NetSuite Announces the NetSuite Business Operating System

02/28/2008

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NetSuite Inc., a vendor of on-demand, integrated business software suites for ERP, CRM and e-commerce, announced NetSuite Business Operating System (NS-BOS), a SaaS application development platform.

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NS-BOS delivers a platform for customization and vertical application creation that includes:

• Software as a Service (SaaS) Infrastructure - applications developed by third parties on NS-BOS will be hosted on NetSuite's multi-tenant, on-demand architecture which helps eliminate large setup costs and on-going maintenance while delivering a browser-based application that can be accessed securely, anytime and anywhere.



• Core Business Management Suite - vertical business applications need core accounting, customer management and ecommerce functionality. By including the NetSuite application within the NS-BOS application development environment, developers can embed the industry leading on-demand ERP / CRM / Ecommerce suite within their applications. This enables ISVs to shift their efforts from building core application capabilities like accounting, inventory or order management to focus instead on adding features designed for specific industries, leveraging NetSuite's underlying capabilities.



• SuiteFlex - the NetSuite technology platform for customer, partner, and ISV development, customization, verticalization, and business process automation. With SuiteFlex, entirely new applications can be developed that run within the NetSuite environment and it includes everything from point-and-click tools to the SuiteScript programming language, which is based on industry standard JavaScript.



• SuiteScript D-Bug - the first real-time, interactive debugger to allow code validation and testing as third-party applications run on the application server. Most if not all SaaS development environments support testing of third-party applications on client machines. SuiteScript D-Bug enables third-party applications to be tested in an actual server environment against live data, allowing developers to see and correct the behavior exhibited by the application in real-world conditions.



• SuiteBundler - game-changing capabilities allow for the delivery of ISV-built vertical solutions to SaaS customers in a packaged, repeatable manner - just select and inject - eliminating the time-consuming, error-prone overhead of re-coding applications for each customer deployment.

Companies require business applications designed for their particular challenges and industry. At the same time, developers and ISVs are looking to transition their industry-specific applications to SaaS to reduce their infrastructure costs and to deliver the numerous benefits of SaaS applications to customers. NS-BOS, the first SaaS development platform designed for building industry solutions, addresses these two growing market forces. By building on to the core application functionality of NetSuite, NS-BOS can increase speed-to-market for ISVs. With NS-BOS, every vertical application interacts with and leverages business functions addressed by the ERP / CRM / Ecommerce functionality of NetSuite, allowing developers to focus on their vertical differentiation - rather than spending time on "horizontal" functionality such as quote or order management.

In addition, the development tools of NS-BOS, such as SuiteScript D-Bug, at present cannot be found in any other SaaS development platform, making it the logical choice for ISVs, developers and VARs to build and deliver comprehensive vertical applications encompassing end-to-end business processes to help meet the needs of today's midsized businesses.

ISVs and VARs are already taking advantage of the power of NS-BOS to offer industry-specific editions of NetSuite catering to numerous markets, the latest of which include government service contractors, high-volume Ecommerce operations and EDI system integrators. For more information about NS-BOS, please visit www.netsuite.com/NSBOS

"NS-BOS provides the first complete on-demand platform for the development of verticalized business applications," said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite. "By building atop NetSuite's best-in-class ERP, CRM and Ecommerce functionality, ISVs can focus on differentiating their offerings by adding business-specific functionality. The ultimate winner is the customer who gets a world-class application designed for their business."

The BOS Goes End-to-End


Every business needs a CEO. And business applications need a boss. NetSuite is the core business application for NS-BOS, providing core transaction processing and business process management and serving as the system of record. The NetSuite suite of accounting / ERP, CRM, and ecommerce eliminates the need for costly, time-consuming and often difficult integration between disparate systems. The advantage for ISVs and developers is that rather than trying to layer their vertical solutions or customization on top of a mish-mash of point solutions, they can instead add real value in automating end-to-end business processes with the business rules, workflows and terminology required by each industry.

The BOS Delivers Real-time - and Real World -- Debugging of Deployed SaaS Applications


A key new component of NS-BOS is SuiteScript D-Bug. For any development environment, a code debugger is essential to building complex applications. NS-BOS is the first to include a debugger that operates in real-time as third-party developed applications run on the NetSuite application server. SuiteScript D-Bug is a Web-based debugging tool that uses a familiar metaphor and interface reminiscent of debuggers found in popular Integrated Developer Environments (IDE) such as Microsoft Visual Studio. It allows developers to iterate through their code in real-time. And it provides a debugging tool set with controlled code execution such as setting breaking points, step in, out, and over as well as providing execution logs, local variable inspection and watches and break points. With this level of depth in development tools, NS-BOS provides an ideal platform for ISVs to build their next-generation applications.

The BOS Is Standards-Based


Unlike some SaaS development environments that have created proprietary programming languages, NS-BOS leverages industry standard JavaScript as the basis for its programming capabilities. With standard JavaScript at its core, there is nothing proprietary to learn, yet it delivers unprecedented power to create entirely new, robust applications (called Suitelets) that leverage the NetSuite UI or a completely different UI if desired.

SuiteScript is a part of NetSuite's overall SuiteFlex development environment, which also includes SuiteTalk and SuiteBuilder. SuiteTalk allows for integration using SOAP standards-based Web services while SuiteBuilder adds easy-to-use, point-and-click tools for customization of data forms and extension of the core data schema to create fields and custom objects which support one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many data relationships.

Pricing and Availability


SuiteScript D-Bug is available now to developers, ISVs and VARs and will be made available to NetSuite customers on a rolling basis from March through May. All other components of NS-BOS are available now to all customers and partners (Developers, ISVs, VARs and SIs). There is no additional cost for NS-BOS to developers. Applications built with NS-BOS that include the NetSuite ERP / CRM / Ecommerce Suite will be priced by the ISV developing the vertical applications, with an agreed-to revenue share with NetSuite for the base Suite.

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