January 23, 2006

NetSuite announces vertical and horizontal B2B applications that will easily integrate with its current offerings via its NetFlex B2B platform.

The company also announced the new NetFlex Applications Program, an offering that combines tools, technology and support to enable independent software vendors and other third parties to extend NetSuite with complementary applications. For more information about the NetFlex Applications Program, please visit www.netsuite.com/netflexprogram.

For thousands of customers, NetSuite is the "system of record" bringing together Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Ecommerce in a single application.

Third-party applications built on it are far more powerful than applications built on ancillary systems, like a stand-alone sales force automation (SFA) application.

For example, telephony vendors building applications on NetSuite can not only provide traditional call center capabilities, but can also enable orders via a touch-tone phone; Ecommerce vendors can display the inventory held in NetSuite on eBay and Amazon.com as well as return orders to their NetSuite accounts placed on those sites.

Professional services firms can integrate project management applications directly with NetSuite's front-office calendar, and back-office time and billing; and third-party payroll providers can integrate with NetSuite to provide global payroll.

NetSuite's "One System" architecture encompasses broad CRM, ERP and Ecommerce capabilities, thus requiring no extensions for many features such as invoices, projects, billing schedules, and commissions that would normally require complex modifications in other systems.

For features outside NetSuite, this One System architecture enables the creation of "single-hop" integration solutions as compared to the hodge-podge of integrations required to achieve the same capability with stand-alone CRM or ERP applications.

For example, integrating to B2B marketplaces and comparison shopping sites can be done directly with NetSuite to gather inventory availability, item descriptions and orders, and to create the customer record for future marketing activities.

With stand-alone systems, the same workflow would require integration with the warehouse system to gather inventory information; integration with the ERP system for item descriptions and to create the order and customer record.

Then all this information has to be dragged into the Sales Force Automation (SFA) system for future marketing. Such multiple-hop integrations increase the total cost of ownership substantially by requiring the purchase and maintenance of multiple products, and, in the end, they rarely work.

The applications built by companies in the NetFlex Applications Program extend NetSuite with horizontal functionality and across a spectrum of vertical industries.

The partners announced today target industries including: retail, mobile/wireless, contact center, software, payroll services, professional services, health care, shipping services, automotive services and Ecommerce. Specifically, these business partners include:

Architecture & Construction
Citadon
Automotive Services
CallCommand
WhosCalling
Application Integration
B2BGateway
CastIron Systems
eBridge Software
Informatica
OZ Development (OZ.EXE)
Pervasive
Scribe Software
Collaboration
CustomerVision
eGOware
iUpload
Contact Center/Chat

Contactual
Five9
LivePerson (Timpani)
Data Services
BeforeTheCall
Textual (Anagram)
StrikeIron
Ecommerce
ChannelAdvisor
Health Care
MEDIBIS
Mobile/Wireless
Antenna Software
Aligo
Payroll Services
AussiePay
CGI
TRG Advantage
Productivity Tools (PIM)
LinkPoint360
Xspansion
Professional Services
OpenAir
Retail
zeroedin
TuVox
Shipping Services
TrueShip
ShipServ
OZ Development (OZLink)

"Companies use NetSuite to manage their core back-office, front-office and on-line business processes," said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite. "The NetFlex platform allows third-parties to leverage this 'system of record' to extend NetSuite into a host of important applications."

The NetFlex Applications Program leverages the capabilities of NetSuite's NetFlex platform, which provides application developers the tools and interfaces required to customize and extend NetSuite to meet specific company and industry requirements.

NetFlex Web Services allows for Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), standards-based APIs to be used to extend NetSuite to other systems and third-party vertical applications, or build add-on capabilities.

With the NetFlex AppBuilder, entire applications can be built and hosted within NetSuite while NetFlex Customization provides easy-to-use, point-and-click tools that facilitate unlimited personalization, configuration, process validation and vertical tailoring.

All modifications done using NetFlex are in-system and carried forward seamlessly with upgrades, eliminating arduous and time-consuming maintenance procedures.

Source: Accounting Software 411.com