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Tag Archives: Brings

IBM’s StarNet brings explainable AI to image classification

March 19, 2020   Big Data

In a paper published on the preprint server Arxiv.org, researchers at IBM propose StarNet, an end-to-end trainable image classifier that’s able to localize what it believes to be the key regions supporting its predictions. Besides addressing the task of visual classification, StarNet supports the task of weakly-supervised few-shot object detection, such that only a small amount of noisy data is required to achieve reasonable accuracy with it.

StarNet could increase transparency in and reduce the amount of training data needed for new visual domains, like self-driving cars and autonomous industrial robots. By extension, it could cut down on deployment time for AI projects involving classifiers, which surveys show ranges between 8 to 90 days.

StarNet consists of a few-shot classifier module attached to an extractor, both of which are trained in a meta-learning fashion where episodes are randomly sampled from classes. Each episode comprises support samples and random query samples for a given base class of image, like “turtle,” “parrot,” “chicken,” “dog.”

 IBM’s StarNet brings explainable AI to image classification

StarNet tries to geometrically match every pair of support and query images, matching regions of arbitrary shape between the two images up to the local deformations (accommodating for changes in shape). Training drives the matched regions to correspond to the locations of the class instances present on image pairs that share the same class label, localizing the instances. As they’re localized, StarNet highlights the common image regions, giving insight into how it made its predictions.

 IBM’s StarNet brings explainable AI to image classification

In experiments, the researchers used only the class labels for training, validation, and all of the support images, sourcing from data sets including miniImageNet dataset, CIFAR-FS, and FC100, all of which have 100 randomly chosen classes; CUB, which has 11,788 images of birds of 200 species; and ImageNetLOC-FS, which comprises 331 animal categories. They used 2,000 episodes for validation and 1,000 for testing on a single Nvidia K40 graphics card, resulting in running times from 1.15 seconds per batch to 2.2 seconds per batch on average.

On few-shot classification tasks, StarNet managed to perform up to 5% better than the state-of-the-art baselines. And with respect to weakly-supervised few-shot object detection, the model obtained results “higher by a large margin” than results obtained by all compared baselines. The team attributes this strong performance to StarNet’s knack for classifying objects through localization.

“Future work directions include extending StarNet towards efficient end-to-end differentiable multi-scale processing for better handling very small and very large objects; iterative refinement utilizing StarNet’s locations predictions made during training; and applying StarNet for other applications requiring accurate localization using only a few examples, such as visual tracking.”

t’s often assumed that as the complexity of an AI system increases, it becomes invariably less interpretable. But researchers have begun to challenge that notion with libraries like Facebook’s Captum, which explains decisions made by neural networks with the deep learning framework PyTorch, as well as IBM’s AI Explainability 360 toolkit and Microsoft’s InterpretML. For its part, Google recently detailed a system that explains how image classifiers make predictions, and OpenAI detailed a technique for visualizing AI decision-making.

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Developers and Administrators: NetSuite 2020 Release 1 Brings New Ways to Harness the Power of the SuiteCloud Platform

February 1, 2020   NetSuite

Posted by Erik Klein, Principal Outbound Product Manager, SuiteCloud Platform

Running an organization is a complex undertaking, mandating companies to derive as much value from their business applications as possible. Perhaps no capability does more to ensure that customers are able to realize distinct business advantage from NetSuite than the SuiteCloud Platform.

Software developers and administrators around the globe leverage the SuiteCloud Platform to customize and extend their organizations’ NetSuite environments, not only to solve the unique challenges they face, but also to maximize the return on their ERP, ecommerce and HR investments. They count on the NetSuite Platform’s comprehensive and evolving array of customization and integration solutions to address these challenges.

NetSuite 2020 Release 1 continues to deliver on this promise by delivering a number of significant enhancements to the SuiteCloud Platform. From updated software development lifecycle tools in the SuiteCloud Development Framework (SDF) capabilities to the new in-product SuiteApp Marketplace, NetSuite 2020 Release 1 raises the stakes, giving developers more options than ever to become more agile and productive.

What’s more, these newly enhanced SuiteCloud Platform tools can accelerate DevOps efforts, as well as streamline and automate develop, test and deploy efforts. To top it off, SuiteScript 2.1 supports the latest version of ECMAScript, includes a variety of new REST web service features, and a broad array of SuiteScript APIs that make it possible to customize, integrate and extend NetSuite as never before.

SuiteCloud Platform Highlights

Here’s a sampling of new NetSuite 2020 Release 1 SuiteCloud Platform capabilities available within your NetSuite environment:

  • Generally available REST web services enable external applications to securely integrate with NetSuite, and includes support for custom records, expanded CRUD (Create, Read, Update Delete) operations, record collection filtering, and executable Record Actions.
  • A new REST API browser provides developers with a visual overview of API structure and function.
  • The updated SuiteScript 2.1 programming language supports the latest ECMAScript 2018 JavaScript syntax and is powered by Graal virtual machine technology, enabling developers to write powerful apps with less code. It also supports relative file path preferences.
  • The SuiteQL API enables the creation of fast and scalable applications, and significantly improves query performance and efficiency.
  • The updated SuiteCloud Development Framework (SDF) improves developer productivity and broadens support for application features. SDF-enabled SuiteScript customizations make it easy to create and modify forms natively in SuiteScript, and the new open-sourced Node.JS Command Line Interface (CLI) aids in attaining DevOps objectives such as Continuous Development and Integration (CI/CD).
  • Enhanced auditing and change management features add robustness to core auditing functions in the new System Notes v2 implementation.
  • SuiteFlow now features expanded support for expense automation, and workflow actions such as data validations no longer require custom scripting skills.
  • The new SuiteApp Marketplace introduces a new consumer-like experience natively within the NetSuite UI for discovering, distributing and consuming SuiteApps.

suite Developers and Administrators: NetSuite 2020 Release 1 Brings New Ways to Harness the Power of the SuiteCloud Platform

In summary, the SuiteCloud enhancements in NetSuite 2020 Release 1 will help customers and partners meet the unique requirements of their organizations by enabling them to customize NetSuite by leveraging technologies such as SuiteTalk for extensible cloud integration, SuiteFlow for workflow process automation, and SuiteAnalytics for business intelligence.

Learn More About the NetSuite 2020 Release 1

These are just the highlights! There are simply too many enhancements to the SuiteCloud Platform in this release to cover in a single blog post. To learn more about the complete list of new Platform features, be sure to read the Release Notes.

New to the release process? Learn more about it here.

Finally, be sure to request access to your Release Preview account. There, you can test to see how the new features will work with your own data and get a jumpstart on maximizing the impact of NetSuite 2020 Release 1.

Posted on Tue, January 28, 2020
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Microsoft brings back coopetition: Salesforce partnership part of bigger plan

November 19, 2019   CRM News and Info
digital agreement Microsoft brings back coopetition: Salesforce partnership part of bigger plan

Back in April 2016, I attended the very first Microsoft Envision Conference. While I had very mixed feelings about the conference itself, I was able to ascertain through a significant number of subtextual hints that Microsoft under Satya Nadella’s leadership was taking a crucial turn. Here’s how I described it then:

More Salesforce

“If I had to encapsulate what I hear Satya Nadella say and others support at Envision it is that Microsoft is not going to be a software company per se any longer but a company that is devoted to being a critical part of the infrastructure of business via Azure and businesses via thoroughly contemporary versions of Office and various Dynamics applications – and that Dynamics would become a business solutions platform and Office a unified communications platform – all with the express purpose of providing those highly personalized outcomes that lead to major gains in productivity. Microsoft becomes (if they achieve their vision) the company that is fully interwoven, enmeshed in the 21st century business infrastructure. That would be the “in-the-nutshell” (what a quaint expression) version.”

Literally all of this has not only been confirmed but as of yesterday is coming…I’d say with a vengeance but that’s not in the spirit of this thing…with Microsoft on a significant roll at a gathering-no-moss speed. 

On November 13, 2019, Microsoft and Salesforce announced that they had signed a deal with two technologically important provisions:

  • The Salesforce Marketing Cloud would be running on Microsoft Azure. This is significant given that the Sales and Marketing Clouds are running on AWS and in 2017 Salesforce said it would do stuff with Google Cloud though to my knowledge that is a bit meaningless at the moment. (maybe not in the future but as I write this in 2019) But Lord knows, when the cold wind blows it’ll turn your head around (Thank you James Taylor for that from Fire and Rain at 2:11 on this video) and they will actually do something with Google Cloud.  It is hard to ignore how highly business – that means the B2B world especially  –thinks of Azure, the #1 most-trusted IaaS platform. Every survey I’ve seen from 2016 to the present and there are dozens (In no particular order: here. here. here), when it comes to business Microsoft Azure wins – either as most utilized, in progress to overtake AWS or most trusted especially at the enterprise level. Now, before you complain, I’m well aware that I can find surveys that say the opposite, but the interesting thing here is that there has been enough volume and velocity of reports saying that Azure is trumping AWS in the enterprise to make that a consideration in your cloud provider strategy and assessment. I’m no fool, which is why I look at volume and velocity, not a single report. The other thing that makes this alliance particularly interesting at the level of Azure and the Marketing Cloud is that a survey from Densify and another from Kentik in 2019 both confirmed they are finding that multi-cloud deployments are increasing to the point that it’s now a real “thing.”  In fact, Densify identifies it as “multicloud deployments are becoming the new norm” something that I’m sure both Microsoft and Salesforce are aware of acutely – and each for their own reasons.
  • Salesforce also announced Sales and Service Cloud integrations with Microsoft Teams which is eating Slack for lunch these days (though I’d rather have tuna salad on soggy rye bread than Slack for lunch. Not a fan really). A lot of that is Salesforce’s recognition of the increasing adoption of Microsoft Teams and the desire to make it interoperable with Chatter. A very smart move on both parts.

However, this is not what makes this big deal a big deal. It’s Microsoft’s grand strategy, which translates into their mission and vision, that makes this is a big deal for the industry despite the limited scope of the actual arrangement.

Microsoft has the foresight to recognize that in order to become a mission-critical part of all 21st century business infrastructure, they can’t really just try to compete for the crown. That would be silly. We live in a world that, at the core, is governed by diversity – not just of color or gender but of choice.  And that dovetails with the one mission all humans have in common – in fact, the only mission that they have in common – the desire to be happy in their individual lives. Having control over those choices on their path to that happy life is paramount. Not only are their customers looking to choose what technologies they use to make their lives at work more effective and convenient, but they want control over those choices. Microsoft, rather than taking the approach of us or nothing is saying, no matter, whatever technology you use we can underlay, overlay, or embed in or integrate with so we are good with what you’ve decided, mi amore. And that we can provide, via Azure – and that’s the notable part of this – the infrastructural service you need to do so.

To that end, Microsoft has been on a tear for the last six plus months cementing alliances not only with Salesforce but with:

Microsoft-Oracle: Announced on June 5, 2019, this was a cloud interoperability partnership so that Azure Services could run on Oracle Cloud across  both. The key paragraph from the press release was this one:

“Connecting Azure and Oracle Cloud through network and identity interoperability makes lift-and-improve migrations seamless. This partnership delivers direct, fast and highly reliable network connectivity between two clouds, while continuing to provide first-class customer service and support that enterprises have come to expect from the two companies. In addition to providing interoperability for customers running Oracle software on Oracle Cloud and Microsoft software on Azure, it enables new and innovative scenarios like running Oracle E-Business Suite or Oracle JD Edwards on Azure against an Oracle Autonomous Database running on Exadata infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud.”

Defined by interoperability. At Oracle Open World, Larry Ellison in his keynote described what he literally called Oracle’s “wonderful” partner Microsoft. Aside from the fact I never heard Larry Ellison use the word “wonderful” before, in the past there was no shortage of digs at Microsoft, so this represents a significant and, to me, welcome evolution in the relationship between the two companies – and with a lot of runway for the relationship to be carried considerably further.

Microsoft-ServiceNow: The original partnership between these two companies was announced in October 2018 but was limited to the federal public sector – more of a tactical alliance. It was ServiceNow IT workflows combined with Microsoft Azure to enhance “digital transformation” at federal agencies. (Digital transformation is, of course, the catchall buzzword in every press release of every vendor for everything. Most importantly, buzzwords aside,  it was an important first step – and a tactical test – to a more strategic relationship announced in July 2019 to extend the idea of the workflows within an Azure infrastructure for “enterprise customers in highly regulated industries.” While this is still a bit restricted, with Bill McDermott coming in as the new ServiceNow chieftain, after leaving SAP, this is likely to be taken a significant amount further, since under McDermott’s tutelage, SAP and Microsoft always had a friendly, if at times competitive, relationship going back many years.  So his predisposition is to ally with Microsoft, as could be seen with the Open Data Initiative (ODI) (see below) which consists of SAP, Microsoft and Adobe and was a major cooperative venture during Bill’s tenure.  This bodes well for the broadening of this alliance even more – especially since Microsoft is thinking “ecosystems” now. That means that they see that ServiceNow plays a role in their end to end customer ecosystem which they themselves cannot play – and thus partner’s with ServiceNow accordingly.

Microsoft-SAP: This is actually one of the longest standing partnerships. The partnerships, which have had an on again off again vibe, harken back to 2005’s Mendocino/Duet technology announcement and release (2006) and now extend to in-cloud migration allowing customers and others to migrate to SAP’s  S/4 for Hana via Azure services.  This partnership, announced October 20, 2019, once again shows the common theme for all of Microsoft’s strategic partnerships is Azure and the services that it provides.

Microsoft-Adobe – I call this longer standing superbly crafted partnership the GARP – The Get A Room Partnership because it is so close and so intimate that they almost shouldn’t be doing those things in public. I’ve written extensively on this one because it is a paradigm of how strategic partnerships that are ecosystem focused should work. To get more details on this, check out what I wrote about its strengths and limitations in 2018, this Watchlist winner post this year that provides what I thought about it from Adobe’s perspective (included in it but not an article about the partnership per se) and some more of the recent evolution of the partnership with Magento and Marketo playing a role in that, according to my dear bud and CRM Playaz partner Brent Leary and included in his take on the Salesforce-Microsoft announcement of a few days ago. To summarize, this is arguably not only the best executed and closest strategic relationship I’ve ever seen from two vendors but it should be seen as a paradigm on how to do one of these.  It involves of course, running a number of Adobe’s services (most recently managed services for Adobe Experience Manager) on Azure and tying a lot of Adobes application architecture to Azure. It also involves Microsoft using Adobe Digital Marketing as Microsoft’s primary enterprise marketing B2C offering but in conjunction with that most recently, tying Marketo Engage to both Dynamics 365 and LinkedIn even as Microsoft continues to evolve its own marketing applications.   Even at the business level, Microsoft and Adobe salespeople are compensated for the sales of specific applications of the other partner in order to encourage “bundled” apps and services from both combined. This is the best of the best of strategic partnerships and is the trigger partnership for all of the others.

Open Data Initiative (ODI) – In September 2018, Microsoft, SAP, and Adobe announced what they called the Open Data Initiative (ODI). At first it was confusing, it was announced during Dreamforce and seemed to be a dig at Salesforce, and it was unclear whether or not this was to be a new universal data standard or it was to be focused on data interoperability among the three data models of the three different companies.  It may have been a dig at Salesforce, though that was denied, but the timing remains suspicious, nonetheless. But thankfully for all of us, it was not meant to be a new universal data standard but instead the architecture for interoperability for the data of the three companies.  Whew. But once again, regardless of what the purpose was, this is a strategic pact Microsoft is driving with its new partners and one that fits their game plan exceptionally well.

While these are all germane to the tech industry and Azure and are interesting to people like me (and, I presume, you) we can’t forget all the strategic ecosystem partnerships that Microsoft forged in 2019, so briefly, here they are:

Sony – announced in May 2019, this partnership was to explore opportunities in gaming and AI – which given the competition between Xbox One and PS5, made this a significant effort – again eschewing competition for coopetition. 

AT&T – Announced in July 2019, this is a multi-year effort that follows the partnership thread around an Azure framework and services effort that involves the public cloud, 5G and many other facets. The key part of the announcement from the press release:

“As part of the agreement, AT&T will provide much of its workforce with robust cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools available with Microsoft 365, and plans to migrate non-network infrastructure applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.”

Humana – In October 2019, Microsoft announced a strategic partnership with Humana to reimagine health care solutions for the 21st century aging population. Embedded in the agreement was the following: 

“Using the power of Microsoft’s Azure cloud, Azure AI, and Microsoft 365 collaboration technologies, (bold mine) as well as interoperability standards like FHIR, Humana will develop predictive solutions and intelligent automation to improve its members’ care by providing care teams with real-time access to information through a secure and trusted cloud platform.”

Once again, Azure is the centerpiece of this vertically specific partnering. Even though a very different kind of company, it follows a bit along the lines of the agreement with ServiceNow. Vertically specific, but on the Azure IaaS platform.

Allianz – Just a few days, Microsoft announced that it will be working with Allianz and their insurance tech spin-off Syncier, to develop customized insurance industry solutions based on, what else?, Azure and with an Azure marketplace for insurance solution providers to show their wares (as long as they are built with Azure in mind of course).

What does this all mean?

Microsoft is executing well on its grand strategy (not the same as a strategy) – to become a mission critical part of all business infrastructure in the 21st century. Obviously, to accomplish this they need the platform, architecture, services and framework to do that – and they have that.  Azure. They also have the confidence of the enterprise market in Azure they need to justify their case that this is something that will benefit the markets they are addressing.  If you look at the current make up, AWS and Azure are the two most dominant IaaS platforms and while AWS remains the leader, Azure is gaining ground.  But that’s not all that goes into accomplishing their objective.  Having the IaaS platform is a prerequisite to be sure, but you have to be able to prove that you can support the provision of outcomes that the business community from IT to line of business is looking for. The technology has to be put to use of the customer.

In Microsoft’s case, to their great credit, they know that. Have they justified that with these alliances? Not yet.  What they have justified with these partnerships though is:

  1. They are committed to thinking about the world via platforms and ecosystems.
  2. They understand that interoperability in a diverse world is necessary, not an evil to be overcome. We don’t live in a world that sole provider exclusivity is really that much of an option if that’s all you are providing. Don’t get me wrong. It is an option.  But Microsoft is fully cognizant of that no one really wants to dump what have been highly useful investments in IT just to be devoted to a single vendor’s offering. The likelihood of that decreases as the era continues.  So they see ecosystems interwoven with a technology matrix that ties multiple companies technologies together as the way to go.
  3. Thus, the partnerships you see above.  All of them are governed by a Azure managed container and are built to meet specific objectives.
  4. Sometimes in the case of Oracle, AT&T and SAP – its to allow workloads to be managed in Azure – in others it’s a vertically specific effort – see ServiceNow, Humana and Allianz/Syncier – while couched in the language and buzzwordry (my new term) of digital transformation, are still workflows, services, etc. in an Azure container. 
  5. Microsoft recognizes this and apparently is more than any other company I’ve seen to date, willing to run with the idea that interoperability, cooperation, ecosystems, non-exclusivity, and diversity of choice are how they are going to best effect their goal. Thus the 9 strategic efforts which, with the exception of Adobe, were all generated this year. 

Do I think they can pull this off? Possibly. Microsoft has deep pockets, a clear-cut objective, the willingness to throw out the norms of competition that we’ve seen get vicious at times in the tech world.  Have they done enough? Not yet. There are many more pieces to the completion of this puzzle that go beyond just Azure containers so to speak. Office 365 plays a big role. Other alliances. Their own partner ecosystem. Their business applications (Dynamics 365) platform (PowerBI) and citizen apps builder (PowerApps) all play a role.  So there is more to consider, but this current rather dramatic effort is worth watching and Microsoft, if they can minimally stay the course and optimally escalate without losing focus, is a company that will have to be reckoned with a great deal in 2020 – in a cooperative way of course.

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Art in Action Brings Critical Art Curriculum to Students in Need

November 7, 2019   NetSuite
gettyimages 605376397 Art in Action Brings Critical Art Curriculum to Students in Need

Posted by Barney Beal, Content Director

Operating a nonprofit that acts like a manufacturer strained operations for the growing charity.

Arts education has been on the decline in primary and secondary schools in the U.S. for years. Art in Action, a nonprofit focused on art education for children, is working towards changing that narrative.

The creativity nurtured by vigorous art instruction is a key component of tomorrow’s workforce. Art in Action aims to spur those creative skills by offering art curriculum, course materials and training to students across the country.

Art in Action was founded in 1982 by Judy Sleeth, a concerned parent who had enrolled her child in kindergarten only to find no art instruction available. Judy began by creating her own art lessons and teaching them to the class, and then growing to other local schools through word-of-mouth.

Today, Art in Action reaches 85,000 students in 32 states, with over half those students in Title 1 schools in low-income communities. Art curriculum packages can be purchased by schools, parent volunteers, or even corporations wanting to sponsor art curriculum.

For most of its history, to support its operations, Art in Action used desktop accounting software that handled basic accounting functions – but not much else. The organization dealt with some unique complexities, as it functioned much like a manufacturer.

“Because we are delivering boxes of art supplies and training materials to schools, those boxes need to be accounted for in the same way a manufacturer performs accounting by client, by job, or by site. You have to segment out all income and expenses attributed to a given entity,” said Christian Edoria, VP of operations and finance at Art in Action.

Edoria was initially brought in as a contractor to Art in Action to oversee the company’s bookkeeping and financial reporting. As he delved into the organization’s business processes, he found numerous gaps that were hindering Art in Action’s growth.

“Our previous accounting software wasn’t capable of many of the accounting functions we needed, so I ended up exporting a lot of data to spreadsheets and manipulating it myself,” he said.

Without being able to perform allocation accounting common in the manufacturing industry, Christian was on his own when it came to creating tax reporting for donor letters, audit statements and metrics demonstrating the efficacy of Art in Action’s programs. On top of that, slow invoicing and accounts receivable processes created customer delays and poor cash flow, and Art in Action had zero visibility into the cost of art boxes.

“From a customer placing an order to shipping it out of our warehouse could take up to 2 weeks, because of a backlog from our CRM to the previous accounting software,” said Christian. “We have 42 combinations of art bundles and we didn’t know what each one cost.”

At the same time these workflow gaps were surfacing, Art in Action revealed some hefty goals: the organization wanted to reach 200,000 students and accurately measure the efficacy of their art programs.

Art in Action needed to get a handle on industry-specific accounting requirements, streamline processes, and meet aggressive goals. It chose and launched the NetSuite platform in September of 2018.

Allocation tracking in NetSuite proved to be the most powerful functionality for Art in Action, as most of its process gaps could be addressed as a result. Today, Edoria can enter allocation percentages directly into NetSuite and pull custom reports, with no external manipulation required.

That means getting donor letters out faster, closing the books 10-15 days sooner than before, and easily tying income and expenses to art bundles to demonstrate program effectiveness.

And inventory tracking helped to address the warehouse order backlog and drive greater visibility of art bundle costs. Orders now ship within 48 hours and bundle prices are readily available.

“As soon as a sales order is entered it goes directly to the warehouse team. Faster shipping means we get cash faster,” said Christian. “And with an awareness of bundle costs, we can work to reduce prices to serve more students.”

Art in Action has taken advantage of Oracle NetSuite Social Impact’s Suite Pro Bono activities including the Hackathon 4Good and Buildathon 4Good events. The organization was able to learn valuable ways to improve their work flows with NetSuite employees at the most recent Buildathon 4Good held in Redwood City where they were matched with NetSuite employees to support their mission.

“We were having trouble tracking orders that were built, but not yet fulfilled. As a result of working with our Buildathon 4Good team, we were able to create a clear, efficient process on tracking orders. “The Suite Pro Bono team has made a significant impact on our production process,” commented Christian at the end of the day.

With more time, confidence and flexibility in their accounting data and operational systems, Art in Action is poised to focus on their singular goal: reaching students in need with high-quality art curriculum.

“With NetSuite, everything was intuitive and exactly where I thought it would be,” Edoria said. “The ability to customize fields made the process of addressing our unique requirements that much easier.”

Learn how other nonprofits like Art in Action improved business outcomes using NetSuite.

Posted on Wed, November 6, 2019
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NetSuite 2019 Release 2 Brings Business Impact in a Big Way

August 21, 2019   NetSuite

Posted by Peter Fung, Senior Director Product Management ERP, Oracle NetSuite and  Kendall Fisher, Executive Producer and Host of The NetSuite Podcast

This summer brought more than just picnics in the park, big action movies and family vacations. It also brought the hotly-awaited NetSuite 2019 Release 2—a release with 265 new features, 79 of which were requests made directly by NetSuite customers. Now that’s what we call a barbecue, blockbuster and trip to Disneyland all rolled into one.

NetSuite customers receive two major upgrades per year, each bringing new features and functionality that are completed within an hour on average at no extra cost. NetSuite 2019 Release 2 delivers significant business impact, with everything from powerful new financial capabilities and refined human capital management processes to beefed-up analytics and an expanded box of developer tools, as well as a wide array of industry-specific features.

Oracle NetSuite’s Senior Director of Product Marketing, Lisa Schwarz, provides an overview of what to expect from the release on “The NetSuite Podcast.” You can listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or YouTube. And for a deeper dive, read below. 

More HCM Power

For starters, new human capital management capabilities in NetSuite 2019 Release 2 will enable HR decision-makers to:

  • Better understand employee tenure and employment history by quickly viewing key milestones and timelines.
  • Gain more flexibility in managing hourly time-off accruals, including audit trails for how accruals are earned.
  • Get an accurate view of their HR landscapes with improved dashboard components.

employee%20timeline NetSuite 2019 Release 2 Brings Business Impact in a Big WayMobile Enhancements

NetSuite mobile enables users to stay connected, even on the go. iPhone users of NetSuite can now capture time and expense offline, when they are not connected. Once connected, the app will sync all the information captured. Simplified navigation will help users easily maneuver through app. A dashboard call log enables easy tracking of incoming and outgoing business calls. Reset password has also been added for forgotten passwords.

Iphone%20Mobile NetSuite 2019 Release 2 Brings Business Impact in a Big Way

SuiteAnalytics

SuiteAnalytics meets customers’ growing thirst for actionable data, and an intuitive new user interface brings those insights to the entire NetSuite environment faster than ever. Pre-built SuiteAnalytics workbooks for Commerce, Sales and Procurement improve execution by highlighting opportunities and revealing potential issues. What’s more, SuiteAnalytics can be used to leverage analytics anywhere within the SuiteCloud platform.

SuiteAnalytics NetSuite 2019 Release 2 Brings Business Impact in a Big WayGlobal Financials

Meanwhile, on the financial front, NetSuite 2019 Release 2 will provide the increasingly diversified and global population of NetSuite customers with:

  • Improved multi-subsidiary management and accounting.
  • New advanced data import features that streamline bank reconciliation.
  • More flexible and granular revenue recognition capabilities.
  • Improved support for your operations around the world with general ledger impact printing for China and additional depreciation methods for Japan.

 Industry-Specific Enhancements

NetSuite 2019 Release 2 addresses a wide array of problems for businesses across industries.

For wholesale distributors and manufacturers, this release includes:

  • A new warehouse management solution that increases productivity with a flexible wave release process, paperless picking and an intuitive mobile interface.
  • Supply allocation that improves customer service levels by optimizing usage of current and future inventory assets for customer orders.
  • The Supply Chain Control Tower, which provides unparalleled visibility and enables manufacturers and wholesale distributors to avoid problems in their supply chains. The enhancement gives users a single view of the state of their supply chains and delivers predicted risks and recommended actions to avoid disruptions.

Learn more about new enhancements for Manufacturers
and Wholesale Distributors in NetSuite 2019 Release 2.

For retailers, NetSuite 2019 Release 2 offers:

  • Merchandise attributes which enable retailers to easily view product performance based on different product classifications (i.e. brand, collection).

Learn more about enhancements for Retailers in NetSuite 2019 Release 2 .

For software and services businesses, NetSuite Release 2 offers:

  • Simplified project budgeting, powerful new resource management and improved reporting that will allow professional services firms to plan, budget and schedule projects more effectively, as well as better manage resources as a global pool, all of which translate to greater resource utilization and increased revenue.

Learn more about enhancements in NetSuite 2019 Release 2 for Software
and for Services.

Platform Improvements

As with every NetSuite release, there are also goodies for developers. SuiteCloud Platform enhancements in NetSuite 2019 Release 2 include support for industry standards such as REST services for integration and OpenID Connect for federated authentication, enabling developers to further customize and extend NetSuite.

In general, NetSuite 2019 Release 2 pushes the developer and administrator experience forward, making it easier to localize NetSuite applications, harden security and harness the power of SuiteScript and NetSuite’s software development framework.

Learn more about the Platform enhancements in NetSuite 2019 Release 2 .

 Learn More About NetSuite 2019 Release 2

Clearly, there’s a lot to learn about NetSuite 2019 Release 2—more than I can possibly communicate in a blog post. Please read the release notes and check out our Sneak Peek to learn how this latest NetSuite release can benefit your organization.

Perhaps more importantly: Access your preview account as soon as it’s available. Not only can you see how the new features will work with your own data, but it doesn’t cost a dime.

Posted on Mon, August 19, 2019
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NetSuite 2019 Release 2 Brings Business Impact in a Big Way

July 23, 2019   NetSuite

Posted by Peter Fung, Senior Director Product Management ERP, Oracle NetSuite

The beginning of summer brings more than picnics in the park, big action movies and family vacations. It also brings a hotly-awaited NetSuite product release, and this year’s NetSuite 2019 Release 2 is a barbecue, blockbuster and trip to Disneyland all rolled into one.

NetSuite customers receive two major upgrades per year, each bringing new features and functionality that are completed within an hour on average at no extra cost. NetSuite 2019 Release 2 delivers significant business impact, with everything from powerful new financial capabilities and refined human capital management processes to beefed-up analytics and an expanded box of developer tools, as well as a wide array of industry-specific features.

More HCM Power

For starters, new human capital management capabilities in NetSuite 2019 Release 2 will enable HR decision-makers to:

  • Better understand employee tenure and employment history by quickly viewing key milestones and timelines.
  • Gain more flexibility in managing hourly time-off accruals, including audit trails for how accruals are earned.
  • Get an accurate view of their HR landscapes with improved dashboard components.

employee%20timeline NetSuite 2019 Release 2 Brings Business Impact in a Big WayMobile Enhancements

NetSuite mobile enables users to stay connected, even on the go. iPhone users of NetSuite can now capture time and expense offline, when they are not connected. Once connected, the app will sync all the information captured. Simplified navigation will help users easily maneuver through app. A dashboard call log enables easy tracking of incoming and outgoing business calls. Reset password has also been added for forgotten passwords.

Iphone%20Mobile NetSuite 2019 Release 2 Brings Business Impact in a Big Way

SuiteAnalytics

SuiteAnalytics meets customers’ growing thirst for actionable data, and an intuitive new user interface brings those insights to the entire NetSuite environment faster than ever. Pre-built SuiteAnalytics workbooks for Commerce, Sales and Procurement improve execution by highlighting opportunities and revealing potential issues. What’s more, SuiteAnalytics can be used to leverage analytics anywhere within the SuiteCloud platform.

SuiteAnalytics NetSuite 2019 Release 2 Brings Business Impact in a Big WayGlobal Financials

Meanwhile, on the financial front, NetSuite 2019 Release 2 will provide the increasingly diversified and global population of NetSuite customers with:

  • Improved multi-subsidiary management and accounting.
  • New advanced data import features that streamline bank reconciliation.
  • More flexible and granular revenue recognition capabilities.
  • Improved support for your operations around the world with general ledger impact printing for China and additional depreciation methods for Japan.

 Industry-Specific Enhancements

NetSuite 2019 Release 2 addresses a wide array of problems for businesses across industries.

For wholesale distributors and manufacturers, this release includes:

  • A new warehouse management solution that increases productivity with a flexible wave release process, paperless picking and an intuitive mobile interface.
  • Supply allocation that improves customer service levels by optimizing usage of current and future inventory assets for customer orders.
  • The Supply Chain Control Tower, which provides unparalleled visibility and enables manufacturers and wholesale distributors to avoid problems in their supply chains. The enhancement gives users a single view of the state of their supply chains and delivers predicted risks and recommended actions to avoid disruptions.

Learn more about new enhancements for Manufacturers
and Wholesale Distributors in NetSuite 2019 Release 2.

For retailers, NetSuite 2019 Release 2 offers:

  • Merchandise attributes which enable retailers to easily view product performance based on different product classifications (i.e. brand, collection).

Learn more about enhancements for Retailers in NetSuite 2019 Release 2 .

For software and services businesses, NetSuite Release 2 offers:

  • Simplified project budgeting, powerful new resource management and improved reporting that will allow professional services firms to plan, budget and schedule projects more effectively, as well as better manage resources as a global pool, all of which translate to greater resource utilization and increased revenue.

Learn more about enhancements in NetSuite 2019 Release 2 for Software
and for Services.

Platform Improvements

As with every NetSuite release, there are also goodies for developers. SuiteCloud Platform enhancements in NetSuite 2019 Release 2 include support for industry standards such as REST services for integration and OpenID Connect for federated authentication, enabling developers to further customize and extend NetSuite.

In general, NetSuite 2019 Release 2 pushes the developer and administrator experience forward, making it easier to localize NetSuite applications, harden security and harness the power of SuiteScript and NetSuite’s software development framework.

Learn more about the Platform enhancements in NetSuite 2019 Release 2 .

 Learn More About NetSuite 2019 Release 2

Clearly, there’s a lot to learn about NetSuite 2019 Release 2—more than I can possibly communicate in a blog post. Please read the release notes and check out our Sneak Peek to learn how this latest NetSuite release can benefit your organization.

Perhaps more importantly: Access your preview account as soon as it’s available. Not only can you see how the new features will work with your own data, but it doesn’t cost a dime.

Posted on Sun, July 21, 2019
by NetSuite filed under

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Automation Brings Much-Needed Support For Finance Compliance And Security To Growing Businesses

July 2, 2019   BI News and Info

Part four of the series “Finance’s Transformation Role in Growing Businesses”

The impact of intelligent technology runs even deeper in midsize businesses than most people think – especially when finance organizations automate their audit and compliance programs to help offset resource constraints.

In fact, according to the IDC InfoBrief, “The Finance Role in Best-Run Midsize Companies: Improving Decision-Making Using Intelligent Technologies,” sponsored by SAP, nearly 100% of best-run finance organizations cite audit and compliance automation as a high priority. And more important, upward of 85% are using technology to reduce rogue purchases, fraud, and audit risk; improve spend management and control; and uncover insights on organizational spend.

finance priorities and technologies for spend management 1024x504 Automation Brings Much Needed Support For Finance Compliance And Security To Growing Businesses

Source: “The Finance Role in Best-Run Midsize Companies: Improving Decision-Making Using Intelligent Technologies,” IDC, sponsored by SAP, February 2019.

Growing adoption of technology for audit, compliance, and security management

The critical nature of audit and compliance programs requires company-wide commitment and strategic direction from organizational leadership. Otherwise, the business is no more than a rudderless ship prone to be hit with every wind and wave of disruption that might topple it.

With a navigation style rooted in logic and sequential thinking, most finance organizations in midsize companies are well-positioned to adopt intelligent technologies to automate audit and compliance processes as well as security management. For example, machine learning reduces mundane tasks and increases workforce and process agility. Digital assistants empower users to focus on what matters most to the customer and the business. Meanwhile, predictive analytics help employees concentrate more on present and future outcomes, rather than those in the past. And replacing traditionally manual controls with those that are fully automated reduces the cost and fatigue of internal and external audits.

Using intelligent technologies enables finance organizations to build on their reputation for providing strong support to the business. They can expand the application of transparent and trusted business intelligence while keeping data protected from inappropriate access and fraudulent use. Finance leaders can partner with all non-finance areas to identify risks, develop well-rounded opportunistic strategies, and handle disruptions without negatively impacting another function.

For example, with the use of intelligent technologies, finance can empower lines of business to address realities such as:

  • Rapid onset and diversity of risk events and potential for significant losses
  • Stakeholder pressure for a more reliable view of risk tied to company objectives
  • Relentless cyber threats that call for better protection of sensitive information
  • Expanding global reach and complexity of regulatory requirements

Fostering digital trust to deliver outcomes that matter

Adoption of intelligent technologies, especially for midsize businesses and their finance teams, is the key to timely action, decision-making accuracy, and fully informed insight. Once insights from those innovations are derived and operationalized through automation, finance organizations can allow the rest of the business to get ahead of auditing and compliance challenges without trading off business efficiency, quality, and growth. 

Discover how finance organizations can drive insight and guidance that powers real growth for midsize companies. We invite you to bookmark our series landing page, “Finance’s Intelligent Influence in Growing Businesses,” and check it for new insights and best practices.

In the meantime, check out SAP-sponsored IDC InfoBrief, “The Finance Role in Best-Run Midsize Companies: Improving Decision-Making Using Intelligent Technologies.”

 And if you want more insights and perspectives from finance and SAP leaders on their experiences in finance transformation, we invite you to visit the on-demand SAP Finance and Risk Management Virtual Event.

Follow SAP Finance online: @SAPFinance (Twitter) | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube

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Amazon brings voice announcements to all Alexa devices

May 25, 2019   Big Data
 Amazon brings voice announcements to all Alexa devices

Amazon today announced that third-party devices using Alexa Voice Service can now use voice announcements to turn smart speakers into something like a home intercom system. The move makes announcements available for a number of devices, like Facebook’s Portal and smart speakers and soundbars from companies like Bose and Sonos.

Announcements are one-way voice messages that can be sent to Echo speakers so you can say things like “Alexa, tell everybody dinner is ready” or “Alexa, tell Sophia it’s time for school.” Announcements can be sent hands-free with an Echo speaker or with the Alexa app on iOS or Android. The ability to send one-way messages with native Amazon Echo devices was introduced in 2017.

Announcements must be enabled by the device developer, Amazon said today in a blog post.

Announcements are similar to Broadcasts, a feature with Google’s Nest smart speakers, but Google’s solution enables users to respond. In addition to announcements, Alexa’s Echo speakers can make phone calls and Skype calls, send text messages, and make calls or Drop in with other Amazon Echo speakers.

The news comes a day after Google’s Duo introduced group video calls on smartphones. Duo powers video calls on Google Assistant smart displays. Those are still limited to calls with up to two people but will likely support group calls in the future.

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TIBCO Brings Joy This Holiday Season with Connected Intelligence

December 25, 2018   TIBCO Spotfire
GettyImages 889538316 960x640 TIBCO Brings Joy This Holiday Season with Connected Intelligence

























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Social Impact, Accelerated: How NetSuite Brings the Village to Nonprofits

October 28, 2018   NetSuite

Posted by Morgan Carey, Nonprofit Industry Marketing Lead

Nonprofit organizations come in all shapes and sizes, from international research societies to local community outreach programs. Just like for-profit businesses, each nonprofit has a unique mission and operating structure to support its growth.

Take Los Angeles-based nonprofit Michelson Found Animals Foundation, an organization founded in 2005 to donate tracking technology to animal shelters as a response to the pets lost in Hurricane Katrina. Later, it dawned on the founder, philanthropist Dr. Gary Michelson, that instead of simply writing checks he should fund innovative programs and technology. The foundation set out to operate in hybrid mode, as part philanthropy, part social enterprise.

Now, 10 years later, Found Animals has distributed $ 3.6 million in grants, facilitated the adoption of 20,000 pets and registered millions of animals in its database based on microchips that rival the top for-profit suppliers. 

Contrast this competitive nonprofit and its balance of business-minded mission work with Brightpoint Health. This healthcare organization serves people in New York City’s five boroughs. Its innovation: it identifies the most underserved clients and brings the care to them. What started as a facility for those struggling with AIDS has transformed into a provider of medical and dental care, behavioral health and substance abuse treatment for more than 40,000 New Yorkers yearly.

Found Animals and Brightpoint Health both have a vision to make the world a better place, but have taken much different paths to achieve their goals, just like thousands of other nonprofit organizations. The operational complexity behind getting these missions off the ground is significant. It’s no secret that resources are typically strapped for nonprofits, that business processes aren’t always well defined, especially in the beginning, that these endeavors are sometimes staffed by volunteers and are labors of love and passion first and become full-fledged businesses along the way.

And like any business, it takes an ecosystem of customers and partners and a host of enabling infrastructure to succeed. In the case of NetSuite’s Social Impact program, that has meant having the opportunity to take the power behind what NetSuite built for the commercial sector and applying it in ways that could enable organizations like Found Animals and Brightpoint Health . . . and Kiva and Alex’s Lemonade Stand and hundreds more. 

By working with these organizations, NetSuite has identified opportunities to continue bringing more to this nonprofit ecosystem, accelerating the missions of these endeavors by accelerating the mission and reach of its own Social Impact initiative with several new changes, called “Social Impact, Accelerated.” 

The goal of Social Impact, Accelerated: to bolster nonprofit customer success and reach an even broader audience of deserving causes.

SuiteDonation – Accelerated Value

Social%20Impact%20Accelerated1 Social Impact, Accelerated: How NetSuite Brings the Village to Nonprofits

Stealing a page from Michelson Found Animals’ playbook, NetSuite surmised that it’s not simply enough to donate technology, which is one of the first points of entry into the Social Impact program and has helped fuel more than 1,300 nonprofits. Although the donation is a critical foundation, resource constraints often prevent companies like Found Animals from getting started using NetSuite as quickly as they would like.

Now, in addition to the software donation, every Social Impact customer will receive an activation of the solution at no cost. Leading practices from NetSuite’s extensive history of nonprofit implementations are baked right into the activation, so nonprofits can see immediate success just by getting up and running.

Suite Pro Bono – Accelerated Options

The NetSuite pro bono programs were originally built solely to help Social ImpactSocial%20Impact%20Accelerated2 Social Impact, Accelerated: How NetSuite Brings the Village to Nonprofits customers use the software more effectively, pairing NetSuite employees with the organizations for quarterly virtual programs and in-person events. These projects foster networking, collaboration and various forms of innovation.

For example, Brightpoint Health participated in NetSuite’s 2017 Hackathon 4Good, which took place at SuiteWorld. The company took advantage of a full room of NetSuite experts to help streamline its back-office operations, including processing patient transactions and managing the organization’s funding.

This kind of success feeds on itself. It gets the thousands of NetSuite employees itching to be more involved. But because the majority of them are not NetSuite system experts, their skills can come in different ways, including help kick-starting a new fundraising campaign, executive coaching or marketing insights and assistance. That’s the basis for NetSuite’s new skills-based pro bono offering.

In other words, Suite Pro Bono now means bringing more NetSuite employees face-to-face (or Webex-to-Webex) with more nonprofit causes for more reasons than ever before.

Suite Capacity – Accelerated Connections

Social%20Impact%20Accelerated3 Social Impact, Accelerated: How NetSuite Brings the Village to Nonprofits

NetSuite’s role in the success of nonprofits is to be an enabler. That doesn’t just stop at technology enablement. To ensure nonprofits can build capacity for lifelong success, the Social Impact program has provided dedicated account management for customers, along with online learning opportunities focused on building confidence and skills. 

But education goes far beyond facilitated courses. For example, Brightpoint Health created a medical center on wheels to cater to communities with no access to health care. For specific insights about Brightpoint Health’s journey, like how it got from idea to execution, or what technology was critical to its success, direct interaction is the most powerful tool. 

In other words, nonprofits benefit most by connecting with and learning from other like-minded organizations. NetSuite is building a new Online Community and Knowledge Center to allow social enterprises to openly meet and share best practices and expand their ecosystem.

That sharing and learning creates sparks and leads to even more growth. In the case of nonprofits, it’s the kind of growth that changes lives and makes the world a better place.

Learn more about how NetSuite is investing in nonprofits:


Posted on Thu, October 25, 2018
by NetSuite filed under

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