SC Corner E4: What should I expect at SuiteWorld?

I'm Becca Smith, a solution architect at NetGain. I'm a CPA and started my career at Deloitte in their business Tax Service Group. My legendary co host, Chris Miller, is our VP of Product Strategy at NetGain. He was at NetSuite for over six years, solutioning with some of their largest enterprise clients. He's a CPA and has served in roles such as controller, director of finance and cfo. So let's jump in and tackle today's topic. Well, welcome to SC Corner. We are Chris Miller and Becca Smith, and we're going to be talking about Sweet World today, because that is coming up.

Yeah. Pretty exciting. You know, I've been to every Sweet World but one, from the very beginning. Crazy. Always looking forward to getting to go again.

Yes. And I've been to two Sweet Worlds, so much less. But they've been very educational and lots going on at both times. So it's been really fun.

Yeah, yeah, it's a. It's a. It's a great time. I think it's not only is it great for a learning experience and getting to meet customers, but then you really get a sense of what netsuite's trying to accomplish. What? Sometimes you almost feel like you're part of something bigger and it becomes a really neat thing.

Yeah. Because it always starts off with, like, the really big presentation where they go over anything new that NetSuite has, like, released in the past year and anything that they're planning to release. Right.

Mm.

So I know. It's actually interesting because reconciliation, specifically, I remember seeing at Sweet World last year, and then they just released that within the last couple months. So just kind of interesting seeing how NetSuite is growing.

Yeah, no, it is, it's funny. And in the early days, it changed. You know, they used to do a. Before Oracle bought us, it became kind of like the big Investor. You know, NetSuite is a public company, so they would always. Zach would always do on day one, like, kind of the investor presentation. What's NetSuite? And I'll never forget, we were at the first one, and one of my co workers, he was the controller for One part of ClearChoice, I was the other. And we're going to elbow me. And he's like, you know what? I'm learning from this. And he was like, what? He's all, we're paying NetSuite way too much money because he saw you. Because Zach was talking about the profitability and the revenue growth, and it was funny. That's what he Took from it.

He's like, wait, if they're making that much money, then they're making too much off us.

Yeah, they got way too much from us. So it was pretty funny. That was his big takeaway from Sweetworld number one.

Because when did they start doing Sweet World?

Let's see. It was. I want to say it was 2012 was the first one. So there was one Sweetworld, and the very first one I went to as a customer. And the way we ended up going was they called us and they said, hey, are you guys going to Sweetworld? And we were kind of like, well, we were thinking about it, but, you know, we weren't sure we were going to go. And they said, well, you won an award. And then of course, I said, well, of course I'm going.

Gotta accept the award.

You know, it was shallow, but no, it was, as it turned out. So John Waltner, cfo, and then Richard, our comptroller, the three of us ended up going out. They had internally looked at everything and they had this award they called the Hairball Award, which basically was who was the messiest, like, implementation and thing that they had had. Because at ClearChoice, we had. We were on Great Plains and we had taken. Because the legal structure for medical entities was so convoluted, we had like 96 different instances or companies that had been created in there. And so what we did is we moved all of that into NetSuite, and NetSuite, even themselves didn't think they could do it at the time. They would tell you you could only put 50 subsidiaries in. And then we kind of surprised them almost, and they're like, oh. And then they're like, all right, we're going to try this. No promises. And it worked out great. And so, yeah, it was kind of cool.

Test the system. And it worked.

Yeah, yeah, it worked. And they came through. And it's amazing how much smaller, how different it was, because at the first one, there were. There were like two or three things that I, you know, I remember the first was we actually had dinner at Zach Nelson's house. So it was. It was really awesome. He. By people over, we got to talk to him. And then. And then I, you know, in the first one, you know, Zach was, you know, he mentioned that, like, he would never do a user conference because he was in charge of the user conference for Oracle when he worked for Oracle under Larry Ellison, he was the head of marketing. So he's like, I swore I'd never do this. And then they kind of talked him into it. And so he's like, here we are. You know, and at that first event, it seemed like nutsu employees outnumbered you two to one from visitors. You know, it's a far different. I mean, just incredibly different now. Yeah, you know, my. My favorite thing from the first one is I got. Somehow I got invited to go to this analyst event. And so they were like, maybe it was the second one. I can't. Maybe it was 1 2. I forget. But anyway, they. You know, they were like, chris, you're our. You're our. I don't know. Ringer is not the right word, but, like, you're our customer reference. So next thing you know, I'm at Larry Ellison's house with all of the industry analysts, and basically, I'm answering all these questions about NetSuite. They're like, oh, you're the. You're the. You're the corporate guru. You know, the. It was really a funny thing. So they were. They were talking about it, and then. And then they had a guy from the Food Network making food, and, you know, it was really cool. And then the. And then I had four kids at the time. They were like. I had four under four, so. Four and under. So, you know, I teased my wife out because I called her, and I was like, nancy, you're not gonna believe this. Like, I'm in Larry Ellison's house, like, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, and I said, they got some guy from the Food Network making food for us right now. And she said, well, we're having macaroni and cheese, and hung up on me. So I learned from there. It was like, from then on, on trips, food stinks. People stink.

You know, nothing's fun.

Nothing's fun and certainly not amazing. So it was, like. It was pretty funny. So it was a good time.

Well, that's awesome. Sweet World's definitely different now.

I feel like it is.

So I guess was the point of Sweet World always to just connect with customers or. Because I feel like now so much of Sweet World is about learning about NetSuite as well as, like, seeing the partners and meeting the partners that you can see what add ons and what you could add to your NetSuite account.

Yeah, there's always been, like, three big things there. First and foremost, it did start out as, like, we wanted to teach customers about the people who are existing customers about NetSuite. So it really did kind of begin as, like, this user event. Like, how do we get people to know netsuite better to be. Use the system better in many ways, like a retention. And then in the early days, too, it was also an investor day thing. So it was your time. It was a time for Zach and Jim to talk to the investors, the investing world, you know, the institutional investors, kind of get the message out. And then it grew, and I think for the better now. Sweetworld, I think, really does three different things. The first is the classes are way better. Like, you'll go to a class now, and I'll sit in, and I learn things all the time. And I'm like, that was really a great class. In fact, I'll go to suiteanswers and I'll pull up the presentations from stuff that I saw to kind of like, remember. And I was like, these are way better than the presentations I used to give. But in those early days, they were very basic. Like, this is how you log in in netsuite, you know, type things.

There's a lot of, like, deep dive.

Yeah, yeah. And that's, like, awesome. And then the second thing is it's become very much a customer acquisition. And I mean that in the best way. If you can get a customer to come to netsuite, they will join to Suite World. They'll. They'll join the netsuite family if you will become a customer. Because there's great, great energy there. And then you can kind of see all the things you can do. Because so many times you buy NetSuite and your entire NetSuite experience is kind of like this little tiny thing that you have in this little tiny. In your kind of world. And you think, well, because you know the saying, where fish discovers water last, that's a little bit what people. NetSuite users do. They don't know what's out there. And so it really expands your horizon. Well, if you're thinking about buying a system, it's true. Tremendous for that.

Like, so do they invite potential customers to Net World a lot?

Okay. Yeah, a lot. So I used to do meetings just almost exactly with that meeting with customer. Potential customers who would come out and just see everything. So the.

So are the scs then meeting with potential customers a lot during Sweet World?

Yeah.

Okay. Because we always have, like, there's the big booth area for all the SC's and Netsuite.

Yeah.

Towards the back. I remember that.

Mm. So, yeah. Becca, what would happen for the. For the solution consultants is. I think it's changed over the years. I always went. And so what they would usually do is they would take. In the early days, they kind of grab who they Thought the, you know, their best demoers were. And we'd be working the demo pods and got all kinds of stories for that when we want to get there. They were, they were, they were always fun. And it's, it's funny how that worked because the idea of the demo pods are usually for people to come up and that became the what new prospects would go. So the idea was you bring people by and you'd show them netsuite and be an easy one. Never was that the typical thing I would get was, hey, the netsuite guru sent me over to you. They said, you may be able to answer this. I've asked support, I've asked every partner and I've asked.

So these are like current customers?

Yeah, current customers, yes. And they're like. And everyone says no one can. Can. This is. This problem can't be fixed. So they said to come see you. What do I do? And I'd be like, well, let me just log into my demo account here in front of 20 people and we.

Will figure it out.

We'll solve the problem for you.

Were you able to solve the problem?

There were a few I. And then there were some where I'd be like, I don't know what to do here or, you know, you've got a big one. But it was almost always that it was. We used to joke that it was not demo to new customers. It was corner an SC and pelt them with all of the questions that I've been wanting to ask someone for the last year. So it was all stuff. So those are kind of the fun things. I think actually last year we did, you know, as a partner, I think, because we had a lot of new products. I think a lot of people were in that thing. I expect you'll get quite a bit of that this year, Becca, where someone will be like, how does this work in netlease?

Well, I remember even getting it a little bit last year. People would come up and they'd be like, okay, we've been talking to our implementation team, but you're the sc, so I'd like to talk to you about it and see if they can get like a different answer, basically. And so thank you for try to come up with one.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. That'll. That'll be the fun. The, the, the fun of it. Um, and so, yeah, and then, so apart from training and then that, you know, the. If I was an existing customer, you just get to see the trade shows actually really awesome. Like, like every year I do, I do two Things. One's probably good, one's probably embarrassing. But every year I go through the whole thing and I try to learn from, you know, if I see anything interesting or anything like that, I'll. I'll talk to them and, you know, just trying to learn what it is that they're doing and understand that.

At, like, the booths, right?

Yep, at the booths. So when I ran the Finance center of Excellence, of course everyone was like, oh, Chris, we gotta. What does it take to get you to recommend us? Or something? And so I go through and kind of learn everything I could. And then the. Again, because I had five at this point, five kids under six, they were like, dad, get his stuff. So I learned that, like, on that Thursday morning, you just go by and you just scrape all the booths of the junk and take it home. And the kids think it's awesome because on day one, everybody's holding onto their trinkets like they're made a goal. Like, you're not going to get my.

Unless you, like, sign up for something.

Yeah, exactly. You're not going to get my pen or my $2 T shirt unless you give me something. But by, like, day four, they're like, just. I don't even care who you are. Just. Just take all this stuff so I don't have to drive it home. So that's usually when I strike.

So I like it. Yeah, I definitely am. Last year, they had the booth or the. The claw machines with the little dolls that they were giving out. And so I definitely got one for my husband. It was fun.

Oh, that is. Those are good. Yeah. And so that's kind of the. The fun piece. The other thing that happens at Sweetworld is this is the only time that people are ever truly together. Like, you see whole teams together. You know, us as partners, we'll see people at NetSuite that we have only not talked to since last Sweetworld. It is amazing. And this amazed me from the very first Sweetworld that Netsuite people, there's this culture where they're very open. So I didn't know Zach Nelson or Jim McGeever or any of the people who were. I had no idea I'd be working for them and know them. But, like, on the very first one, it was, you know, they were. They spent time with us. They were really, really great. And they would do that with, like, you know, everybody from us as we were one of their best customers to. I remember some guy cornering Zach telling about his new app he was going to, you know, at that same party and, you know, it was like, get me out of here. But they were great about it. And, you know, that's still gone through today. You can walk through and you can see Sam Levy, you know, you can see Evan, you can see all the executives, and they're still out there, you know, talking, mingling, talking to the customers, employees, like really keeping this thing. And I think that's a great, A great thing, because when I worked there in that suite, you know, kind of before going out on my own as a partner, that was what I actually loved about NetSuite the most, was that sense of community. And it's really kind of on display, you know, at Sweet World.

Yeah, I would totally agree with that. I mean, I feel like the Sweet World I've been at, it's been so helpful to be able to be like, face to face with clients. And like, you get people from all over the world as well, right? You have the clients from Australia that you're never going to be able to see normally. And then you get to actually sit down with them and work through things in person. So I. Yeah, there's definitely a value add that I've seen from being able to have that face to face contact.

Yeah.

At Sweetworld.

Yeah, absolutely. It's. It's great, you know, and so it's. And I kind of really enjoy being on the other side here. So, you know, all my years until, you know, these last couple years have been at the Sweet World booth or doing that, but it's like, it's actually been a lot.

I thought, now you're on the partner side.

Yeah, now I'm on the partner side. It was actually a lot of fun last year, kind of teaching people about, you know, what net gain does. I don't know what you. But I thought the Sweet Roller thing was actually a lot of fun. It was cool getting to do like that.

And we're doing that again this year. We're going to have the High Roller on Tuesday. So anybody can sign up.

Yeah, absolutely. The High Roller is here to stay. So definitely we want people to do that. And that's kind of a. You know, even when Adam and I were talking about that, there were these fun netsuites world traditions that were there, and they kind of moved as they moved. And that's one why we were like thinking, what could we create to be something that people look forward to every year? And that's kind of what we hope to make the High Roller into, is something that people check it off, you know, get my High Roller tickets For Sweetworld is something they look forward to.

That's cool. So Sweetworld used to have a lot of their own events that were like that.

Yeah, they sure did. There were a lot for customers, but yeah, they would have like, you know, there would be dinners that they would host. There were almost always activities.

They probably still do those.

Yeah, there's some.

We're on the partner side, so we don't necessarily go.

Yeah, we're dead to them now. So they're so they're like, you're not, you're not invited anymore. So it was. But no, I think they do that and I think there's people that do they. They're like, okay, we're going to this or this. And they look forward to it. So.

Good. Yeah. So I guess being on the partnership side or. Yeah, partnership side. I guess what's the best way to interact with the scs? Do you feel like, like what's our.

Oh, yeah, yeah. As far as the.

Or like, I guess what benefit could SCS get from like interacting with us?

Sure. I would hope that, you know, any solutions and not just from netsuite, but, you know, if you're working, you know, with your partner, MHI or RSM or any of these other. You know, I know I'm forgetting 50 of you, so I mean, no, no offense. Absolutely. Just that's who popped in my head. But if you're at any partner in. So if you're an independent consultant, come on over. Because there are two things that you get from it. The first thing is you get to learn specifically like what we're doing from like products. And we have things that are really, really relevant to what netsuite is going to be speaking about. So you take the big acquisition or release this year of the Oracle EPM suite. Last year it was AP Automation and Planning and Budgeting Cloud. Well, this year the big EPM suite piece they're releasing is NetSuite Account Reconciliation, which is, you know, kind of getting into a piece in the close. Well, if you're looking and saying, okay, I need to learn more about close or even reconciliations, you know, we have a lot of products that focus on the clothes, everything around reconciliations and then also some recs. You can come and learn to see how that that works and see, well, where did would NSAR play? Where would net close be ideal? But we, that's across like all things. You know, we don't have the ASC842, the lease accounting kind of boogeyman saying everyone's gotta got to get online. But now what we have is the second year is SES are gonna start hearing a different set of questions. They're gonna not hear, oh, I gotta get on, do my lease thing now. They're gonna hear, my auditor said my lease accounting sucked. What do I do now? Or at each pain point, you know.

Super manual, it takes forever. Do you have anything inside of NetSuite to help with this?

That's exactly it. So the conversation will change a little bit and actually be a little more sophisticated because everybody now is on the standard. It's not just, I need this standard thing. It's going to be like, this is what's bothering me about the standard. SCs can come and get, learn about exactly that and how. We're like, hey, this is the solution to your problem, you know, in two ways. If you're direct sales, that affects your win probability. So you want to build the best package with the fewest number of partners to raise your win probability. If you're an amos, where a lot of them come to suite world, you know, now you can see it's important when you're looking at the retention. Yes, you want upsell and there's opportunities. But we also want to see, well, where can we solve the customer's pain point while still, you know, perhaps higher.

Chance of retention, less pain points.

Yeah, yeah. And you can still find up sell, say an increased license, use source, things like that. So we can talk about strategies for that, both win probabilities on the direct side and then also how we can actually help, you know, find the upsell or cross sell that you're looking for if you're on the amo side. The other thing that you get when you go to the sweet world is I can't tell you how many people, how many smart people there are like in the netsuite world. And I will see something, I'm trying to think of a good example, but I will go and I will see something that a partner has done, you know, like in a product. And I'll think that's a great idea. You know, that what they just made there, I didn't really think we could do that. It could be something small as like, I look at it and be like, they have a script that calculates something or does something, or they made some sort of UI element or they've got some sort of process or this magnificent report and I'll be like, I'll fall away. And not, not to plagiarize it, but to be like, over here in my world, Now I know something I didn't that I could say, oh, I can apply that. And you start kind of doing that.

Kind of expand toolbox of like what you can create by seeing what other people are able to do.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And then, you know, the third thing probably Becca, is like someone like your mind or my mind. As we walk by, sometimes you, you will go and you will see a third party app and know that and you'll think that belongs in netsuite, you know, and you, you start thinking, you can't help but start thinking, okay, I'll do this, this, this. Before you know it, you know, product shows up, you know that, that meets the customer's need. That could be better where they could be better served in having that inside a NetSuite than outside, you know, that, you know, we, we feel really strongly that a lot of the close process belongs inside of NetSuite. Where the data is and where the people who are responsible for closing the books and responsible for the data is. That should be in the system. It makes little sense to export it out to another system, do all your work and then put whatever changes you did in and then certify that these two pieces are good when it could all be done in, you know, in the one, in the one system. And so, you know, that's a. Those kinds of ideas come to you at Sweet World sometimes. Yeah.

Awesome. Okay. I love this entire conversation. I think it's been really cool just to hear about a little bit of the history of world, kind of where it comes from, as well as like what we can get out of Sweet World in the coming weeks when we go. Yeah, I guess trying to think if there's anything else I wanted to talk about with Sweet World.

Yeah. Well, you know what, I, I love to hear from you, Becca. You know, we have different perspectives and I've been at them all. I'm an old guy, you know, I kind of look at one thing, but there's a lot of SCs. You know, you, you've been in the industry, you know, two, three years now. You're, you're building your career. What do you think? What would you like to get out of Sweetworld and kind of, what do you think? Because there's a myriad of solution consultants kind of in the very same kind of career path and growing. You'll run, you'll see a lot of them while you're there. What, what would you like to give?

Yeah, I mean, I guess for me it's a lot about the learning. I totally Agree with everything you said. Right. I think being able to see the interesting solutions that other people come up with can help spark your own imagination and just help you become a better SE in general of knowing what's out there and what's possible. I think kind of expanding your list of different partners that you know about. Like, I think definitely walking around makes a huge difference in just being able. I mean, I know last year, just even as a net gain, like, we get asked about additional suite apps all the time. And so, like, I went and I did some demos with a couple other companies because I was like, I know Soligo, but I want to see how that actually works in their product. And so being able to speak to that intelligently, like, on my side, just makes us come off as more competent.

Yeah.

As well as just kind of also helps solidify those relationships. Because if someone comes to me and they say, hey, I need something for this, I can give them an example or a client as well.

That's a great example.

So that's something that, yeah, I really think is so helpful as a takeaway. I also just really like being able to establish relationships in general, like we were talking about with the clients and then also just the scs. Like, I didn't really talk to the SC booths last year, but I think it could be helpful just getting to know some of the people over there. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know how you facilitate some of those conversations because everyone's so busy the entire time and it's hard to, like, balance being at the booth versus walking around and learning and going to the classes.

Yeah, it is. I think you'll find the more years you're in it, and maybe this will probably even be one is if you go over the NetSuite booth, you'll kind of be walking around and you'll see name tags or hear names, and they're like, oh, we know, we know each other. I. I know your zoom picture, you know, and that.

Because that will happen more this year because I've been working with netsuite.

Exactly. So I think that'll kind of grow and it'll make it really easy. You know, you'll probably go down. I'd probably go down to the netsuite path there and just kind of mingle and get to get to know everybody. You'll be amazed how many people you know, or they'll say, oh, I don't know you, but you worked with my, you know, my. My colleague, you know, on the same team. And I'VE been wanting to talk to you so.

Well, and it always makes me laugh when I see people because they go, oh, you're the girl from all the videos on the website. Because I recorded a lot of our, like, demo videos, so I feel like people come up to me recognizing me sometimes, which always makes me laugh.

Yeah, no, it is.

You're a random blonde girl.

Yeah. You're net. Sweet. Famous.

No, not yet. You are not so famous, but.

Oh, that's funny. That's awesome, though. But that's a good. Yeah, that's a great way where people will know it. So that's exciting. Well, sweet world for everybody is at the time we're recording this about two weeks away, right? It's the 16th through the 19th. 19th. All right, be great and we'll look forward to seeing you there.

We are excited. See you guys there. All right, well, I'm Becca Smith and I have been joined by Chris Miller. Thanks for listening to SC Corner. You can listen to us on any of your preferred streaming services or you can always look up our products at NetGain Tech.