Oracle Academy Fireside Chat: Why Should I Learn ERP in This Changing Technology Landscape?

Oracle Academy Tech Chat

Join NetSuite experts Chris Hering, Director of Global Channels, Suite Life, and Aaron Rosenberg, CEO, NetSuite Partner Oasis Solutions, for a fireside chat moderated by Oracle Academy North America Senior Director Denise Hobbs. In this chat, Denise talks with Chris and Aaron about some of the technology trends that are impacting ERP systems today and what students should learn of those key aspects as they prepare for professional career roles. In addition, they discuss best practice tactics on how Oracle NetSuite Partners can leverage their expertise and knowledge and get involved in helping the next generation learn the latest technology.

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Episode Transcript:

00;00;09;03 - 00;00;34;20 Welcome to the Oracle Academy Tech Chat. This podcast provides educators and students in-depth discussions with thought leaders around computer science, cloud technologies and software design to help students on their journey to becoming industry ready technology leaders. Of the Future. Let's get started. Welcome to Oracle Academy Tech Chat, where we discuss how Oracle Academy helps prepare our next generation's workforce. 00;00;35;01 - 00;01;04;06 I'm your host, Tyra Crockett Peirce In the first part of our special two part episode, Oracle Academy, North America senior director Denise Hobbs speaks with Chris Herring, director of Global Channel's SuiteLife, and Aaron Rosenberg, CEO of NetSuite partner Oasis Solutions. Denise talks with Chris and Aaron about some of the technology trends that are impacting ERP systems today and what students should learn of those key aspects as they prepare for their professional careers. 00;01;04;15 - 00;01;29;12 I am with Oracle next week, director of Channel Suite Life Chris Herring and NetSuite partner Oasis Solutions CEO Aaron Rosenberg. I'm Denise Hobbs, your host, Oracle Academy senior director for North America. Chris, Aaron and I are going to focus our discussion on three major themes. First, we're going to discuss the technology trends that are impacting ERP systems today. 00;01;29;29 - 00;01;56;22 Second, we're going to discuss what should students learn of those key impacts as they prepare for professional career roles. And then third, what are the best strategies on how NetSuite partners like Oasis Solutions can leverage their expertise and knowledge to help the next generation prepare to step into talent pipeline? And with that, I'd like to offer a very warm welcome to Chris and Aaron. 00;01;56;25 - 00;02;17;25 Thanks for joining me, guys. Thanks Chris, Thanks Aaron. To start off, I want each of you to give me a brief synopsis of your background and your current business position. Now, Chris, I want I'd like for you to start on this one of questions. So, first of all, really happy to be here today. I looked after our global partner SuiteLife ecosystem. 00;02;18;07 - 00;02;47;17 So what that means is I am responsible for NetSuite, education and engagement with our partners. So everything from how we onboard partners, how we train them and how they experience that suite as a partner previous to working in this role. I was also in that NetSuite, but in a go to market and a sales management role. So that was looking after new, larger companies that were joining that NetSuite on the enterprise side. 00;02;48;07 - 00;03;21;18 And I really started my career on the professional services consulting side. So working in coffee rooms and in boardrooms, deploying software in the early knots. So really happy to join us today and share my experiences with the audience. Great. Thanks, Chris. Now, Aaron, before you start, I'm going to add a little bit more on to you. So in addition to your background and your current business position, I'd like for you to also provide a very high-level explanation of a NetSuite corporate partner. 00;03;21;29 - 00;03;54;29 Sure. I'll be happy to. Let me start with a little bit about Oasis. Oasis has been in business since 1991. So very early on in that kind of software application space, we became a NetSuite partner in 2012, so we've been working with that suite as a solution provider partner for a little over a dozen years. So our relationship as a solution provider partner is to help clients typically in the small to mid-market, select, implement and then support their core business management system. 00;03;55;03 - 00;04;17;01 In this case, that suite, which really runs in and business operations for hundreds of our clients and tens of thousands of net suites clients globally. So my role as CEO is to really lead the charge and oversee strategy and direction of our company. We are a small business as well, so I have about 40 team members spread out across the United States. 00;04;17;22 - 00;04;47;26 I'm headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, which is where I'm from. And where Oasis was founded, but we do have customers that we support across the country, and we have disparate team members across the country as well. So when we're thinking about ERP, I think we all know that technology changes at a very rapid pace. I'd like for each of you to share your thoughts on the latest technology trends that affect enterprise resource planning ERP systems today. 00;04;48;07 - 00;05;18;20 So we're seeing a ton of improvements in artificial intelligence. Everybody's seeing that across how they work and how they operate, right? I'm sure our faculty are seeing it in the way that their students and they themselves operate within their day to day. And so a lot of the biggest enhancements that I see for end users, people that are in the systems that we deployed, are areas that they're using kind of as a copilot of sorts for the needs for requests of the business. 00;05;18;22 - 00;05;47;15 Alongside of that interest are so these large language models are being incorporated into ERP systems pretty rapidly. And we're seeing that as net suite upgrades and releases new versions and updates their software every six months. I don't think we're going to see a lot more of that coming out in each version. UPDATE But that helps to change business process flows for automation in areas like purchasing, receiving and shipping. 00;05;48;03 - 00;06;15;15 And then I think it'll extend into providing more reports and information on demand and supply trends forecast based on historical data. An example, maybe a little deeper would be in that purchasing workflow. We see this a lot, so customers will ask us now that they have a system like NetSuite one where customers are coming from small business accounting systems to click QuickBooks and spreadsheets got a lot of controls in their automation of workflows. 00;06;15;27 - 00;06;43;20 So they want to now put a control. So if somebody in my organization is going to buy something over $5,000, I want a notification as the CEO to approve that or eliminate fraud actions there. There's more control in place. Maybe it helps people spend a little bit more judiciously. So if that's something that we can have in the system, I'm seeing a lot of those workflows and automation points being enhanced by companies like myself. 00;06;44;02 - 00;07;05;14 But I think A.I. is going to really assist us in the end users and making those changes on the fly even like through spoken language to the computer. So kind of a starship Enterprise type of functionality where like, Hey computer, please update my purchase workflow to increase the limit of spend from 5000 to $7000, and then it'll just happen. 00;07;05;14 - 00;07;32;19 They'll test it and they'll roll it out. Amazing. Almost like a customization, if you will, be a voice. Yeah, I think a lot of that is going to be I was actually had a thought the other the other day like will my grandchildren even need to type or are we moving into a situation where right they can just speak to the machine and it will update and provide information back to us? 00;07;32;20 - 00;07;49;20 And you can kind of do that now with Cortana. And, you know, actually, as I was preparing the script, I use a lot of like voice attacks, but you got to go in and it's not perfect. And we all know Siri for call, you know, somebody. They end up calling your plumber on accident stuff. So we're still working on that, right? 00;07;49;21 - 00;08;14;14 But yeah, it's it's just the improvements and the generational updates just are happening so rapidly now. Now, Chris, I want you to kind of layer on top of what Aaron saying, but I want you to answer the same questions, but I want you to shift the lens a little bit. So I want you to focus on answering this question better with an education partner ecosystem perspective, if you will. 00;08;15;09 - 00;08;41;24 Sure. Happy to. And I think Aaron took the gorilla AI into the mix. I mean, that's just changed everything in the last 12 months and I can certainly see that changing the way we look at things in the next 12 months. It's kind of incredible how things are moving so quickly. So I had three points to raise on this area in terms of how we're seeing technology change and how that's impacting our partner landscape. 00;08;42;16 - 00;09;20;02 The first one building on Aaron's point of sort of unified applications is this idea of a best of breed versus unified suite. So we often talk for those students in the audience, you might be familiar with how you bundle your TV, Internet and telephone at home and they're sort of bundles and we do the same thing within applications where instead of buying a separate expense management tool or ERP or CRM, customer relationship management, you have a single provider that provides all of that at the same time, reducing contracts, reducing integrations, which can be quite complex and cumbersome. 00;09;20;03 - 00;09;50;17 And so CPQ is one example deal services management, which is one that we just acquired, where if you have a HVAC company out in the field where you have trucks and they need to be moved to different customer sites and have different equipment on them and have different maintenance schedules or different fire trucks that have different maintenance schedules on them all can be integrated into this wide network of assets that then can be deployed on a just in time basis. 00;09;50;17 - 00;10;23;27 It's traditionally those specialized systems and set separately and required a lot of, let's call it local expertise and integration expertise. So what that means for our ecosystem is that instead of having to spend a lot of time on integration, they're able to spend a lot more time on business consulting and advise the customer as to how to best leverage the tools and the tool sets, which allows them to be a higher level management consulting function, which of course can drive higher revenues. 00;10;24;18 - 00;10;54;21 So that's a really exciting point from a technology perspective. So having that consultative voice from a technology perspective is really key is what you're saying here, that it really provides that opportunity for that? I think it does. And you know, Oasis is such a fantastic example of a partner for next week in that they focus so much on a specific sector in a specific region, and that means they can be across the table from these individuals and these customers and have those difficult and sometimes positives. 00;10;54;21 - 00;11;19;23 And then celebratory conversations about how the business can change and evolve with technology instead of having to send a person off to work on integration, mitigation. And they're finding they can spend more time with a unified solution focused on like what's the next given company? The second point I'll make is I think across the applications, the focus on the UI has continued to accelerate. 00;11;19;29 - 00;11;44;01 People are not going to tolerate a commercial application that isn't intuitive. So a lot of the applications today are becoming much more consumer eyes, that they're looking like Amazon, they're looking like eBay, and they're just it doesn't take you three clicks to get to something you rarely lost. So that consumerist aspect of the piece of the technology is huge. 00;11;44;01 - 00;12;07;24 And one thing that we brought into play there is this idea of Oracle Guided Learning, which is effectively in-app support. So if I'm on a screen too long and I'm sure you guys have seen this, if you're shopping for something, it might say up, up, like, can you find the color jeans that you'd like? We're doing the same sort of thing right in the application to say, Oh, you're having a hard time submitting this sales order. 00;12;08;03 - 00;12;25;27 We'd recommend you checking out this article. And so that sort of consumer focus is something that's really exciting in the technology. And I think it just means that instead of having to hunt and tack for different elements, you're actually able to focus on what the most important thing is. Can I stop you there and ask a quick question? 00;12;25;28 - 00;12;54;23 So are you saying that, okay, first off, it's less cumbersome, less clicks, things like that. I love those. I love that. But even if I'm using it and I'm in a place where I'm stuck, you're saying that there's opportunity for learning for myself right there on the fly? There is. I mean, I think what we try and this is one of the most exciting things about my role is, you know, one of the things I like to think about is I just I hate wasted time and just wasted effort. 00;12;54;23 - 00;13;15;25 And I think all of us can relate to that. Know, you spend a lot of time and you realize there a shortcut there by having that sort of just in time support. What we're looking to do is, is prevent people from getting down those rabbit holes that are frustrating. And I mean that. But the third point that I'll raise, getting insights out of the businesses is huge. 00;13;15;25 - 00;13;40;21 So if the application can go ahead and say the last three times you entered this order, it was the same amount at the same date. Maybe you want to set up a recurring transaction. And so that intelligence and that insight and that recommendation is something that can save a tremendous amount of time. So it's not so much knowing where things are, but interpreting how those things are repeating and patterns. 00;13;41;03 - 00;14;13;19 And then suggesting changes that can save time. That's truly amazing to me that that level of intelligence, to see those trends, to then make those suggestions. And I'm like you, Chris, you know, the efficiency, I think and perhaps it is better said as less expended effort is really insightful and progressive. When we talked a second ago, when I asked you this general question and I said the rapid pace, that technology is changing today. 00;14;13;19 - 00;14;45;07 So I think rapid, based on what the two of you have just said, I think rapid is spot on. And I think it's just absolutely so moving so quick. So if I'm going to follow this train of thought, what are some of the key aspects about these trends, about these rapidly changing trends that faculty should be aware of and should consider thinking about or integrating into the classroom, into their daily teaching when they are teaching ERP concepts. 00;14;45;26 - 00;15;07;23 Chris, I'm going to go back to you on this one first. So I think back to I got my graduate degree in New York in MBA. I got an MBA at Stern in New York, and one of the most interesting classes that I took was entrepreneurial development, and it was taught by one of these professors that was both a practitioner as well as a board member. 00;15;08;01 - 00;15;38;15 And what he often focused on was kind of the collision of data and how those collisions of data can either present opportunities or or prevent signals or flags for issues looking ahead. And so when I think about Europe, the real risk of our historical ERP system is that you have a lot of silos of data that never intersect, and you can have trends in one silo of data that could impact another one. 00;15;38;15 - 00;16;07;22 And you have that you have that, you know, crystal ball thing where, you know, things are getting produced too fast but not getting consumed and you have waste. Whereas if you're able to take those silos of data and bring them together and provide an insight, you're able to make a corrective preemptive change in the way the business is operating, to avoid waste, to take advantage of a new trend and really change the way that business is operating. 00;16;07;22 - 00;16;40;27 So what that means for the classroom of the future, in my view, is that the focus should be talking about how the different data streams intersect and how those surface insights so and then how to communicate those insights effectively. I happen to be a very visual learner. One of my favorite sites is this site called Visual Capitalist, which demonstrates lots of visuals on trends in the ecosystem and trends in the world that just traditionally aren't visualized. 00;16;41;02 - 00;17;14;05 So when I think about the opportunity in the future, it's not so much looking at how the database schema is constructed. It's looking at opportunities for seeing how those different segments of data, whether it be order management, inventory payments, all of those things are intersecting such that you have a working capital requirement that may. Case in point, what I mean by working capital is for the students in the room, if you have to pay your vendors, if you have to pay your employees, you have to have money in the bank to do it. 00;17;14;19 - 00;17;45;13 But you may or may not be collecting invoices from your customers to get the cash in the bank to pay your employees and so the visualizations on how your cash will add and flow depending on your payments and receipts will help you determine whether you need to borrow more money from the bank or even if it's possible. So when I think about teaching concepts, so much of those difficult situations can happen because people aren't aware of what the data shows you. 00;17;45;26 - 00;18;13;27 And so the students can focus on, okay, how can I create opportunities to surface that data and reports and visuals so I can clearly explain to my management what risks we have in the business and what opportunities we have in the business. I think that's the real opportunity because when I see it in business today, it's hard to find folks that can take data and then translate it into messages and insights. 00;18;14;06 - 00;18;43;20 That's helpful. Aaron So when I think about our audience and a lot of faculty and students here, you know, when integrating ERP curriculum, there's still for us this mantra of people and process like this or that too, is as or more important than the technology. But the technology is just a tool that's a first that is informing, give to make people and processes more productive. 00;18;43;29 - 00;19;12;12 And so the end users and what really happens a lot in the situations where we're implementing are still between the chair and the keyboard, right? So that's where the inputs happen, that's where the mistakes can happen and that's where the information needs to flow too. So when I'm thinking about talking about the enhancements that I mentioned and really focusing on like the block blocking and tackling, I call it a business which is a series of transactions. 00;19;12;20 - 00;19;32;25 Technology just helps to automate those processes, put controls in those processes, in those transactions, and then provide data and insights on how to be more efficient with your cash. For example, as Chris mentioned, do you need to borrow more or do you need to delay maybe paying some people or duty to get cash as some of the folks that are out there that owe you money? 00;19;33;13 - 00;19;56;08 And how do you automate letters to out to them or emails to remind them other areas that I've seen that are really important? A few years ago, like business intelligence forecasting, reporting, I do think we're seeing more trends in automation there that largely with this are visual intelligence in their future. They will there will be a need for human interaction verification. 00;19;56;08 - 00;20;17;05 So a trust but verify type of element in place. So you're going to have to check the math, so to speak, be a skill that's going to be very important and also communication as well. Right? So think about how you communicate with that to get the right output, you have to put it in the right input because it's just using whatever information you put in to get the information out. 00;20;17;05 - 00;20;34;09 So there's still this if you put garbage in, you get garbage out, right? So all of that, I think, hopefully coalesces with what this messaging was to, too. That wraps up this episode. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for the next Oracle Academy Tech Chat podcast.