SuiteWorld 2014: 'NetSuite is fine for global expansion, but we won't adopt domestically' says Williams-Sonoma

Though "I don't know what the future holds" says VP of international systems

US kitchen appliance and utensils firm Williams-Sonoma has praised NetSuite for its cloud and ERP offerings while tackling a global expansion, but says it has no current intentions to utilise the company for its systems back home.

Speaking at NetSuite's SuiteWorld 2014 conference in San Jose today, VP of international systems Rob Bogan described how the company is moving beyond the US into 75 countries across the world, hoping to target a housewares and home furnishings market worth $532bn, next to the $116bn revenue the company has been making in the US alone.

Running NetSuite in back office, standardised on the company's OneWorld, CRM, ERP, Financials and POS System products, Bogan is happy with NetSuite's offerings for the global expansion - which began with four stores in Australia and is growing - but is reticent to replace systems at home with NetSuite for now.

"We have a business domestically" said Bogan.

"We've invested a hell of a lot of money in our domestic business and we have some pretty amazing websites, and a lot of technologies and modelling engines, because we're at a point now where we're going after specific things after low-hanging fruit.

"I think there's a hell of a lot of money in that, and we've kind of got it. If it was a redo, absolutely NetSuite would be an option, but as far as what we've invested..." Bogan tailed off.

NetSuite integrates with Lawson "at HQ" for a result which Williams-Sonoma says costs "significantly less than on-premise options".

Bogan also described taking on NetSuite as the useful first stage in a cloud journey that still has an unknown destination.

"For me to walk in and say, ‘We're moving to a cloud solution', people said ‘No we're not!", so this has been a journey as well in getting peoples' head round it. I don't know what the future holds, but right now this is working for what we're doing."

When asked of Williams-Sonoma's findings when investigating other vendors in the space, including Oracle, Bogan replied:

"We've all been in situations where there's a shying away from the [financial] ‘big bang', so it wasn't an apples to apples comparison between Oracle and NetSuite.

"I mean, no offence to NetSuite but of course Oracle would win, becase that's the bread and butter of it. But the point was [NetSuite] gave us enough, and what we needed.

"And to take it to the next level, as we implemented it, the feedback we got was ‘Oh, this is so much better', as we customised the hell out of it."