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Q&A: NetSuite CMO Fred Studer on the state of cloud business software

Nearly 24,000 customers are using NetSuite Inc.?s cloud-based financials/enterprise resource planning and omnichannel commerce software suites, as well as applications including accounting, CRM, professional services automation and ecommerce to manage most of their core business operations in a single integrated suite. 

Such a deep bench of clients gives NetSuite a unique insight into the twists and turns of the cloud and how marketers are adapting to a new reality. Not only has the nature of software changed, but so has the marketing.

?What used to work in marketing doesn?t work anymore,? said Fred Studer, chief marketing officer of NetSuite, San Mateo, CA. ?Customers are not funnels and they?re not going to trickle through something in a percentage base. 

?Customers don?t follow a linear approach to buying anymore,? he said. ?So, I want to reinvent a completely non-linear buying model.? 

In this Q&A, Mr. Studer shares his thoughts of cloud-based software, the upended marketing funnel, his plans for NetSuite?s marketing, changed customer expectations of software across mediums including mobile, and the one thing he will not repeat in 2015 from last year.

NetSuite seems to be in the process of retooling the way it goes to market. Why now?
It?s time for a marketing revolution so that NetSuite and other companies embrace a new type of modern marketing that?s driven by customer needs. 

We all need to engage with buyers at the time and via the channel or channels of their choosing. At the same time, we at NetSuite want to set the stage for our customers and our customers? customers to tell their stories and share them with the world about the value we are providing them and how they are transforming their businesses by using NetSuite.

Why now? Everything we at NetSuite have done throughout our 17-year history has culminated in the most epic opportunity ever. And it?s not about us. It?s about our customers. 

Our customers are companies that are truly changing the world like DocuSign, Fitbit and GoPro. 

Did you know that over the last 18 months, 40 companies who use NetSuite have gone public and have created over $100 billion of market capitalization? These are incredible companies like Box, Hortonworks, HubSpot, Medidata, MobileIron, New Relic, Splunk, Yodlee and Zendesk. 

All these companies are leveraging the power of cloud-based solutions to get their business to the next level and to serve their customers and their customers? customers better. 

We are enabling companies to realize their business vision, no matter their size, by taking advantage of the flexibility, agility and scalability of the NetSuite cloud.

We will continue to build upon this customer momentum. I see this as a pivotal year for us to better understand our customers? buying journeys and incorporate all that knowledge into a new customer-centric modern marketing approach.

Who is the target of your new outreach efforts?
We continue to target business leaders and decision makers, the CFOs, CEOs and COOs. They are technology disruptors and innovators who want a system that can adapt, scale and grow with their business. They appreciate the power of the NetSuite cloud to help transform their businesses and enable them to delight their customers every time, every day, and everywhere. 

These are companies that have the needs of the next generation of buyer top of mind and they are the disruptors. 

If you?re not thinking about new buyers, you will end up as a disruptee and the disruptee position is one that markets have no forgiveness or tolerance for.

What?s your end goal?
It?s all about creating an unprecedented and unique experience for our customer and our customers? customer so that more businesses can be change agents. 

What used to work in marketing doesn?t work anymore ? customers are not funnels and they?re not going to trickle through something in a percentage base. 

Customers don?t follow a linear approach to buying anymore. 

So, I want to reinvent a completely non-linear buying model. 

It?s about individualizing the buying experience and having content and context for every single person in your company that gets the opportunity and privilege to engage with an individual buyer. 

We need to know implicitly what that unique individual buyer is doing and exactly how they want to engage ? whether that?s via chat, a phone call, an email or a live site visit. 

At the same time, we need to work internally to ensure the lines are blurred between the classic silos of marketers, sellers and customer case support people and use analytics to align all those communities with the sole intention of improving and individualizing that buying model.

Can you elaborate on the four key changes you?ve set in motion?
We?ve always had a strong focus on our customers and we?ve been rewarded with exceptional customer loyalty. 

One key step we?re taking is putting more emphasis on telling the NetSuite story through the lens of that customer success. 

Really, at the end of the day, it?s all about allowing our customers to realize their business vision.

The second area where we?re going to focus is on social campaigns and building out social campaigns with our customers. 

We have incredible customer satisfaction with our transformative cloud-based software, so the more our customers tell our story themselves, the better we are for it and the greater the understanding of NetSuite in the marketplace.

Thirdly, I?m taking a different tack towards our SuiteWorld user conference, which will take place in San Jose, CA, May 4-7. I?d like to invite all your readers to attend and celebrate NetSuite customers and partners with us. 

For me, SuiteWorld is no longer a big one-off event every year. Instead, it?s an experience along a journey. 

Think of SuiteWorld as providing the means to enable a vast fireside conversation for our customers and our customers? customers to share their transformational, epic ideas about business and life. 

So, I?m building a fire around which people will tell their stories ? that?s what SuiteWorld will start. 

Then we will keep that fire going virtually and in the real world around the globe. 

My hope is that everyone attending SuiteWorld carries away an ember of transformational thinking and uses that to light or stoke their own creative fire within their businesses to benefit their customers and their customers? customers.

Fourth, I?m meeting with as many of our customers as possible so I can galvanize them to become evangelists who advocate for us. 

I?m helping to drive delivery of the true authentic value of the NetSuite cloud as articulated by our customers and our customers? customers.

Who does NetSuite compete with in the marketplace?
I don?t mean this to sound boastful, but I really don?t see any competitors to NetSuite. 

NetSuite has been building cloud ERP for 17 years. We have nearly 24,000 customers around the world who?ve embraced the NetSuite cloud. No one is a close second. 

That?s an incredible head start and a huge opportunity. 

Now, that said, we are beginning to see some upstarts at the lower end of the market and in the enterprise, there are the big on-premise guys like SAP and Oracle. 

But all of them are late to the cloud party and all have got a long way to go to create cloud products or services to match the combination of NetSuite?s functionality and flexibility. 

We were born in the cloud and true multitenant cloud runs in our blood.

What is the overall state of the cloud business software market?
As I?ve said, it?s still early days but there is clear momentum ? just ask our nearly 24,000 customers ? and a lot of pent-up customer demand. 

Most established businesses have invested heavily in on-premise software systems and they are reluctant to rip them out, both because of the sunk cost and the business disruption it can cause. 

But they?re beginning to make those moves because they have to in order to transform their businesses. It is a necessary change to become a business and market disruptor, not a disruptee.

We?ve already replaced SAP and Oracle at a number of organizations and the move to NetSuite?s true cloud is only going to accelerate as businesses outgrow those systems built before the Internet existed. 

In the meantime, startups and fast-growing businesses clearly see the advantages of a cloud-based suite of business management software and are investing quickly. 

Look at any software startup today and they?re all using the cloud model. 

Likewise, venture capital firms want the businesses they back running in the cloud. 

Again, I?d point you to that amazing statistic I shared with you earlier ? over the last 18 months, 40 companies who use NetSuite have gone public and have created over $100 billion of market capitalization

Ultimately, we?ve reached a point where concerns about security, customization and functionality have given way to the understanding that cloud is really the way forward.  

What do your clients expect today of their software? 
Our customers want software that?s built for the modern business, meaning cloud-based, real-time, mobile-enabled and social. They want built-in flexibility that can change as their business changes, either by scaling up or down, adopting new business models or entering new geographies and industries. 

Also, they want analytics that can be accessed by anyone in real-time to help make decisions and improve how they do their jobs. And, finally, they want future-proof software that?s adaptable, can grow with their businesses, and which delivers huge improvements in the speed of execution and in the efficiency of end-to-end business processes across the organization. 

We at NetSuite meet all those needs and that?s why more and more companies are deploying our software and why more and more partners want to work with us.

How does mobile?s rapid adoption by consumers and businesses change business management software?
Mobile is having a profound impact on the way our customers interact with their software. 

In sales and customer relationship management applications, mobile has been a transformative power for years, empowering sales reps with detailed customer information at their fingertips and allowing them to spend more time face-to-face with customers and less time capturing and entering data. 

Increasingly, other business leaders are demanding mobile access as well, and not just static reports. They want to see real-time information, review purchase orders, approve expense reports, make decisions and enter data into their system of record, right from their mobile device. 

NetSuite is way ahead of this trend with a very strong focus on providing an optimal customer experience. 

What opportunities is NetSuite targeting for 2015?
There?s a huge opportunity in omnichannel commerce and we?re laser focused on meeting this demand. 

Today?s consumers expect a consistent, personalized experience, no matter what channel they?re using ? whether it?s a bricks-and-mortar store, Web site or mobile device. 

Consumers want to be able to move between channels seamlessly, for example, buying online and returning in-store. 

With a unified system of record that encompasses in-store, back office and ecommerce, NetSuite is uniquely positioned to provide the technological backbone to meet these modern consumer demands. 

And while right now it?s primarily a business-to-consumer ecommerce trend, as we?ve learned, these trends move quickly to impact business-to-business.

What?s the one thing you?ll definitely change from 2014 to 2015 that?s already underway?
More doing and fewer meetings. 

I?ve already asked that all NetSuite internal meetings be limited to 21 minutes. Everyone is too busy already and endless meetings that go over the same material, run into one another and leave everyone feeling exasperated are a prime culprit.

In general, this is a piece of advice I?d share with every company looking to embrace the new modern customer-centric marketing. Think about the things you are going to stop doing, because not everything you?re currently doing is adding the same amount of impact or value to your customer journey. 

Whether it?s data sheets, product specifications, webpages, verticals, media ads, social campaigns, a TV broadcast on a local airline, re-examine all that work because it?s not all created equal. 

Some of what you?re doing at present is not adding value. In fact, it may be detracting value from the experience you provide to your customers and your customers? customers.


As chief marketing officer, Fred Studer oversees NetSuite's worldwide marketing initiatives and drives awareness and adoption of NetSuite's cloud-based business management software. 

Mr. Studer has a long career in marketing, with more than 23 years in the high-tech industry. He came to NetSuite from Microsoft, where he led product marketing, go-to-market strategy and execution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. 

Before serving in that role, he was responsible for the Dynamics ERP lines and served as the general manager of the U.S. Microsoft Office business. 

Prior to Microsoft, Mr. Studer spent 12 years at Oracle, where his roles included the group vice president of marketing. 

Originally from Denver, CO, Mr. Studer received his B.S. in accounting and finance from the University of Colorado Boulder. He is a board member of the University Of Colorado Leeds School of Business.