Oracle’s Moussalli: “Brazil’s SMEs are a blue ocean for us”

With an eye on startups and tax challenges faced by Brazilian SMEs, a software company will bring its own management methodology to Brazil; division leader in Latin America details strategies

Brazil seems to be the next big target for the Oracle In the next years. That’s because the enterprise management software (ERP) company has concentrated efforts to create a robust structure and bring a business model already successful in other markets around the world: the digitization of operational processes for small and medium-sized companies.

The company does this with the help of NetSuitean arm that is committed to taking the management of these small businesses to the cloud.

To serve a growing number of small and medium-sized companies that recognize the urgency of delegating to digital tools the responsibility for handling the bureaucratic part of management — here we can list actions such as paying bills and managing payroll —, the company has developed a specific method of implementation for such reduction of bureaucracy, a methodology there called SuiteSuccess.

The term basically describes the successful formula adopted by NetSuite to be able to create a product that considers something as individual as the customization of the management needs of SMEs, but on a large scale. The solution, in this case, was to bet on curation by sectors and their specific needs.

At the head of NetSuite’s operations in Latin America (including Brazil) is the Brazilian Gustavo Moussalli, current vice president of operations. The first employee of the SME arm since the company’s acquisition by Oracle in 2017, Moussalli has been responsible for structuring Oracle’s product and sector methodology in the region since then. Now, the executive leads a real task force to implement this methodology in Brazil as well.

“Without a doubt, the Brazilian market has many unexplored opportunities”, said Moussalli in an interview with EXAME during SuiteWorld, an annual event organized by Oracle in Las Vegas, United States.

What is NetSuite?

Netsuite is a small business management cloud software company founded by Evan Goldberg in 1998 in California. Years later, it was acquired by Oracle in 2017 for US$9.3 billion to scale solutions for SMEs, a vertical still timid in the technology giant at the time.

Since then, the company has maintained some autonomy within Oracle, although the technology and all the employees have been incorporated. “Today we can say that we are a company within a company. We kept the values ​​and the critical vision to serve small and medium businesses, and we only took it to a global level with the entry of Oracle”, says Moussalli.

Five years later, the strategy of focusing on smaller companies continues to show results. In the third quarter of this year, the NetSuite division alone grew 27% in revenue. For comparison, Oracle as a whole reported a 4% increase to $10.5 billion.

Oracle NetSuite currently serves a portfolio of 32,000 customers worldwide. In short, SMEs in search of more agile and intelligent solutions to deal with the management bureaucracies common to the operational day, starting with the complexity in the management of the workforce.

Brazil’s turn

The numbers serve as the basis for Oracle NetSuite’s new investment thesis in other markets. Of all the countries in Latin America, a region where the company already has well-finished examples of customers from the implementation of SuiteSuccess, Brazil is still in the most embryonic state.

Here, NetSuite is limited to serving service companies, especially software and distribution companies. According to Moussalli, this is a logic that must be modified in 2022, from the arrival of the company’s successful method in Brazil, scheduled for November. “Our intention is to expand our scope and bring SuiteSucess to the Brazilian market, which is currently so promising”, he says.

To grow in Brazil, the objective is to continue impacting startups in search of scale, as well as companies with some growth potential and that can benefit from the agility of software to expand borders or even maintain business survival in times when cuts in Costs and efficiency are increasingly popular terms among startups.

In the list of SuiteWorld clients in the country are relevant startups such as Inteli, PipeFy and proptech InGaia. “Startups are our DNA. This is our strength and where we contribute most of our knowledge and efforts”, says the executive.

In addition, the focus of NetSuite’s activities here will be based on the particularities of the Brazilian market, especially the tax complexity faced by small companies.

A new tool for automatic generation of electronic invoices and other mandatory charges for these companies was presented during SuiteWorld. It is expected that it will be implemented for Brazilian customers as of November.

For Moussalli, small and medium-sized companies continue to be an attraction for Oracle NetSuite in Brazil, as the company foresees growth in this market in the coming years based on the continuous need for growth of the companies themselves – currently responsible for 27% of the GDP of the Brazil. “Working with small businesses in Brazil is a blue ocean, an infinite market,” she said. “We are going to help resolve this complexity as SMEs need to become more mature”.

What’s New in NetSuite

The company launches four new features this month, now incorporated into its NetSuite cloud management system. Are they:

• NetSuite CPQfor automatic pricing of products, following rules customized by sales teams;
• NetSuite Ship Centrala tool that helps companies to eliminate processes and costs during the purchase process;
• NetSuite AP Automationwhich controls and automates the management of cash flow and accounts payable, especially payments to suppliers;
• SuitePeople Workforce Managementworkforce management, with time control management, payroll, salary calculations, shift scheduling, among others.

Source: Exam