Last week, SCG announced that I'm joining the company as its first Head of AI. The announcement went out on October 23, and I officially start in November. I've been looking forward to being able to write about it.
If you haven't heard of SCG, then here's the short version. SCG (SaaS Consulting Group) is a business transformation partner for mid-market and private equity-backed companies. Since 2011, they've helped more than 280 companies connect the systems, processes, and data that run Lead-to-Cash and Record-to-Report. They're an Oracle NetSuite Solution Provider and a Salesforce partner, they build integrations and products on both platforms, and they work with more than 65 private equity firms. The announcement has the official version.
Why I said yes
A few weeks ago I wrote that there's a lot of AI opportunity right now for people who already know NetSuite. The companies I talk with no longer need to be convinced that AI is worth their attention. They know what they want it to do. What they can't figure out is how to apply it, and the answer almost always depends on how their systems are connected, how clean their data is, and who's going to support the result a year from now.
That's the part SCG has spent fifteen years on. They connect the business systems and the data. When I looked at what they'd built, I saw the foundation that makes AI useful in a business, and I saw a chance to work on that problem at a scale that I couldn't reach on my own.
I've spent the last couple of years building AI that runs inside NetSuite, first with prompts and the AI Connector, then with Sonar, and most recently with Helm. Along the way I learned that most of the work is in the data, the permissions, the governance, and deciding what the AI is allowed to touch. SCG's clients already have people thinking about those things, and now I get to help.
What the role covers
It's a new, global role, and the definition is simple. I'll define and communicate SCG's direction on AI strategy, technology, and applications. That starts with NetSuite, where most of my experience is, and expands across the platforms SCG works with, including Salesforce, Snowflake, and Workato.
In practice, that means leading the development of AI-enabled solutions for financial, revenue, and operational workflows, and helping clients move from experimenting with AI to running parts of their business on it. Chris Holbert, SCG's CEO, put it well in the announcement: clients don't need another demo. They need solutions that work with their actual business data, improve how their teams operate, and deliver measurable returns. That matches what I've believed for a long time, and it's the standard I'll be holding the work to.
For private equity firms, the interesting part is that the same approach can be repeated across a portfolio. If an AI-enabled improvement works at one company on a connected foundation of processes, systems, and data, then it can be carried to the next one.
What changes, and what doesn't
I'm no longer taking on new SuiteStep clients. The company will keep running so that I can support my digital products, but the custom software practice is closed to new work. If you were thinking about reaching out about a project, then SCG is now the place to have that conversation.
Sonar continues, and Anchor Group continues to distribute and support it. Helm continues. The SuiteQL Query Tool, SuiteAPI, the query library, Chartstone, and the prompt libraries all stay where they are.
I'll keep writing here, too. The Sonar blog series finishes its run in early November, and after that I expect that a lot of what I write will come from the work at SCG: what we're building, and what's working with real data.
I'm grateful to Chris and the team at SCG for creating the role, and to everyone who has read and supported my work over the past few years. That's a big part of how I got here. More soon.