One of the first authors that I got into as a

teenager was Stephen King and the book that got me there was The Stand, a

classic tale of post-apocalyptic survival ending in a fight between good and

evil. So you probably won't be surprised to learn that my favorite show on TV

the last couple of years has been AMC's zombie series, The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead starts with our hero, Rick

Grimes, waking from a coma in a hospital to be greeted by a world ravaged by

zombies. He soon meets up with a gang of survivors and the show tells the tale

of the struggles they live through in this new world. What sets The Walking

Dead apart is not just its fantastic storytelling and great cast, but also its willingness

to sacrifice popular characters along the way. In a world dominated by zombies,

nothing is certain or forever...

I know, I know—you’re wondering where I'm

going with this. Well, it just so happens that plotting NetSuite's path to

global domination in the manufacturing space is a lot like being a character in

The Walking Dead.

FIGHT

THE DEAD: Yes, you guessed it—this is where I take a shot at our fast-decomposing

on-premise competitors. I mean seriously, who wants a server

occupying valuable office space these days anyway? A lot of these lurching,

stumbling software vendors are trying to relaunch themselves with a hosted

model, but we all know that there's no cure... once a zombie, always a zombie.

FEAR THE LIVING: So now we have the zombies

dealt with... the reality is that the other "cloud"

applications out there are just as dangerous, even if they aren't so

decomposed. Every day at NetSuite we encounter comparisons to competitors, but

15 years of consulting experience have taught me that the majority of the

problems that manufacturing

companies encounter are of their own doing and NO solution would ever fix

their issues.

At these manufacturers, the zombies to be

dealt with are often the product of years of established procedures, stubborn

leadership or bad decisions. So our approach to the problem is to innovate. We

aren't satisfied with taking established (i.e. prehistoric) functional

solutions and putting them in the cloud—we create NEW functional solutions that

are DESIGNED for the cloud.

It's a long and exciting journey and I hope

you join us for the ride. Just remember to look out for the zombies in your

industry...

Gavin Davidson - Vertical Market Expert, Manufacturing