Europe, and the UK, in particular, remains a key market for NetSuite, with much-untapped potential yet so explore.
So says the company’s vice president of EMEA, Nicky Tozer, who talked about key focus areas and milestones during an interview with Cloud Pro at NetSuite’s annual user conference, SuiteWorld, in Las Vegas this week.
“We’re still focusing on growing the UK. It’s a mature market and, actually, the largest in terms of revenue delivery. So, we’re still continuing to grow that. That also has a very mature partner and customer NetSuite sales ecosystem,” Tozer said.
“The focus is pretty much the same, it’s pretty simple: it’s growth into EMEA. When we were acquired, we only had one office in the UK in EMEA. When Oracle bought us, they bought access to our market and probably saw that we have huge potential for expansion and would get a return on its money for that.”
Thus far, the company has enjoyed growth in 15 countries in EMEA, specifically in Western Europe, the Middle East and Africa. But, according to Tozer, in addition to helping ramp up the pace of expansion, Oracle has also assisted massively with R&D, recruitment and onboarding.
“NetSuite has been able to operate business as usual since we were acquired. That’s been huge in terms of continuing our success. It’s actually quite visionary of Oracle, really. Quite often, with acquisitions, they are just consumed into operations,” Tozer added.
“We were the second largest acquisition Oracle has made. We thought that would happen to us as a relatively small fish in a big pond. But, Oracle has allowed us to carry on operating as we have been.”
Tozer was appointed to the role in July 2019, as announced in a blog post by David Turner, senior director of marketing for EMEA. Prior to taking up the EMEA leadership role, replacing Mark Woodhams, Tozer looked after Northern European operations, as well as being instrumental in UK and Ireland business growth.
An 80:20 rule is key to NetSuite’s expansion, according to Tozer. By using a foundational level that exists everywhere, the firm is able to localise or customise on top of that layer, rather than re-inventing the wheel each and every time.
“We take 80% of what we do everywhere else in the world. Someone who needs a single, integrated business platform to run their business and be able to grow internationally fundamentally needs the same thing, whether they’re in Dubai, the UK, France, Germany or wherever. Then you obviously need to add that 20% localisation that makes it relevant.
“But the 80% of what we do is what has really allowed us to grow and ramp up that quickly. Some people call it cookie cutter or you know, or NetSuite in a box, but it’s that kind of approach.”
When asked how the company would ensure it maintains the same levels of service, support and experiences existing customers and partners are used to as it so rapidly expands, Tozer seemed confident.
“One very key metric is renewal rates,” Tozer said.
“If we’re not keeping our customers happy, they will vote with their bank account. We simply can’t let that happen.”