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Bonjour, SuiteWorld 2021!

OdeCloud is absolutely ecstatic to be welcomed back in Las Vegas for Oracle SuiteWorld 2021, this time with an even larger presence. We’ve been busy taking advantage of every opportunity to network with potential clients, inform potentially new community members and even meet up with our community members for in-person festivities.

RELATED POST — OdeCloud Shares SuiteWorld Insights from Day 1 on LinkedIn

As both the best online community of expert NetSuite consultants and a growing NetSuite service company, we just knew we had to come to SuiteWorld this year with an even bigger and better approach than last year — most especially if we want to make an even more significant splash next year!

It’s going to take quite a bit of work before we get there, so in the meantime, please indulge us as we share our top 3 takeaways from Day 1 at SuiteWorld.

1. NetSuite Professionals Need to Learn to Invest in the Entire NetSuite Ecosystem

Craig West, GVP of Oracle NetSuite GBU’s Channel Sales and Alliances, had the most memorable presentation from SuiteWorld Day 1.

He explained that simply having expertise in NetSuite just isn’t enough from NetSuite professionals; these experts need to continue to learn about and immerse themselves in the entire ecosystem that Oracle NetSuite has built.

And it makes sense: NetSuite has invested a great deal in the Solution Provider Program and the SuiteCloud Developer Network (SND), which aim to give developers the space and resources needed to expand NetSuite or cover the gaps.

The primary goal here is to get NetSuite to to the point where it’s easy to assist clients with plug-and-play solutions through software partners.

Base case scenario: at most, only 20 percent of the ERP will ever actually need to fully customized to fit a NetSuite client’s unique needs.

2. IT Professionals Need to Transition From Billable Time to Value-Based Work

Liz Herbert, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester, had an incredibly relatable presentation for Day 1 at SuiteWorld, discussing why IT professionals need to deliver work based on value rather than billable time.

Businesses are always hoping for projects to be completed as fast as possible, which doesn’t necessarily bode well for NetSuite professionals who are capable to deliver invaluable work in very little time. On a related note, billable time doesn’t always inspire professionals to deliver that kind of value for every project.

Herbert argued that one way NetSuite professionals can deliver on value is by specializing in a vertical and bringing their client continuous insight on that vertical/industry, trends and best practices. Businesses are expecting more packaged and vertical solutions, as well as more strategic consulting to help them implement those solutions.

This directly lines up with what OdeCloud is all about: We primarily deliver work using a renewable subscription model rather than dealing with the hassle, inaccuracies and discrepancies associated with billable hours.

3. SuiteCloud Developer Network Partners Now Need Full Product Suite

SND spent the last year building a new interface for app development and distribution, which means it’s easier than ever to build NetSuite solutions and apps.

However, they’ve also tightened up the process to become an SDN partner. Put simply, they require their SDN partners to have a full product suite, as opposed to a simple patch to the gap in NetSuite.

This puts NetSuite developers in an interesting position, so we’re intrigued as to how this will shift the current status quo.

SuiteWorld Day 1 Conclusion

To summarize our takeaways from SuiteWorld Day 1, it appears as if businesses are looking for their NetSuite professionals to provide value beyond just configuring and customizing NetSuite.

They are looking for their NetSuite professionals to be IT thought leaders capable of consulting them on everything related to their respective business. They are looking for experts willing to strategize and think two steps ahead as opposed to your average NetSuite admin.

But that’s all for our takeaways from SuiteWorld Day 1. Stay tuned for our next update, and thanks for reading.

The post SuiteWorld 2021: OdeCloud’s Top 3 Takeaways from Day 1 appeared first on OdeBlog.

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Two heads are better than one.

Building a brand is easier than ever. All it really takes is a click of a button.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen fast-growing brands such as Glossier, Groupon, and Copyblogger go from small-time online communities to renowned worldwide companies.

Following the path of online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, a number of these companies now provide features for their members to distribute products or services as merchants, influencers, or consultants.

In the same manner, social media platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Discord have given individuals the tools to potentially further those communities, blurring our borders and redefining communal proximity.

But what if the community as a whole WAS the product? What if the community’s collective expertise was the brainpower behind the actual service?

This is the idea behind OdeCloud’s community of freelance NetSuite experts. We serve the global demand for NetSuite admin services by providing a community of experts that act as a single entity.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfNUz2qlQkY[/embedyt]

As opposed to traditional freelancing platforms, OdeCloud eliminates the stress related to finding that one perfect contractor for a single Netsuite gig. In addition, companies working with OdeCloud would no longer have to worry about an individual freelancer lacking the bandwidth or expertise to support a fast-growing organization.

Essentially, the availability of a large pool of talent within the community provides the opportunity to offer a one-stop technology service. Companies could potentially outsource all technical functions to OdeCloud, preserving an internal business analyst role for facilitating team collaboration.

On the consultants’ end, gone are the days of freelancers having to look for gigs on their own. No more having to lower pay rates to better compete in the freelancing market. No more having to forcefully extend his or her bandwidth for the sole purpose of completing a single gig.

When choosing OdeCloud, companies essentially contract with OdeCloud’s community of consultants, who, in turn, are encouraged to assist each other to find the perfect solution to whatever issues may arise.

This focus on communal knowledge and assistance is not only there to help serve the customer, but it also helps create the environment freelancers need in order to promote healthy, long-term relationships and higher learning.

Generally, we at OdeCloud refer to this as community-based, crowdsourced consulting.

In conclusion, traditional freelancing platforms will always fall short in delivering quick and effective solutions to complex technological problems.

There’s a critical need for an on-demand expertise platform, but one that is designed and built to benefit fast-growing organizations and the long-term growth of the Freelance Economy.

This is where community-based, crowdsourced consulting has the advantage over a lone wolf contractor.

This is where OdeCloud comes in.

Hope you liked this one!

In our blog next post, let’s take this discussion a tad further and expand on how exactly the OdeCloud platform will go about pairing companies with their own “dedicated team” of consultants.

And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to our blog! We update every Monday with fresh content.

Cheers,

Osar

The post The Difference Between a Freelancing Community and a Freelancing Platform appeared first on OdeBlog.

OdeCloud’s Founder and CEO, Osar Iyamu, shares how the OdeCloud platform aims to alleviate this issue.

With regards to the Freelance Economy and its new generation of workers, the OdeCloud platform is on a mission to truly deliver on the promises of being one’s own boss. As it stands right now, current platforms are unable to deliver on that promise due to one simple truth:

The market they’ve created is primarily determined by who is willing to do a single job for the least amount of money.

Far too often do freelancers lower their rates to remain competitive in their respective fields, sometimes choosing to drop their individual value far below minimum wage. For some, they have little choice other than to face unemployment, so they drop their rates in hopes of attracting a company that can afford to take a long-term chance on them in the future.

In many other cases, some jobs are just too complex to be paid by the hour. Say, for example, a client is offering $100 per hour to build a high-quality site. “Developer A” is a highly-skilled and efficient web developer with years of experience, while “Developer B” is a hobbyist who thought freelancing on the side would be a good source of disposable income.

If Dev A takes an hour to build a site, while Dev B takes roughly 10 hours to develop that same exact site, then what exactly justifies Dev B making 10 times more than Dev A for the same quality work?

OdeCloud is working to tackle the more challenging issue of bringing high-quality value to all independent workers, regardless of their level of expertise. We’re designing a better platform to (1) help organize and distribute unique expertise in niche markets, and (2) to provide proportionate value to all freelancers.

While it is relatively easy to create a freelance platform that solves simple First World problems like getting a ride, getting food delivered or booking a dog sitter, a platform such as Upwork, which requires a higher degree of expertise, can sometimes suffer from vague, generic job postings and low value work.

As an example, a number of NetSuite consultants I’ve spoken to about taking on jobs from Upwork often find themselves having to lower their rates to land some gigs.

What if the rates of freelancing services (like NetSuite services) drop down so low that these independent experts are forced to work a 60-hour week — all just to make as much as a company’s entry-level, internal NetSuite Admin?

Wouldn’t these independent workers just withdraw back to their previous situation as full-time, conventional employees?

On the other end of the Upwork platform, midsize companies either settle for the cheapest labor possible — which, most of the time, results in low quality work — or, they offer only the lowest priority tasks and least strategic assignments to minimize the risk of losing organizational knowledge to external contractors.

Simply put, the aforementioned issues almost always result in independent experts dropping their rates for suboptimal gigs, a practice that could eventually prove detrimental to the overall growth of the Freelance Economy.

OdeCloud has a simple solution: a subscription model that asks clients to pay a fixed, monthly fee to gain access to our community of experts. That monthly fee is then used to help pay our experts on a flat, monthly basis, thereby eliminating the competitive issue with hourly rates in the current freelancing market.

Furthermore, what I’ve discovered in analyzing current freelancing platforms is there’s no intrinsic value behind the platform itself. For platforms like Lyft, Uber or Postmates, the value is solely driven by the external social economy context, while platforms like Upwork might also address customer access.

This is exactly the reason why it is not very difficult to hire a consultant on Upwork for a small gig, then bypass the platform in order to work on future gigs directly with that same consultant. There is nothing Upwork can do about that. Same for Uber drivers. If tomorrow it pays more to drive to drop-off Amazon packages, they would easily move over to Amazon to start delivering packages.

OdeCloud differs from platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr in that we’re not just building a platform — we’re building a community.

…but more on that in our post next Monday.

Bonjour! And once again, thanks for reading.

As mentioned above, our next post will go over what exactly differentiates a freelance community from a simple freelancing platform.

If you’d like to read more, please subscribe to our blog!

Cheers,

Osar

The post OdeCloud Platform Solves the Problem of Hourly Rates appeared first on OdeBlog.

But why, exactly, is such a process so necessary?

(Originally posted on LinkedIn)

In 2019, a study commissioned by major freelancing platform, Upwork, and Freelancers Union found that 36% of the US workforce consisted of freelancers, showing that 64% of top professionals freelance, especially in IT (Information Technology).

The survey also shows that the majority of the US workforce is expected to be made up of freelancers by 2027.

In the past few years, we have seen platforms like Upwork, Uber, Lyft, and Postmates grow exponentially in their number of subscribers, demonstrating the true potential of the Freelance Economy.

Most of these platforms are built with a very simple business model that addresses, for the most part, the average consumer’s basic needs: getting a ride, buying groceries, having food delivered, booking a dog sitter, etc.

But building the right economic framework for this new generation of workers presents at least one major challenge, which we’ll cover over the course of this article.

We can all agree that the way we have done work for the past 100 years (Taylorism and Fordism) will not fit the economy of the next 15 to 20 years. Companies operating in this new economy, characterized by cutting-edge technology and high growth, will not succeed with an organization of work designed 100 years ago.

Our ambition as OdeCloud is to provide the breadth and depth of expertise, on-demand, for these businesses to thrive.

Unfortunately, the primary challenge of building a freelance platform with the highest overall and long-term value for independent experts is that it incredibly complex and difficult to implement. While the Freelance Economy has continued to grow exponentially, the fact of the matter is expert workers are already in great demand in the job marketplace, and at least 64% of the US workforce is still more comfortable being employed conventionally.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that existing platforms chose to center their business models on providing lower, short-term value to the unemployed, as well as those making minimum wages. These platforms are not built to provide true long-term value for independent experts, who are constantly forced to lower their rates in order to compete with candidates who are considerably less qualified.

OdeCloud is positioning itself to solve the more complex challenge of providing better long-term value to the new generation of workers — and building a freelancing framework that fosters expertise and career growth.

To get to that level, not only do we have to be willing to go through the struggle of building a new economic framework, but we also have to make strides toward developing a new strategy for acquiring talent.

Issues aside, building this new framework presents a great opportunity to reshape and reorganize the way we work in this new economy…

…a new economy led by major breakthroughs in tech and high-growth industries.

Hi there, and thanks for reading!

In our next post, we’ll go over what exactly motivates individuals to leave their jobs to become freelancers, and we’ll elaborate on how OdeCloud aims to help improve the Freelance Economy.

If you want to continue following our blog, be sure to save us to your bookmarks, or you can simply subscribe via email (below). Check back in with us when we post new content.

Cheers,

Osar

The post The Right Framework for Work in the New Economy appeared first on OdeBlog.

There will be more and more disruptive technologies that requires new sets of expertise (Big data/Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Blockchain, Internet of Things, 3D Printing, Robotics, etc). While this represents an amazing opportunity for early stage and midsize businesses (as early adopters) to change the game and win against large enterprises in markets they have dominated for decades, it also represents an extremely difficult challenge: TALENT ACQUISITION.

The war for Talent

Large organizations will do much better in the area of talent acquisition, as they simply have more cash and human resources to put to the task. The risk for those early adopters (early-stage and midsize businesses) is that big guys catch up much faster with the new technology trends, as they now have a full house of experts on their payroll. At the end of the day, it’s simply not cost-effective for smaller organizations to hire a team of full-time employees whose skills encompass all the technology areas mentioned above.

But there is hope!

After 3 years of intense research, prototyping and testing, we have figured out the way to provide the firepower of an enterprise-level IT team for a startup budget. It’s not magic. It’s technology. It is ODECLOUD (On Demand Expertise in Cloud solutions).

A light in the dark

What if acquiring talent or hiring contractors wasn’t the right answer?

In its own way, OdeCloud is disrupting the Information Technology “Consulting” industry by providing an enterprise-class technology service perfectly suited for midsize and early-stage businesses running NetSuite. The important fact about this concept and the technology that supports it is that we designed, built, tested and implemented all of it with our NetSuite clients — including Capital Brands – NutriBullet— to ensure it really works, adds value to their business, and helps reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of NetSuite.

Thanks Russell Uyeda, Michael Chang and Jon Hirschi for giving us the opportunity to be Capital Brands’ NetSuite Administrators.

Do not hesitate to book my time for a 1:1 discussion on this topic. I would love to hear about your challenges to get the NetSuite talent your company needs and see how our concept could help.

Cheers,

Osar

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