NetSuite Targets Cloud Computing ERP for Mid-Market

04/17/2008

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NetSuite Inc. today announced NetSuite OneWorld, a cloud computing solution that enables companies to manage their global business operations in real-time.

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NetSuite OneWorld makes real-time, global business management feasible for the first time by combining a mature, multi-company business application suite with cloud computing delivery. The new release adds a key enhancement to NetSuite's One System data model to enable multiple companies and subsidiaries to operate in a single database instance. This re-architecture is the biggest product enhancement since the introduction of NetSuite itself, to provide the product's signature capability to deliver deep and locally/nationally appropriate functionality (currency, taxation, language, reporting, dashboards, etc.) while providing for instantaneous global roll-up, visibility and compliance management. NetSuite's native Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model enables the OneWorld functionality to be accessed anywhere simply by opening a browser, and eliminates the enormous IT issues associated with traditional approaches to global business management. The combination of the new NetSuite OneWorld capabilities and NetSuite's cloud computing delivery platform eliminates the cost and technology barriers facing midsized companies operating globally.

NetSuite OneWorld is to date the first and only announced on-demand system to deliver real-time subsidiary management and business consolidation capabilities to mid-market companies for front-office, back-office and ecommerce operations. Prior to NetSuite OneWorld, only large companies willing to spend tens to hundreds of millions of dollars could approach such levels of business integration. Mid-sized companies using traditional applications such as Microsoft Dynamics GP (often referred to as Great Plains) could achieve a low-level of business integration, but often only see limited consolidated financials of suspect value. Of course, large systems such as SAP or mid-market systems like Microsoft Dynamics GP are not delivered as native web-applications, so any attempt at limited business consolidation required large expenditures in IT costs and systems management.

NetSuite OneWorld gives mid-sized companies a more powerful, globally integrated system than even the world's largest companies have. Rather than costing millions of dollars for the capability, NetSuite OneWorld is available as a simple add-on capability to NetSuite for $1,999 per month. Delivered as a cloud computing service, there are no on-going costs to manage or maintain the application. Rather than taking years to implement, NetSuite OneWorld can be up and running in as little as six weeks, and there are currently more than 30 companies live on NetSuite OneWorld, with another 50 in process. Finally, Return-on-Investment (ROI) on NetSuite OneWorld is truly remarkable, with many customers achieving complete ROI immediately upon implementation (source: Nucleus Research note i50 published April 2008 available at www.NucleusResearch.com).

"We were able to roll out NetSuite OneWorld across 3 global locations — our U.S. headquarters, a newly acquired subsidiary in France and a newly created subsidiary in Japan — in just 6 weeks," said Tod Harmon, CFO of Six Apart. "Now with the global deployment complete, NetSuite OneWorld gives us a comprehensive view of our entire operation from a consolidated standpoint — financials in local currency for our individual entities, as well as reporting on our subsidiaries in a single consolidated, global, multi-currency system."

"NetSuite is the first company to deliver a real-time multi-company, multi-national business system built on a Software as a Service platform that gives mid-market companies local and global visibility across front office and back office operations in real-time. This is a bold move," said Bruce Richardson, Chief Research Officer of AMR Research.

"With NetSuite OneWorld, we are delivering capabilities to mid-sized companies that even the world's largest companies have failed to achieve after spending millions of dollars," said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite. "The combination of Cloud Computing with NetSuite OneWorld delivers local control with global visibility, not just across financials but across every aspect of the business — from lead to forecast to order to cash collection."

With NetSuite OneWorld, companies with multiple subsidiaries, business units and legal entities can use the integrated software suite to help manage local operations across multiple locations, and roll the data up for regional and global visibility in their currency of choice. Individual users at the local level get an application in their language and can transact in the local currency with local taxes and operational compliance enforced. So a sales rep entering an order or a finance user billing an invoice in Japan both use NetSuite OneWorld in Japanese, with Japanese Yen as their currency. Regional managing directors and executives at corporate headquarters have real-time visibility to these local operations — both in the local currency used at the subsidiary level, as well as converted to regional and corporate currencies, based on their location. For example, the Japanese subsidiary can roll up to regional headquarters in Singapore with conversion to the Singapore Dollar or examined at the subsidiary level in Japanese Yen — so performance metrics and key business indicators are an apples to apples comparison with everyone driving to the same goal, rather than dealing with data out of different systems with no basis for comparison, making it difficult to drive global business success.

Built from the ground up as one system that includes ERP, CRM and Ecommerce, NetSuite OneWorld addresses complex multi-national and multi-company needs of these mid-market, global organizations. Internationally, NetSuite OneWorld can readily enable businesses to adjust for currency, taxation and legal compliance differences at the local level, with regional and global business consolidation and roll-up. Within one country, NetSuite OneWorld is also helpful for companies growing via acquisition or expanding rapidly and needing to bring a subsidiary on quickly to a consolidated management view. In addition to Global ERP and Global CRM capabilities, NetSuite OneWorld goes beyond any traditional business application by enabling multi-site Ecommerce capabilities — complete with multi-currency, multi-language, local tax compliance and local inventory sourcing capabilities. Additional benefits of NetSuite OneWorld include the following:

NetSuite OneWorld Allows Companies' Back Office ERP Operations to Act Locally and Roll-up Globally NetSuite OneWorld has Global ERP capabilities that deliver multi-currency business consolidation of financials and real-time roll-up across accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, inventory, billing, invoicing and order fulfillment from local in-country operations, to the regional office, to global headquarters. Costs can be reduced with NetSuite OneWorld because companies are able to staff back-office operations centrally and the same employees can handle operations across multiple subsidiaries. Because NetSuite OneWorld includes complete multi-currency management with automated currency rate updates, corporate headquarters or the parent company benefit from multiple levels of consolidated reporting that always accurately reflect currency conversion. Businesses running on NetSuite OneWorld can also populate a single chart-of-accounts across subsidiaries, or use separate charts-of-accounts for each company with postings between subsidiaries such as expense allocation managed via inter-company journals. Local taxes are also readily handled across subsidiaries thanks to an embedded tax engine that allows for multiple tax schedules for everything from GST, to VAT, to consumption tax or general sales tax. Revenue recognition, local financial reporting and compliance are also built-in components of NetSuite OneWorld. Finally, NetSuite OneWorld allows for global order management and sourcing with the ability to manage inventory and fulfillment across multiple locations with product items represented globally or on a per subsidiary basis.

NetSuite OneWorld Provides Global CRM to Improve Global Selling

NetSuite OneWorld has Global CRM capabilities that allow for management of multi-currency quotas, forecasts, commission payments, sales tax calculations and real-time reporting for everyone in a global sales organization from the local rep, to the regional vice president to the head of worldwide sales. Additionally, growing companies typically employ multiple sales channels for their global sales operations so NetSuite OneWorld allows for automation of common sales channels employed internationally including direct sales, distribution partner networks and Ecommerce. For instance, local direct sales reps can use a localized interface to transact in their local language and currency and see their quota, forecast, sales and commissions locally. Multi-currency conversion and business consolidation then allow those same local transactions to be rolled-up to regional and global levels with currency conversion occurring at each level. So a sales rep in Germany can interact with a user interface in German and enter an opportunity or an order in Euros, while the Managing Director for the EMEA region based in the UK can use an English user interface and may see that same order forecasted in British Pounds, and the head of Worldwide Sales based in the US headquarters can see it forecasted in US Dollars. Additionally, marketing and customer support operations can also be managed globally using NetSuite OneWorld so processes such as lead routing and trouble ticket assignment can easily be handled across regions or in-country, with global customer visibility and real-time measurement of marketing and service operational performance.

NetSuite OneWorld Makes Global Ecommerce Operations Feasible

With multi-site, multi-currency, multi-language, local tax compliance and local inventory sourcing capabilities, NetSuite OneWorld makes Global Ecommerce operations a snap. Additionally, if separate subsidiaries call for different branding on websites, each site can be run from the same NetSuite OneWorld account but with a different look and feel applied, and with different items and pricing schedules exposed on each site. Every page, product item and button on the site can be translated into a nearly unlimited number of languages, while local taxes and currencies are handled automatically as part of the checkout process. All Ecommerce sales are rolled-up and consolidated at the subsidiary, country, regional or global level, allowing for analysis against other sales channels, as well as spotting performance trends across various locations.

NetSuite OneWorld Delivers Real-Time Analytics for Global Organization to Make Timely Course Corrections

NetSuite OneWorld includes Global Business Intelligence capabilities that support local, regional and global metrics across a wide range of aspects of the business in real-time with currency conversion occurring as needed at each level of the subsidiary management hierarchy. With the benefit of consolidated data that NetSuite OneWorld provides, the decision-making process within a business is immediately improved with a plethora of pre-built metrics that can be tailored and personalized for role-based dashboards. Executives and regional managers can set their key indicators for each individual region or subsidiary and have complete drill-down to the specific transaction. Financial officers can easily analyze the general ledger impact of transactions at the local, regional or global level while sales executives can analyze quota, forecast sales and commissions at any level of sales hierarchy, based on their operational access. With all key business metrics visible and measurable in real-time across all business operations, executive decision making and timely course corrections are a few clicks away, rather than having to wait so long for research to be completed that the question to be resolved becomes moot.

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