At Oracle, fixing entrepreneurial paperwork is the reply to management amongst SMEs

To grow in Brazil and be the first choice of small and medium-sized companies, Oracle NetSuite, of management software, targets the tax problems of SMEs in the country

A maxim in the industry, the digitization of repetitive and non-strategic processes is no longer just an exception to become a rule among companies that seek more efficiency. In the dense universe of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), this is no different. In order to manage companies in a leaner way and, at the same time, have time to think about the long term, entrepreneurs, from time to time, resort to the famous business management software (ERP, its acronym in English).

This whole process and the growing demand from small entrepreneurs for this type of technology makes the market a niche for software developers who see the chance of capturing a universe of almost 9 million companies in Brazil. the american oracle is one of them.

A software giant, the company has dedicated part of its business to creating solutions exclusively for SMEs. Over there, this division is called NetSuite, an operational arm that serves something like 32,000 companies globally, including Brazilian ones. The idea is to help small companies deal with day-to-day management bureaucracies, such as point control, team management and some processes related to the financial part, such as the generation of electronic invoices.

In September 2022, during the company’s annual event, Oracle had announced new features to its main software aimed at SMEs. Among them, resources for automatic pricing of products and services and cash flow and accounts payable management, a modality developed in partnership with HSBC and which marked the company’s entry into the “banking as a service” model.

Without defined dates, the company did not anticipate deadlines to materialize its intentions to take the new functionalities beyond the American market. What was known, however, was that Oracle intended to import SuiteSuccess here, a methodology already successful abroad and which promises to bring “all-in-one” solutions for SMEs, considering their niches and main problems of business.

New stage in Brazil

Now, the new appeal in Brazilian lands is the official arrival of SuiteSucess. Without this methodology, the solutions offered to SMEs by Oracle until then were limited to “taylor made” customizations, that is, made to measure — considering the individual needs of each company. Now, the idea is to scale. “Our focus is on companies for which Excel is no longer enough”, explains Gustavo Moussali, vice president of NetSuite in Brazil and Latin America.

The arrival of this model is also accompanied by new functionalities that aim to make management solutions more “embedded” for Brazilian SMEs. Now, starting from the principle of a general assessment of the problems faced by all of them unanimously, Oracle attributed greater weight to the tax issue of companies.

The country’s tax complexity, something that demands from the Brazilian business community a real corporate gymnastics to deal with different taxes and tributes depending on sectors, regions and other variables. “The pain of the small Brazilian entrepreneur to act in accordance with the law is a challenge that NetSuite is willing to help solve”, says Moussali.

What are the solutions

For Brazilian SMEs, Oracle’s new solutions are:

• SuiteSuccess Financials First, which creates pre-built dashboards and workflows for finance departments. The proposed AI is to help companies automate their financial processes. “The name “first” comes from the idea that organizing the financial part, for a growing entrepreneur, should be a management priority,” he says.
• SuiteSuccess Starter: workflow management and integrated reporting for smaller companies with up to 10 employees.

Keeping an eye on startups

With the new functions, NetSuite now also serves service companies and companies that sell goods, such as retailers and distributors — until now, the focus was on service companies, especially those in software and distribution.

Also with an eye on startups, the company also targets small companies that, with capital, are able to finance their growth, but lack digitalized management models.

The ambition for startups is, to a large extent, a reflection of the good results of this approach with these companies in the United States. According to Moussali, 61% of companies that made IPOs in the United States used NetSuite before going public. “The help in making a more agile decision leads to better results, just look at the example of companies that have already reached the IPO. It’s a beneficial cycle,” she says.

Source: Exam