TECHNOLOGY
NetSuite Networks at NY Trade Shows
NEW YORK—Designers weren’t the only ones showing their wares during New York’s September trade shows. On Sept. 18, cloud-based technology company NetSuite hosted a networking event after the Coterie and Designers and Agents shows.
“There are three sides to the apparel business,” said Matt Rhodus, NetSuite’s director for retail. “Manufacturing, wholesale, and retail. Traditionally apparel brands needed one piece of software to run their production, another for wholesale and another for B2C. NetSuite is one cloud-based company that does all of that.”
The handbag brand Hammitt started using NetSuite when it launched nine years ago. “It was the only one offering a true cloud-based solution, which was ERP [enterprise resource planning] to CRM [customer-relationship management] and everything in between,” said founder Tony Drockton.
At that time, NetSuite was not pursuing fashion clients specifically, and it continues to offer solutions for many business types. These include SuiteSuccess, released earlier this year, a cloud-based platform that allows clients to handle multiple functions—business intelligence, ERP, financials, accounting, human resources, inventory management, point-of-sale, e-commerce and customer-relationship management—without investing in hardware or IT staff.
In 2015, NetSuite began targeting fashion, now its fastest-growing sector. In 2016, the company released the NetSuite Retail Apparel Edition, which was recently adopted by Draper James, the style brand founded by Reese Witherspoon, to power its growth in e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail.
“NetSuite realized we’re well positioned for these brands,” Rhodus said. “All we had to do was develop a strategy for going after that market and tying it all together. That’s exactly what we did.”
