Australian business leaders eye expansion thanks to cloud ERP
As Australian companies stare down economic and geopolitical uncertainties, they remain resilient and positive about the outlook. Many are hungry to invest in emerging business technologies like AI, but they still need to control what they spend on merging digital tools to keep a lid on cashflow. It all hangs on having the right information.
“With interest rates falling, capital is more accessible, so companies are thinking about what’s next. But there's still an intense focus on very disciplined financial management, profits and cashflow to give them flexibility to expand,” says Scott Wiltshire, vice-president and general manager of Oracle NetSuite ANZ.
Businesses across Australia are learning it's no longer enough to have access to good information, they need live information.
“A lot of customers come to NetSuite because they have outgrown their accounting applications. They've been using multiple systems so they don't have that single source of truth,” says Wiltshire
This is a challenge Camilla Australia has addressed by moving to NetSuite. The luxury clothing brand needs 24/7 oversight into what’s happening in the business, explains head of IT, Luke Matthews.
“Everyone's working with the same numbers. We run with limited luxury collections, so getting the right stock in the right places and keeping it there is a real challenge. We need to see stock movements as they happen and with that, pick up trends. NetSuite is the absolute source of truth,” says Matthews.
“We’ll see a run at a boutique anywhere in the world because someone at a dinner party wore one of our garments. We've got to be able to see that in real time and get stock across our global supply chain into the right places,” he says.
NetSuite is also helping Matthews and the team manage the complexities of Camilla Australia’s international expansion. This includes trading in different currencies and setting up structures to manage international trade.
“NetSuite has made that so much easier and if we want to open a store in a new region, we can do that relatively quickly,” says Matthews.
Wiltshire describes the ability to close the books quickly and accurately as a significant benefit that drives many organisations to adopt NetSuite.
“With real time visibility, every user sees the same data live and they can come together and make decisions. That means they're able to pivot when they need to. It's future proofing business and we are seeing companies take an ‘it's always time to expand’ approach,” says Wiltshire.
NetSuite provides “a solution we could grow with”
Being confident in the business’s numbers also means firms are able to pursue growth plans quicker. Strength training clinics Kieser Australia is a good example. Director and chief financial officer Dianna Butterworth explains the business is focused on building a stable platform for growth. “We've got some really big plans to open up more clinics around Australia,” she says.
Kieser’s 30 clinics operate as individual businesses. Before implementing NetSuite, Butterworth had to integrate 23 accounting files from different parts of the business.
“We were drowning in manual labour with data entry. The challenge was finding a solution we could grow with, because the business was moving super fast and finance wasn't keeping up. NetSuite was a no-brainer for us to grow with and maintain trust and credibility at the board and executive level in the accuracy of our numbers,” says Butterworth.
With NetSuite, Butterworth and her team have gained unprecedented insight into the financial performance across the whole organisation.
“We've also put the power back in our clinics’ hands. The system is easy to use and they are able to run profit and loss statements and collaborate,” Butterworth says.
Importantly, NetSuite gives Kieser up-to-date financial information much faster.
“We weren't getting results for up to 25 days after the end of the reporting period. By that stage, we had no visibility on what was really happening within the clinics in the previous month. Whereas, with NetSuite, at day five, we understand exactly what our revenue numbers are, what our workforce planning numbers are, and we've got visibility over the bottom line,” says Butterworth.
As a service-based business, keeping expenses low is paramount. “Being able to track costs at the workforce and operational level helps us minimise charges to clients,” Butterworth says.
Ultimately, expanding businesses like Kieser and Camilla need to be able to rely on their technology to understand what products and services are selling, and to balance supply with demand.
“Our platform allows businesses to make decisions about investments and which high-margin products to focus on. This enables them to scale up, locally or internationally, because they can plan for future demand, confident they are using up-to-date information to make decisions,” says Wiltshire.
It’s an advantage few businesses can ignore in an increasingly competitive business landscape.