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Annexa on Tour 2024: what you missed and what’s coming next

Annexa on Tour 2024: what you missed and what’s coming next
Published on 28th October 2024

This October, Annexa on Tour brought together customers, partners, and NetSuite experts across three cities – Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland. Held over two weeks, the tour allowed Annexa customers to dive into the latest NetSuite updates, explore cutting-edge innovations, and network with industry peers.

Kicking off at Oracle HQ in Melbourne, the tour continued to the QT Hotel in Sydney and wrapped up at Rydges Auckland. Each event followed a half-day format, featuring a packed agenda of product insights, customer showcases, and expert-led discussions, followed by a post-event reception for networking over drinks and lunch.

Key takeaways:

  • Key NetSuite product updates: Attendees got an in-depth look at the newest features including announcements from SuiteWorld, plus a peek at what’s coming next.
  • Industry insights on AI and Annexa’s latest innovations: Our team shared practical actions and tech developments that drive smarter business outcomes.
  • Customer success stories: Annexa customers shared how they leveraged cloud ERP to solve real-world challenges and drive growth.
  • Interactive Q&A sessions: Attendees had all their questions answered by Annexa and NetSuite representatives, ensuring they left with actionable insights.

With overwhelmingly positive feedback, the event saw impressive growth, especially in Auckland, where attendance more than doubled.

Annexa on Tour 2024 recap

If you couldn’t make it, here’s the latest innovations and updates discussed during our three-city tour including new NetSuite solutions and features. Read on for a quick overview of what’s coming, if it benefits you and associated costs, if applicable.

NetSuite Financial Exception Management

Overview | Uses AI to detect anomalies in financial data, such as incorrect account entries or unusually high amounts for vendors, flagging irregularities for quick resolution. Annexa have applied for the beta program so we will keep you posted when we get access.

What it does:

  • AI identifies potential errors in transactions and flags them for review.
  • You can then quickly assess situations, identify the activity that needs to be investigated, and get actionable insights to help resolve issues ahead of the period end time crunch.

Best for | Finance function in any industry

Pricing | Included in NetSuite at no additional cost

Availability | Available now

Guided Learning tailored service

Overview | Guided Learning has been gradually rolled out to enhance the user experience by allowing end users to navigate NetSuite in a more directed way. It helps users learn NetSuite features directly within the interface they’re working in, serving as an additional tool to complement SuiteAnswers. The major update announced at SuiteWorld this year is the ability to create custom paths within Guided Learning. This means organisations can now add their own instructions and links, providing a more tailored and user-friendly experience for their teams when using NetSuite.

What it does:

  • Enhances the standard capabilities of Guided Learning
  • Ability to add in custom learning paths specific to the customer

Best for | All customers

Pricing | Standard guided learning is available in NetSuite at no additional cost. Customisable Guided Learning pricing is not yet announced.

Availability | Standard guided learning is available now. Customisable guided learning is TBC.

Current Guided Learning

Enhanced Guided Learning

An example where Guided Learning informs the user of the correct GL account to use and a link to an internal policy guide.

NetSuite user license types

Overview | The latest updates on user access represent a shift from the previous “black and white” model of limited and full user licenses. Now, a specialised CRM user license has been introduced, covering sales operations and CRM activities. Additionally, there’s a new “view and approve” license, providing an alternative for users who don’t need to transact but want to review and approve reports and transactions. This makes it easier to have more users on the platform at a reasonable price, with licenses available in packs of five, similar to the existing ESS licenses.

What it does:

  • 2 new user types to be added inline with ESS, WMS and Full access users
  • CRM user has been added for the sales and CRM users
  • View and approve user has been added for the non-processing user profile

Best for | Companies with simpler needs and those with specific user needs, such as those who manage warehousing.

Pricing | See your account manager for pricing.

Availability | Available now.

360 extensions

Overview | Customer 360 has been added to the 360 Dashboard family. The Customer 360 page collects customer information and key measures from NetSuite best practices and provides you with actionable insights. You can use the metrics presented on this page to easily track level of engagements with the customer, their financial position and profitability to your business, their purchasing trends, and more.

Highlights:

  • Centralises customer data from across NetSuite.
  • Offers real-time insights into customer engagement, financial health, and purchasing behaviour.
  • Provides an intuitive view of customer profitability and trends, helping you make more informed decisions.

Other 360 updates

  • Supply 360 (new)
  • Benchmark 360 (new)
  • Compliance 360 (new NOAM)
  • Cash 360 (updated)
  • Item 360 (updated)
  • Project 360 (updated)

Best for | All customers

Pricing | Included in NetSuite at no additional cost.

Availability | Customer 360 Release 1 rolling out in version 24.2. While this initial release is limited, we expect it to evolve quickly, especially given the more advanced version demonstrated at SuiteWorld.

Here’s how it looks: it still includes our tabs but now integrates analytics and intelligent recommendations into the portals.

Roadmap for AP automation coming soon to ANZ

Overview | We’ve been anticipating the release of AP automation for some time, and it was finally announced for ANZ. While there are no firm dates yet, NetSuite has announced that a global rollout is planned, with ANZ being the next region in line. Note that the necessary validations for address, tax, date, and currency specific to the ANZ region have been addressed.

What it does

  • Makes the vendor payment process run more efficiently with less hands-on work.
  • Automates the capture of vendor invoices, approvals, payments, and reconciliations.
  • Retrieve bills, item receipts, and vendor contracts directly from within NetSuite.
  • Customisable roles and policies ensure the right fit for approval workflows.

Best for | Finance function of all customers

Pricing | TBC

Availability | Will soon be available beyond the NOAM region, with ANZ being the first to receive it, followed by other regions shortly after.

NetSuite Salesforce Connector

Overview | In addition to existing connectors like the Shopify e-commerce connector and the logistics connector with ShipStation, Salesforce has now been integrated as part of the suite.

What it does

  • Expected flows around opportunities, customers, financial transactions, and product syncing.
  • Real-time access to NetSuite financial data like invoices, payments, and credit limits within Salesforce.
  • Automates updates between Salesforce and NetSuite to enhance customer insights and profile accuracy.
  • Syncs inventory and item data between platforms to improve product information consistency.
  • Automatically syncs sales orders across NetSuite and Salesforce for better order accuracy and sales visibility.

Best for | Any customers running Salesforce.

Pricing | See your account manager for pricing.

Availability | Planned for NOAM within the next 12 months, no dates for ANZ released.

Suite Procurement

Overview | SuiteProcurement will enable shopping cart connectivity, allowing users to buy directly from websites with data flowing seamlessly into procurement modules. However, in ANZ, this feature may be less useful in the immediate term as it primarily integrates with platforms like Amazon Business and Staples – we expect more platforms and vendors to become available.

What it does

  • Build trading partner relationships and access preferred pricing via the Oracle Business Network.
  • Tailored workflows ensure policy compliance based on location, department, and spend.
  • Automates order confirmations, shipping, and billing for timely payments.
  • Real-time insights on spending across locations, departments, and vendors.
  • Centralised procurement data for accurate tracking of items and details.
  • Automatically posts spending to the correct general ledger accounts.

Best for | All customers

Pricing | No details available as yet.

Availability | Released in NOAM within the next 12 months, though there are no confirmed release dates for ANZ.

SuiteProjects Pro

Overview | SuiteProjects Pro is the rebranded version of OpenAir, now fully redesigned with the Redwood UI.

What it does

  • AI project risk analysis
  • Improved reporting
  • AI staff recommendations
  • Redwood UI

Best for | Customers delivering projects, like builds, fit outs, installs, training or professional services.

Pricing | An all-in-one package with per-user pricing. See your account manager for details.

Availability | Planned to be available within the next 12 months.

Redwood UI

Overview | The new Redwood UI promises a redesigned interface, faster navigation, and more intuitive workflows. Our initial tests have shown performance improvements too. While phase one is underway, the next phase will include inline adoption of pages instead of opening new tabs.

What it does

  • Enhances the overall look and feel of the NetSuite interface.

Best for | All customers

Pricing | Included in NetSuite at no additional cost.

Availability | Phase 1 is available in 2024.2 and can be enabled in set preferences.

Key NetSuite 24.2 release updates

Lots of exciting features in 24.2!

CPQ & SuiteBilling

Overview | CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) streamlines the process of configuring complex products, automating pricing, and generating accurate quotes. SuiteBilling automates billing processes, managing subscriptions, usage-based pricing, and recurring revenue. These modules now work together, supporting hybrid models that include service, build, and inventory.

Best for | Businesses that sell both physical and subscription-based items and want to simplify the process.

New SuiteApps

  • Cost Variance Analysis compares the planned and actual costs of work orders in a simple report.
  • NetSuite Supply 360 makes it easier for production planners and managers to see if they have all the inventory needed to fulfil upcoming work orders.
  • NetSuite Available to Build SuiteApp shows manufacturers how many different assemblies they can build with their current on-hand and uncommitted inventory, enabling better customer commitments.

Best for | These new SuiteApps assist any business making products by helping them communicate effectively to customers, control costs, and proactively respond to potential component shortages.

Transaction line distribution

Overview | Now supports the distribution of transactions on the accounts receivable side, covering sales orders, customer invoices, and cash sales. This allows easy revenue distribution from accounts receivable transactions to multiple subsidiaries, departments, or other segments based on pre-defined templates.

Best for | Multi-subsidiary companies, retail, manufacturing, wholesale, and service-based businesses needing to allocate incoming revenue and reduce manual entries.

Rebate Management

Overview | Updates to the Rebates Management SuiteApp let companies assign forecasts for each tiered rebate, basing accruals on the forecasted tier for better accuracy. Additionally, rebate agreement calculations are now available for purchase transactions, not just sales.

Best for | Manufacturing, retail and consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, and wholesale distribution.

Warehouse Management

Overview | Various updates around counts, bin transfers, bin replenishment, and ship central:

  • Warehouse managers can now automate stock replenishment in NetSuite WMS, scheduling tasks using filters or saved searches.
  • Employees can capture serial numbers with a single scan during product receiving for pallets of goods.
  • A new report shows failed pick tasks with detailed information to help resolve order fulfilment issues.

Best for | Retail, wholesale distribution, and any business holding inventory requiring WMS.

Enterprise Performance Management

The introduction of Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) offers NetSuite customers new enterprise-grade finance functions. Many users are familiar with NSPB (NetSuite Planning and Budgeting) and NSAR (NetSuite Account Reconciliation), now available in the ANZ region. The rest of the EPM suite will roll out over time, bringing advanced Oracle functionality to NetSuite users.

Current offerings:

NSPB (NetSuite Planning and Budgeting)

Supports businesses in developing and maintaining complex budgets, forecasts, and planning scenarios, utilising connected NetSuite data. This tool has received excellent feedback for improving financial planning and budgeting processes.

NSAR (NetSuite Account Reconciliation)

A tool to perform account reconciliations, automating advanced reconciliations and moving away from spreadsheet-based approaches.

What’s coming
  • NetSuite Narrative Reporting | Simplifies the creation of professional report packs for meetings, integrating financial and operational data without manual PowerPoint input.
  • NetSuite Financial Consolidation and Close | Reduces manual processes, external systems, and improves visibility for month-end and year-end close operations.
  • NetSuite Tax Reporting | Supports advanced tax compliance for organisations with multiple entities, simplifying global tax requirements.
  • Profitability and Cost Management | Allows users to measure, allocate, and analyse costs with scenario-based modelling, enabling “what-if” scenarios for profitability analysis.

The EPM suite brings real-time efficiency and accuracy to financial management, helping customers scale their software capabilities. Reach out for more information or demonstrations.

Onward to Annexa on Tour 2025!

We’re already planning Annexa on Tour 2025, aiming for more insights, deeper dives into NetSuite’s evolving capabilities, and opportunities to connect with peers. Stay tuned for updates, and we look forward to another round of inspiring discussions and innovative solutions next year!

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