  Unknown  How are they analyzing a problem? How can I help support that? Giving some insight into, you know, budgeting and, you know, tracking how you're doing against some of the metrics and the goals, doing financial modeling for specific scenarios. Those all were progressively, important, I think, in getting me to the spot where I'm at today. It sounds like you kind of added like more and more strategic targets, right?    00;06;09;10 - 00;06;26;07  Unknown  When you're talking about things like IPOs and modeling. So you start to move beyond. Well, first it was accounting. Then you started moving into tech. And then you kind of pair them together and started taking these more strategic type, I guess, roles and responsibilities that that kind of fair to say. Yeah. And some of it was, opportunistic.    00;06;26;07 - 00;06;44;22  Unknown  Some of it was intentional. You know, there's a point where you're looking at, for example, as we became a public company, having to manage the Sarbanes-Oxley function as a, as a public company, not something I was super interested in. Anybody that's listening to this that's been through a Sarbanes-Oxley environment knows that it's not exactly the most efficient use of our time.    00;06;44;24 - 00;07;05;06  Unknown  And so really trying to move into more of a how can I how can I learn more, how can I help grow a profitable business? That was a very intentional move. Awesome. And moving into your current role at Packer Fastener. First off, can you just share with our listeners what Packer Fastener does? Sure. So, Packer Fastener is one of eight different entities within our umbrella.    00;07;05;08 - 00;07;26;26  Unknown  The specific business buys and sells nuts and bolts. Kind of a very simply stated, we, we have a warehouse full of threaded fasteners. And we, sometimes move into safety equipment or paint and, types of, of solutions are we have banding or we will, drop vending machines at our customers and fill those vending machines.    00;07;26;26 - 00;07;54;03  Unknown  We have vendor manage inventory, customer manage inventory, some consignment. But it's really out there, trying to support electrical contractors, HVAC contractors, manufacturers, a lot of construction. So as we've seen, a lot of increase in construction spend, in particular the last couple of years, we've been able to, help our customers grow in that space as well. So it's really focused on, again, sort of low tech nuts and bolts and, you know, really growing environment.    00;07;54;06 - 00;08;16;04  Unknown  And Packer Fastener has been around since 1998. So you guys have, you know, pretty fairly lengthy history at this point. But the business, it sounds like, is really focused on expanding in the past decade. Could you just talk a little bit about how the company has grown and how it's evolved and in more recent years? Sure.

Find out more about NetSuite LCS and check out a list of upcoming events and available courses: https://bit.ly/3Cypwbz   NetSuite Principal Education Consultant Mark Gildea from the Learning Cloud Support (LCS) team goes deep on how NetSuite analytics and reporting work and how customers can get the most out of them for the second episode in our Listen & Learn series. Mark touches on who will benefit from a greater understanding of NetSuite SuiteAnalytics [3:34] before breaking down the different ways to query data in NetSuite [5:12], including saved searches, reports, and workbooks [7:08]. If you're a beginner, Mark provides a few suggestions on how you can up your skills when it comes to NetSuite reporting [9:59]. He then shares SuiteAnalytics use cases where he's seen customers find success [15:21] and how these insights can be valuable to employees across the business [18:25]. From there, the NetSuite expert shares more about live classes from LCS [19:29] and additional training sessions that come with the LCS Company Pass [25:38].   Like what you learned? Subscribe Now! http://bit.ly/NetSuiteYouTube   Follow Us Here: Mark Gildea: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-v-gildea/   Oracle NetSuite LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/NetSuiteLI Facebook: http://bit.ly/NetSuiteFB Instagram: http://bit.ly/NetSuiteIG Twitter: http://bit.ly/NetSuiteTW   #NetSuiteAnalytics #SuiteAnalytics #NetSuiteReports #NetSuite #NetSuiteERP   --------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00;00;04;07 - 00;00;21;17 Hey, SuiteListeners, welcome to The NetSuite Podcast. I'm Ian McCue, a cohost of this podcast, and today I'm excited to continue our Listen and Learn series. We kicked off this podcast series earlier this year with the goal of giving customers useful tips and tricks that will help them get more out of NetSuite, For part two of the series,   00;00;21;18 - 00;00;43;05 we're talking NetSuite Analytics with Mark Gildea, a principal education consultant on NetSuite's Learning Cloud Support or LCS team. Mark describes the differences between NetSuite reports, saved searches, workbooks, and NetSuite Analytics Warehouse and the role each plays in giving stakeholders across your business the insights they need. He shares useful background information for beginners on how these tools work,   00;00;43;07 - 00;01;03;04 then dives into how you can identify the right tool for the job and specific use cases that have driven eye-opening takeaways for customers he's worked with. Mark also walks through the resources available for NetSuite users to deepen their expertise. That spans self-service training through MyLearn, a number of live events, and personalized training sessions with education consultants such as Mark.   00;01;03;06 - 00;01;26;29 If you're a NetSuite customer looking to take advantage of all the reporting analytics capabilities in NetSuite, this is the episode for you, and it's coming up next. You're listening to the NetSuite Podcast where we discuss what's happening within NetSuite, why we're doing it, and where we're heading in the future. We'll dive into the details about the software and the people at NetSuite who are behind all the moving parts.   00;01;27;02 - 00;01;40;27 We'll also feature customer growth stories, discussing the ups and downs of running a company and how one integrated system can help your business continue to scale.   00;01;41;00 - 00;02;08;08 So to start out, Mark, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at NetSuite? Absolutely. As you said, my name is Mark Gildea, and I'm based here in Miami, Florida. I've been at NetSuite for three years now, and I'm a senior education consultant. And in addition to that, I lead a team of some analytics experts who deliver live event webinars.   00;02;08;08 - 00;02;31;01 And then I also participate in what we call Learning Labs that we deliver at various cities around the country. And so you're part of NetSuite Education Services and the Learning Cloud Support or LCS team. Could you remind our listeners about what your team does? Absolutely. First, probably want to know what LCS is—it's Learning Cloud Support   00;02;31;03 - 00;03;02;24 and what we do is we support what's called the LCS company Pass. And there are two, there's the standard and the premium. And then we also have what we call LCS live events or webinars. We support event packs, we also create videos, student guides, we do quick reference guides. And then also we have some advising sessions that we deliver that support the online training and what we call MyLearn.   00;03;02;26 - 00;03;40;20 And can you share a bit more about what topic you're going to be covering today on the podcast? Absolutely. Analytics, without question. It's my favorite thing that I deliver and analytics does incorporate different topics. So there are reports, there are saved searches, workbooks, and then this brand new edition called NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, also known as NSAW. And who do you think will kind of benefit the most from today's topic and from this conversation about analytics?   00;03;40;23 - 00;04;10;24 I would say the ultimate goal for our customers is to gain insights into their business. So I'd say, for example, a sales manager, obviously they want to know how well their sales reps are performing, maybe even where they're performing the best. You know, you got your project managers who are interested in how much did we sell the most of, the least of, what are the most profitable items. You can imagine   00;04;10;27 - 00;04;38;14 a warehouse manager needs analytics to understand how they're processing their incoming, you know, their purchase orders or what's going out, those sales orders. Maybe have a production manager who needs to know how well your processes are running. And obviously the C-suite, because you need to know where you are, right, in order to make a plan of where you want to arrive, sort of that first step.   00;04;38;17 - 00;05;08;19 So I would say anybody in any company that relies on data to make informed decisions, and I don't think it means just managers. There are certainly sales reps that want to know what they're doing best so they can find out what they can exploit to do even better. Yeah, absolutely. It makes a lot of sense as we, you know, talk about data-driven decisions and people, you know, using data to kind of guide these key decisions,   00;05;08;19 - 00;05;32;06 so definitely see how it could be useful for really anyone in the company. How would you describe Mark kind of the differences among the different ways you can query data in NetSuite? And when might someone use one of those options over another? Great question, and absolutely a question that I hear from my clients. So let's kind of break it up into different products.   00;05;32;06 - 00;06;00;14 First, let's talk about so searches and reports. Now, those two modalities--and both of those are they're creating SQL for us, they're interfaces that create SQL for us--and it's important to understand that they are accessing different datasets. But what they do is they give us real-time data that we can use to create these in-depth financial statements.   00;06;00;14 - 00;06;25;05 Our reports are really good at creating those statements, like income statement and balance sheet. They can also be set up to send alerts, for example, with saved searches. If you get a brand new customer in your sales queue, you can get an email. You can also set up a schedule to send out any of the financial reports quarterly, maybe to the CEO.   00;06;25;12 - 00;06;50;10 However, they can only--there's a little drawback--we can say that they can only join data by one level. So what does that mean? What that means is you can imagine you're doing a query on the customer record and the customer record happens to be attached to the transaction record. So I could query, let's say, the sales orders of the customer.   00;06;50;12 - 00;07;20;24 And then you've got that sales order that has a link to the item record and you can get that data for the item name, let's say, or the purchase price. Now in saved searches and reports, you can't make that double job to go from customer to transaction to item. And that's where SuiteAnalytics Workbooks comes into play. This particular modality has the benefit of what we call an infinite join.   00;07;20;27 - 00;07;56;20 So if you know databases, it's just that there to join datasets, so you can skip and you can combine data from disparate sources. Also with workbooks, you have the option of creating pivot tables and you can put those pivot tables on your dashboard, and that's a visualization that isn't available in either searches or reports. Now, reports can expand by levels, but it doesn't necessarily have that pivot and it also offers you different types of charts.   00;07;56;22 - 00;08;22;23 Now, that's where this new product comes into play. So we've had connectors for a long time, where you can connect from outside data sources to NetSuite. But then we have this NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, this is another separate product. The other three I mentioned come with everybody's instance, everybody has access to reports, searches, and workbooks. NSAW is separate.   00;08;22;24 - 00;08;47;20 Now this is sort of workbooks on steroids because the visualizations that you can get from this product are things I've never even heard of. So you can imagine, you've got things called scatter plots, maps--of course I know what maps are--and sunburst charts. And not only does it connect it to other data sources, but many more than just a connector.   00;08;47;22 - 00;09;15;05 And it does one additional thing. It can maintain historical data. So you can imagine, you have companies buying other companies and changing the name. Typically, you would lose that continuity, but with NSAW, it will maintain that continuity all in one visualization and one, let's say canvas. Now, that come

Learn more about NetSuite Planning and Budgeting: https://tinyurl.com/bdhm7phf   In this special episode of the NetSuite Podcast focusing on the CFO's agenda for 2025, cohost Megan O'Brien sits down with Jess Wijesekera, SVP of Global Accounting at Vytalize Health, a leading value-based care platform. They start the episode by discussing Jess' background and what brought her to her current role [1:55]. Jess then delves into Vytalize Health and its exponential growth over the last several years [6:26]. Megan and Jess discuss technology and talent issues [15:49]. They end the podcast episode by covering Vytalize Health's priorities for 2025 [31:52].   Follow Us Here:   Vytalize Health: https://www.vytalizehealth.com/   Jess Wijesekera LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-wijesekera-7290196/   Oracle NetSuite LinkedIn: https://social.ora.cl/6000wKFhC X (Twitter): https://social.ora.cl/6007wK2zD Instagram: https://social.ora.cl/6003wK2Hv Facebook: https://social.ora.cl/6005wK2Dv   #NetSuite #CFOAgenda, #Accounting   --------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00;00;04;21 - 00;00;28;20 Hello, all you Suite listeners. Thank you so much for tuning in to the NetSuite podcast. I'm Megan O'Brien, a co-host of the podcast. Now you all are in luck because today's episode marks the start of a mini series we are doing called The CFO Agenda. As we approach the end of 2024, we wanted to gauge what's on the docket for finance and accounting leaders.   00;00;28;23 - 00;00;50;23 In the first installment of the series, we have Jess Wijesekera, SVP of Global Accounting for Vytalize Health, a leading value based care platform. If you attended SuiteWorld or if you tuned into NetSuite OnAir to watch the main keynote, you would have seen her make an appearance with NetSuite Founder and EVP Evan Goldberg.   00;00;50;25 - 00;01;19;08 Vytalize Health has grown by a casual 90,778% over the last three years, so this episode is a great pulse check on what high-growth companies are prioritizing this coming year. We talk all about Jess' background and her current role of Vytalize Health, the company's exponential growth, and her plans for 2025. With that, let's go ahead and dive in.   00;01;19;11 - 00;01;45;23 You're listening to the NetSuite Podcast, where we discuss what's happening within NetSuite, why we're doing it, and where we're heading in the future. We'll dive into the details about the software and the people at NetSuite who are behind all the moving parts. We'll also feature customer growth stories discussing the ups and downs of running a company and how one integrated system can help your business continue to scale.   00;01;45;25 - 00;02;03;26 Hi, Jess. How are you today? Hey, Megan. Good. Really great to be here. Good. We're so happy to have you. Yeah. Thank you. All right, well, we're going to dive right in because we have so much to cover. We want to hear, first of all, about your background. Did you always know that you wanted to get into accounting?   00;02;03;29 - 00;02;26;29 I did not. But I was always very good at organizing people and organizing projects. And I think that organization has always really been a part of who I am. It's going to sound silly, but in kindergarten I used to and tell them where and how to jump rope, and they always just happily listened to what I had to say.   00;02;26;29 - 00;02;57;23 And I felt really like a natural leader and I knew I wanted to do something that captured my personality. So, for me, accounting is just a really nice because it's taking project management and organization and unpacking a puzzle takes a lot of patience, which I'm learning to have a lot of patience, but it takes a lot of kindness for interacting with other departments and some tenacity with dealing with service providers.   00;02;57;23 - 00;03;31;23 So, I didn't know I always wanted to do it, but it is feeling like a really good fit. I couldn't help but stalk you a little bit on LinkedIn. You majored in accounting at Villanova, which is where I went. Yeah, Wildcats, you know, so I know I just had a great experience there and I chose it really because they had a very solid business school and I had this accounting professor who taught financial accounting, and he told me that accounting was the hardest major in the business school.   00;03;31;26 - 00;03;58;08 And if I could do accounting, that I could do anything, I could do finance, I could do management, I could do marketing. And he was really right. And I followed my accounting degree up with a master's in finance at Boston College. And it's really worked well, I think, to have this understanding of everything that's accounting is past and everything that's finance is future and we meet in the present.   00;03;58;12 - 00;04;28;26 So it's kind of helped shape my career and where it's gone. That is such a cool perspective on it. And, and speaking of your career, could you talk a little bit about your past roles and your path to where you are now? Yeah, so like many accounting majors, I started at the Big Four, so I was at EY and I stayed longer than most. I was there about 15 years and I did a grand tour of about four offices.   00;04;28;29 - 00;04;55;29 So, I started in Palo Alto, and then did Boston, San Francisco, and I also did a three year secondment in the London office. And every time I felt I was going to leave public accounting, I stayed because I got a new opportunity or worked on a new client or with a new team. And it was this feeling that I could really add value, but also learn something completely new, which added to my skill set.   00;04;56;02 - 00;05;20;15 And I can't even tell you the number of times that I've cried in an audit room. I do think about those experiences and really how it shaped me. I got to work on Warner Brothers and Hawaiian Airlines, and towards the end of my career there, I was a national instructor for 606 when that Rev Rec standard was completely new and nobody knew what to do.   00;05;20;15 - 00;05;48;11 So that helped me with my foundation for where I am now. But after 15 years I decided to go into industry, so I started as an assistant controller. I was at a bottling company and my very first day on the job I realized I've never booked a journal entry in my whole life and a few roles since I have taken on kind of new areas of responsibility and kept growing my own skillset.   00;05;48;13 - 00;06;14;09 And I'm actually really lucky now to have brought on a couple of people I've worked with in the past, you know, kind of through EY and other companies because we just really enjoy working together. So that all of that brought me to my life. Well, I mean, I don't think you've really worked for a Big Four unless you've cried somewhere in an office, so you, you sent that experience home. Probably an office without windows.   00;06;14;11 - 00;06;40;07 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did my crying in a phone booth, so. Yeah, yeah, No windows. We're all here now. We're all here. And better for it. So speaking of Vytalize, you ended up joining Vytalize Health about two years ago? Can you tell our listeners a little bit about what Vytalize Health does? Yeah, so Vytalize is a value-based care company.   00;06;40;09 - 00;07;10;11 Value-based care is a collection of doctors and service providers and payers that work collectively to have better outcomes for patients. And coincidentally, that's usually at a reduced cost. So, what we do is sit between the primary care physician and CMS, which is the Center for Medicare Services. So we help our physicians strengthen the relationship that they have with their patients.   00;07;10;13 - 00;07;41;13 And if we succeed in that and meet certain quality metrics and achieve these better health outcomes, then CMS as the payer, they give us a share of that. So, I'll use a fancy terminology, but it's really aligning incentives, right? So, we're all incentivized for providing better, higher quality care, not necessarily more care. And it's really working because we're giving these doctors more time to spend with their patients.   00;07;41;13 - 00;08;18;00 So, we provide services like care coordination and virtual home care, in-home care. And it's particularly important for the Medicare population. You know, if you think about 65 plus and then people that are, you know, often not able to get to the doctor, in-home care is so critical. And really, we see ourselves as an extension of the physician so that we operate as part of their practice and really preventing hospitalizations and improving the quality of life and, you know, for an accounting major, that's certainly something I can get behind.   00;08;18;00 - 00;08;42;02 And, you know, the mission and kind of what we're doing, it feels really good. What does a typical day in your shoes look like? So like many companies in the pandemic, we went remote. So I have a little office that I use in a coworking space and I bring my puppy with me and we have a lot of meetings.   00;08;42;02 - 00;09;07;10 So back-to back-video meetings, I do a lot of meetings direct with one on ones, with my direct reports. We are constantly meeting with our EY tax team, Connor Group accounting specialists, so treasury and tax report through me. And then I just took on the FP&A function as well. So, this week was a lot of meeting with department heads to try and craft our budget.   00;09;07;12 - 00;09;34;04 But I find my typical day is really helping my team make good decisions and collaborative points of view and just making sure that we're prioritizing the right thing at the right time. Because like so many companies growing as quickly as we are, you know, you're this can be really long and kind of helping decide what comes first and what can come when, as you know, is a really big part of my job when I also have the puppy.   00;09;34;04 - 00;09;57;04 So she's as cute as can be. And we try and get out of some walks in between all of the meeting

Learn more about NetSuite's Business Grows Here event series: https://tinyurl.com/bdeabwr7   In this episode of the NetSuite Podcast, cohost Megan O'Brien sits down with JD Weinstein, Global Director of Oracle's Venture Capital Practice. He discusses the findings from a panel he moderated at NetSuite's Business Grows Here event stop in St. Louis [2:01]. They then play excerpts of the panel featuring Dan Conner, general partner at Ascend Venture Capital, and Craig Herron, managing principal at iSelect [8:50]. They discuss the advice they have for early-stage founders, including tripling the amount of investors they reach out to and tripling the amount of time spent fundraising [15:46]. Dan and Craig cover the status of dry powder since its 2021 highs [27:37]. They conclude by sharing their top takeaways for founders [36:25]   Follow Us Here:   Business Grows Here: https://tinyurl.com/bdeabwr7   JD Weinstein LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdweinstein/ Dan Conner LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danconner1/ Craig Herron LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-herron-3a2801/   Oracle NetSuite LinkedIn: https://social.ora.cl/6000wKFhC X (Twitter): https://social.ora.cl/6007wK2zD Instagram: https://social.ora.cl/6003wK2Hv Facebook: https://social.ora.cl/6005wK2Dv   #NetSuite #VentureCapital #Fundraising   ---------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00;00;04;04 - 00;00;40;00 Hello everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in to the NetSuite Podcast. I'm Megan O'Brien, a co-host of the podcast. We have quite a unique episode in store for you all today. Recently, NetSuite has been hosting events in various different cities across the US called Business Growth Here. This tour is geared towards helping local entrepreneurs and business leaders discover strategies and tools essential for business expansion, as well as valuable insights on effectively managing all aspects of a growing business from cash flow to overall operations.   00;00;40;02 - 00;01;10;11 The events are tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities of each city and feature local leaders and visionaries. In the Saint Louis tour stop, one of the sessions that really stood out to me was a panel on the current venture capital landscape. It was moderated by JD Weinstein, global director of Oracle's venture capital practice, and featured Dan Conner, general partner at Ascend Venture Capital, and Craig Herron, managing principal at iSelect.   00;01;10;13 - 00;01;35;22 There's a lot of great insight in there around the market build back, what venture capitalists are looking for right now in companies, and how founders can increase their chances of getting funding. After hearing that, I knew I wanted to share the valuable insights with all of you, our wonderful listeners. With that, let's jump in, because you're not going to want to miss out on this episode.   00;01;35;24 - 00;02;02;02 You're listening to the NetSuite Podcast, where we discuss what's happening within NetSuite, why we're doing it, and where we're heading in the future. We'll dive into the details about the software and the people at NetSuite who are behind all the moving parts. We'll also feature customer growth stories discussing the ups and downs of running a company and how one integrated system can help your business continue to scale.   00;02;02;05 - 00;02;22;01 To kick us off, we have JD Weinstein, the global director of Oracle's venture capital practice, who moderated the panel. He joined us for a quick interview just to give an overview of the session and some of his key takeaways. Could you begin by telling our listeners a little bit about yourself and what you do for Oracle? Sure thing.   00;02;22;03 - 00;02;56;26 My name is JD Weinstein. I joined Oracle just over six years ago and now lead our global venture practice. I've previously worked for various early stage accelerator programs and strategic or corporate venture funds to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses with special advantages. At Oracle, we work alongside VCs globally to help early stage portfolio companies scale with our cloud technology solutions, global customer network, and rich enterprise ecosystem.   00;02;56;28 - 00;03;22;25 So that starts with NetSuite and Oracle Cloud infrastructure, but extends to database to Java and our rich application suite. We also make strategic equity investments alongside our M&A function under our corporate development line of business. You were the moderator for a session at the St Louis Business Grows Here event called Raising Capital to Fuel Growth in an AI-Driven Era.   00;03;22;27 - 00;04;00;10 Could you give us an overview of the panel for all our listeners? Sure. We covered a good bit of ground here, starting with the state of the economy and what it means for venture and founders growing their businesses in this era. I had the pleasure to interview Craig Herron, the managing principal of iSelect, a venture fund focused on the agrifood supply chain and health care, and Dan Connor, a general partner at Ascend Venture Capital, who leads an early stage thematic VC specializing in data-centric companies.   00;04;00;12 - 00;04;30;13 We talked about the state of the economy and what it means, from rising interest rates, fewer public listings, valuation correction to other complex macro headwinds, and how it really translates to start up business building. And then how that has changed fundraising in this climate overall too. We spoke to what makes a great business venture backable. So what the general partners on stage look for in exceptional entrepreneurs.   00;04;30;16 - 00;04;57;20 And then we also talked to tactical advice on just a general approach to fundraising and how to run a successful process. Hint: exactly like you would a sophisticated enterprise sales strategy. And then, of course, we concluded with the surge of AI capabilities and how we're going to be more productive with less. How that's impacted our industry. Why do you think this session was so important to include in our St Louis Business   00;04;57;20 - 00;05;23;27 Grows Here event? I mean, what is it about today's landscape that made it especially timely? Yeah, I think it's so important that we highlight the investment in commercial activity that's booming in the Midwest and specifically in Saint Louis and broader Missouri for this Business Grows Here event. Oftentimes we get this false perception of only venture activity buzzing on the coasts.   00;05;24;00 - 00;05;50;24 And while the majority of megarounds do happen there, at the earliest stages, we're seeing more and more data show the spread of entrepreneurial ecosystems emerging across this entire mid-continent. Steve Case and The Rise of the Rest phenomena, right? And so, with connectivity everywhere in the world, everybody has access now to build a great company. What was the highlight of the venture capital panel in Saint Louis for you?   00;05;50;25 - 00;06;24;24 Any particularly interesting thoughts you heard? You know, I can recall, I loved a quote that Dan pointed out in the panel, which was really just a description for founders to go back to the fundamentals that I see so many startups miss. Your customers are the most important stakeholders, period. Full stop. Without them, there is no business. So he describes a funny metaphor for saying they look for mission-critical businesses to invest in.   00;06;24;28 - 00;06;49;03 And so, if a customer, you know, the example he gave was somebody's hair is on fire and you may be selling sandwiches, which could be the best in the world or best in town, but someone's hair is on fire, that they're probably not going to want to sandwich. A much better business would be, you know, leasing fire extinguishers or something else that drives mission criticality.   00;06;49;05 - 00;07;19;13 What are your thoughts on the venture capital landscape as a result of the panel? What did you leave with? I'm really bullish on the venture landscape as I've always been and believe that entrepreneurs have the chance to shape the world for the better while advancing humanity. In this particular time, especially when we look at, you know, other hard times in the economy, an astounding number of companies were created from the last '08 Recession.   00;07;19;15 - 00;07;48;29 WhatsApp, Venmo, Pinterest, Slack, Uber, Airbnb, list goes on. Same thing happened after '01. And just less than half of Fortune 500 companies can actually trace back to being created in a crisis. And so why is that? People look for security, behaviors shift immensely, fear plays in. So the world becomes a pretty giant opportunity for entrepreneurs to take advantage of in these times.   00;07;49;02 - 00;08;14;17 That's such a great description. Kind of uplifting, and I love it. So, to end it, are there any best practices that you have for any listeners here that might be seeking funding right now or in the near future? You know, there's one insight that's one insight that's always stuck with me profoundly, which is this: Investors invest in lines, not dots   00;08;14;17 - 00;08;40;25 metaphor. What that means is rarely investors will wire you funds after your very first meeting, which is a dot or a data point. More often than not, they're evaluating your execution, your communication, trust building over time. And so each meeting that you have with an investor is a dot or a potential data point. And what investors are really looking for is to connect those dots. They're investing   00;08;40;25 - 00;09;19;24 in that connection, that's fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us, JD. I really appreciate it. Thanks, Megan. Enjoyed it. NetSuite by Oracle. The number one cloud financial system is everything you need to grow all in one place. Financials, inventory and more. Make better decisions faster so you can do more and spend less. See how at NetSuite.com/pod. With that, let's jump into the panel recording w

Register for On Air to access recordings of SuiteWorld keynotes, sessions, product demos, and more: https://bit.ly/3MOuMK8   In this episode of the NetSuite Podcast, cohost Megan O'Brien sits down with multiple guests to recap the SuiteWorld 2024 event. She is joined first by Craig Sullivan, group vice president of product management at NetSuite, who covers new UX and AI features announced at SuiteWorld [1:31]. Next, Carly Nesson, a social impact pro bono project manager at NetSuite, discusses the Hackathon 4Good, NetSuite's annual event at SuiteWorld where teams of "hackers" flex their technological prowess to create solutions for a nonprofit organization [11:25]. Lastly, Ranga Bodla, vice president of field engagement and marketing at NetSuite, closes out the episode by discussing learning opportunities and customer highlights from the event [16:25].   Follow Us Here:   SuiteWorld homepage: https://www.netsuitesuiteworld.com/ NetSuite On Air registration: http://reg.rf.oracle.com/flow/oracle/sw24/attendeeportal24?source=PPC_Event_Horiz_SuiteWorld2024_0924 NetSuite Pro Bono email: probono_ww@oracle.com   Carly Nesson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-nesson-52809a3a/ Craig Sullivan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigssullivan/ Ranga Bodla LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ranga-bodla-bb45b/   Oracle NetSuite LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/NetSuiteLI Facebook: http://bit.ly/NetSuiteFB Instagram: http://bit.ly/NetSuiteIG Twitter: http://bit.ly/NetSuiteTW   #NetSuite #SuiteWorld #AI   --------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcription:   00;00;01;23 - 00;00;31;29 Hey all you Suite listeners, you just tuned in to the NetSuite Podcast. I'm your co-host, Megan O'Brien. We're coming off SuiteWorld 2024. NetSuite's annual user conference in Las Vegas, and it was just packed with exciting updates, fascinating customer stories, and amazing learning opportunities. We wanted to bring all those insights to you, our listeners, in a SuiteWorld recap podcast episode.   00;00;32;02 - 00;00;57;21 We'll have several guests in this episode to cover the major happenings at this year's SuiteWorld, including NetSuite's vision for the future, new product announcements, freshly launched AI and UX features, results from NetSuite's annual hackathon event, and other great highlights. So whether you missed SuiteWorld this year or you just want a quick hit summary to supplement your SuiteWorld experience, you're in the right place.   00;00;57;23 - 00;01;31;25 With that, let's jump right in because it's time to get into everything SuiteWorld. You're listening to the NetSuite Podcast where we discuss what's happening within NetSuite, why we're doing it, and where we're heading in the future. We'll dive into the details about the software and the people at NetSuite who are behind all the moving parts. Will also feature customer growth stories discussing the ups and downs of running a company and how one integrated system can help your business continue to scale.   00;01;31;27 - 00;02;00;17 First up, we have Craig Sullivan, group vice president of product management at NetSuite, to cover the latest product updates announced at SuiteWorld, new AI features, and NetSuite's revamped user experience. Let's start with a fun one. What were some of your favorite moments from this year's SuiteWorld? So many. So many, Megan. I think if I was to really go right to it, participating in the product keynote is always a highlight.   00;02;00;20 - 00;02;20;09 The opportunity to share with the audience all the things that the teams have been working on is, you know, is always a proud moment. A proud moment for me and a proud moment for them. And I think the other thing is, you know, SuiteWorld is, you know, once a year it's an opportunity for catching up with customers, partners, and colleagues from around the world, too.   00;02;20;09 - 00;02;44;21 And that's always great to see folks that I haven't seen for a year or so. Yeah. Back in person again there in Las Vegas. During his keynote, NetSuite founder and executive vice president Evan Goldberg, called AI a force multiplier that can supercharge Net Suite's ability to fuel customer growth. Can you speak to some of the new AI features coming to NetSuite that will help make that a reality?   00;02;44;23 - 00;03;36;16 Absolutely, I completely agree with Evan. And, you know, firstly and we also think that Suiteness plus AI, where AI is operating across the entirety of the business dataset, can generate even deeper insights. And so things like EPM and the narrative reporting capabilities, where it's actually using generative AI to describe, you know,  what the company's financials represent is an extremely interesting and time saving new set of capabilities, as well as predictive forecast explanations where, you know, the system itself will describe what it sees and provide explanation as for what's going on in the in the forecast. In NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, we have things like auto insights, the explain capability, the prebuilt   00;03;36;20 - 00;04;10;08 machine learning modules and data interactions assistant for natural language queries. These are great capabilities that allow not just the system to explain to you what's happening and what it sees in the in the data that it's looking at, but also then allowing you as a customer to interact with it, using natural language to ask questions, ask it to provide additional information in the visualizations that really helps get even more value out of the out of the system.   00;04;10;10 - 00;04;50;15 Things like Prompt Studio, which allows you to choose how the generative AI and the Text Enhance capabilities actually operate for you specific to your business. And then lastly, but certainly not least, you know, some examples from the developer side of the house, you know, whether you're an admin extending the system for your own business or you're a NetSuite cloud partner that's building SuiteScript-based add on to the system, you know, things like the generative APIs, SuiteScripts, and the code assist for SuiteScripts are actually, you know, really great tools that allow you to get even more value for your business by actually leveraging   00;04;50;15 - 00;05;26;22 the AI system underneath the Suite, so to speak, as part of the add ons and the extensions that you're making to your implementations. One of the key themes in Evan's keynote was how a strong technology foundation is crucial for organizations to conquer challenges and grow as their environment constantly changes. How do you think NetSuite's approach to AI can further that vision? The approach that we're taking is that AI is everywhere and it's not just about providing bolt-on tools, but building intelligence into the core of the Suite and then making it available to everybody.   00;05;26;24 - 00;05;44;12 We really don't see that future customers are going to be asking for the unintelligent version of a business system. And so by making sure that it's just part of the way that we build the application and part of the way that we deliver it to them, we think that that's exactly what customers are going to be asking for in the future.   00;05;44;15 - 00;06;07;12 There were so many exciting product updates announced at SuiteWorld. Just covering those here would be pretty much the whole episode. What were some of your favorite innovations announced and how do you envision them helping our customers? Yeah, there were a lot. A couple of the ones that come to mind, and not just because they were in my part of the product keynote, but actual exception management.   00;06;07;15 - 00;06;36;11 This is really the perfect intersection of Suiteness, and AI. It identifies potential issues early so they can be solved, resolved right away, even surfacing potential issues during sales order capture so that the system can potentially flag problematic situations that could cause problems downstream. And you know, in areas like profitability and the examples that we showed in the keynote and also in the expo hall, it really just the beginning of what is possible with this this area.   00;06;36;11 - 00;07;10;06 So I'm excited about that. And, you know, based upon the reaction from our customers, it seems like they are too. The other thing I think stood out for me and which I would encourage our customers to take a look at, actually is SuiteProcurement, which was another one of the big announcements from the event. And it's not just about driving efficiency in what is a complex process for all customers, but also through the partnerships that we forged with Amazon Business and Staples, is delivering really tremendous value and cost savings to the customers also.   00;07;10;08 - 00;07;36;13 Evan also announced that NetSuite is adopting the Oracle Redwood User Experience, which is an award-winning design system used within Oracle's cloud applications. What do you mind giving our listeners an overview of the Redwood approach and how it will benefit them? Absolutely. I think I think, you know, if you look around, you, you know, the world is definitely changed over the last 25 years since NetSuite was founded.   00;07;36;15 - 00;08;02;24 Everyone now has access to applications in their everyday lives via their smartphones or iPads, tablets, whatever. And many of those applications have focused on delivering beautiful and intuitive user experiences. Our perspective is that we don't want those users coming to work and being disappointed in how their business applications look and feel, how long it takes them to learn, how difficult it is for them to do what they need to do.   00;08;02;27 - 00;08;30;03 The Redwood design system addresses decades of the business user of being an afterthought in terms of user experience and delivers a truly delightful experience from the very first interaction. And as a result, this encourages engagement and accelerates adoption so as to drive even mor