This isn’t new news – it was announced a few weeks ago at NetSuite’s SuiteWorld 2013 event – but I thought I’d mention it here mainly because of a personal connection of mine. The announcement was regarding a broad strategic alliance between Autodesk and NetSuite, as well as a specific technology integration between PLM 360 and NetSuite ERP.
Here’s the on-stage announcement of the alliance which includes a pretty neat video (that I hadn’t seen before) introducing Autodesk technology to the ERP-centric audience:
Here’s a demo of the technology integration between PLM 360 and NetSuite Manufacturing Edition. As an area, ERP seems a little dry to me, to be quite honest, so I expect it was light relief for the audience to see some 3D modeling and simulation in action (a welcome change from all that tabular and chart data ;-).
Again, the reason I’m talking about this is personal: after all, there are various other blogs that talk about Autodesk’s manufacturing-related technologies. So let’s get on with explaining that connection.
The person initiating the alliance from NetSuite’s side was Guido Haarmans, their VP of business development responsible for technology partnerships, although subsequently there were clearly many people involved in making the partnership happen, including Jim White and Brian Roepke from Autodesk. Many readers of this blog will remember Guido from when he worked at Autodesk: he held a number of roles in the company, one of which was a role I held myself for several years, managing the worldwide DevTech team (although it was known as DevCon or DCG – for Developer Consulting Group – during Guido’s tenure).
Guido’s first management position at Autodesk was in Switzerland, where he built the European Developer Support team. It’s thanks to Guido that I ended up at Autodesk and (eventually) living here in Neuchâtel: apart from the fact he hired me into the company, he did a stellar job of selling this particular company location to me during my second-round interview, picking me up from Neuchâtel train station in his Mazda MX-5 (called a Miata in the US) with the roof down. I remember him telling me on the phone before I flew across from the UK not to pack too large a suitcase. I later found out it was so the bag would fit into the boot of Guido’s car. :-)
Guido had built a pretty amazing team of people (prior to me joining, anyway :-) pulling in the best programming talent from various European Autodesk offices as well as bringing in some experienced programmers from outside. I was the most junior member of the team when I joined, and it really was an incredible education. I still work with several of those (very talented) people, and I always enjoy catching up with Guido when I’m across in the Bay Area.
