Netsuite

5/08/2011

NetSuite and iOs work together

I have been using the iPhone and NetSuite together and it does work well. It doesn’t matter what size your dashboard is, it fits perfectly. You can even have multiple windows going at once. On wifi its perfect, without wifi it can be slow. I can do everything, run reports, edit my theme and all. Basically everything you can do on a regular computer. One thing I haven’t figured out yet is copy and paste, simple, but I don’t think it is an option. Usually, I just like to read the user group on my iPhone!

Definitely a convenience. Some companies have even done press releases about NetSuite and the iPhone

9/30/2010

Is Compliance Overrated in the Era of Social Media and Collaboration?

In the world of document management this week, we look at the issues of compliance when it comes to managing documents using social media and enterprise collaborationtools.

In other DM news:

· Document capture in the cloud

· Bringing document management to healthcare

· Paperless doc management in AP, AR and HR

Keeping Your Doc Collab Compliant

Our guest author Joe Shepley recently blogged about some of the compliance implications of managing documents collaboratively. He is building on one of his articles published on CMSWire: 3 Ways Document Collaboration is Becoming More Social.

Expanding on the above-mentioned three areas, Shepley looks into compliance implications associated with these shifts. Excitement about social media and enterprise collaboration aside, there's a need to talk about how to remain compliant in the new era of all things DM going social.

According to the author:

In the end, the compliance impact of managing documents using social media and collaboration tools comes down to:

· Making sure RM and legal are not only on the same page about the content created by social media and collaboration tools, but in touch with the reality of how folks work

· Evaluating the content created by social media and collaboration tools just like you do any other corporate content…and then handling it accordingly.

Document Capture in the Cloud

Recently, KnowledgeTree (news, site) teamed up with Fujitsu (news, site) for bulk scanning and document cloud capture options. This development for document management and bulk scanning through Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners in the cloud could have a dramatic effect on enterprise overheads.

Those with large paper processing needs that this solution is aimed at, particularly things like invoicing or mail room functions.

This will be enabled through KnowledgeTree’s Hot Folders interface, from which the whole document management element of the process can be managed and into which very high quality documents can be captured using Fujitsu technology.

This is not the first capture vendor KnowledgeTree has signed up with and there are a number of other third party applications also available through Hot Folders.

Bringing Document Management to Healthcare

As we reported earlier this week, enterprise CMS provider Hyland (news, site) acquired Computer Systems Company (CSC) Group — a company that offers revenue, financial and paper-scanning tools for healthcare sector.

One of the big benefits of the deal is ability to convert paper-based documents into digital assets that can be used/accessed in organizations’ clinical, financial and administrative applications.

On-demand business

Enterprise software giant SAP on Wednesday unveiled a midmarket on-demand service, Business ByDesign, putting it in competition with the on-demand offerings of Salesforce.com, NetSuite and archrival Oracle.

The service aims to not only expand SAP's reach into the midmarket, but also to mark its entry into the hosted-applications arena, where it has been slower than its competitors.

Business ByDesign will offer a range of on-demand applications, from financials to procurement to customer relationship management (CRM) software via a dashboard. The monthly service is set to cost $149 per user, per month, for customers with a minimum of 25 users. Customers that require limited access to the software, such as self-service entry for purchase confirmations, will be $54 per month for a set of five users.

"I have been at SAP for 25 years, and this is the most important announcement I have made in my career here," Henning Kagermann, SAP's chief executive, said during a press conference in New York. "We designed this product to launch a new business model. It's a new way to design, develop and implement business software."

The midmarket, Kagermann said, includes companies with a staff of approximately 100 to 500 that do not have, nor want, a sophisticated IT department to run their business software. He noted, however, that SAP midmarket customers serving a deep niche within an industry would likely forgo its ByDesign offering.

SAP currently has 20 customers that are involved in ByDesign's pilot in the United States and Germany, and it is validating its service with customers in China, France and the United Kingdom. The company plans to expand its customer base in these regions throughout the year, with plans next year to enter additional markets in Australia, India, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordic region, South Africa, Spain, Canada and Mexico.

NetSuite 11.0 Packs AJAX, Scripts and Specialty Versions

With the Oakland Coliseum and the Athletics game against the New York Yankees as the backdrop, on-demand application provider NetSuite took the wraps off NetSuite Version 11.0. The new version boasts an AJAX-based user interface, SuiteScript to allow nontechnical people to customize the application for their business processes and two new industry-specific versions.

Packed With AJAX
NetSuite has long supported AJAX (short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), but in version 11.0 the company looked to take it a step further by implementing AJAX on every application page. "There's lots of AJAX everywhere," said Mini Peiris, NetSuite's vice-president of product management. By combining several Web technologies, AJAX lets on-demand applications quickly update to the user interface without reloading the entire browser page.

The Version 11.0 AJAX-powered user interface, Peiris said, eliminates the need for scrolling thanks to dashboard portlets that can be expanded or collapsed individually, re-designed data forms that group related information in tabs and the use of hierarchical trees to navigate more detailed levels.

Also, enhanced graphical report snapshots and trend graphs are designed to make dashboards easier to read, according to NetSuite. Bar graphs include data on each bar when moused-over while letting you drill down to a specific bar for even more detail. Every Dashboard also has a Create New bar that links to popular tasks. Customer scan modify the bars to let them access common workflows with one click.

Stick to the Script
"Every business is unique, and SuiteScript let you customize [NetSuite] to your workflow," Peiris said. SuiteScript is based on JavaScript and provides APIs to NetSuite objects or custom objects added by customers.

NetSuite Services Company Edition is designed to provide consulting and professional services firms with on-demand applications especially designed for project-based work. The new version offers role-based dashboards to let consultants and managers track the status of each project. NetSuite Services Company Edition is designed to automatically track and project metrics such as percentage completed and time budgeted and spent on project tasks. NetSuite added tracking and reporting features to help managers analyze and optimize employees' workloads, efficiency and availability.

Because NetSuite Services Company Edition integrates all enterprise applications, services firms can monitor business processes from both a project management and a cost/revenue perspective, according to Netsuite. The on-demand solution has a base price of $1,499 per month base, plus $99 per user, per month.

The NetSuite Wholesale/Distribution Edition is designed to help wholesalers and distributors manage their business cycle from lead generation through sales, warehouse and inventory management and shipping — with accounting support along the way.

NetSuite said that the business processes of small- and mid-sized wholesale/distribution companies are as challenging as those of large companies. Wholesalers and distributors face pressure from the complex requirements forced upon them by larger trading partners, global competition, slim margins and demanding customers.

Peiris said that they based the new edition on the best practices of NetSuite's existing 1,000 wholesale/distribution customers. The system links CRM with back-office inventory management, fulfillment and accounting processes. Features include advanced inventory and order fulfillment, demand-based inventory replenishment, wholesaler/distributor customer portal and CRM for distributors.

NetSuite's Wholesale/Distribution Edition is priced at $999 per month for the base suite and $99 per user per month.

The Yankees Lose
And, sports fans, the Oakland Athletics (a NetSuite customer) beat the Yankees 9-4 — though NetSuite didn't take credit for the win.

NetSuite and Sunway E-Systems Bring Business Cloud Event to Kuala Lumpur

SAN MATEO, Calif. And KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ -- NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson and Sunway Group CEO Cheah Kok Hoong to Highlight Growing Regional Demand for Business Cloud Solutions Learn Best Practices for Managing Global, Multi-Sub Businesses in the Cloud NetSuite Inc.

9/28/2010

Three Ways to Work Your Customer Database like a Pro

Many sales professionals are forced into traditional contact management clouds like Salesforce.com, Netsuite and Oracle, because they work in large corporations who have many levels of management and IT that each need to approve every system used by an employee. The upside is that these products provide executives and management with exactly what they are looking for: Statistics to report to their board of directors, analytics to manage their employees with, and a clear gauge of who is performing best and who is performing worst in the sales department.

The downside is that all of this focus on reporting creates a constant aggravation within the sales force about how much daily data input they have to perform that is not at all related to working a customer or opportunity from lead to close. Every world class sales professional has a different style, or different philosophy of how to work their accounts, but any successful sales pro knows one thing, they need to work fast, work hard and have the data at their fingertips that let them respond and close.

This article will give you three key features you need if you want to use anything from a business card file, your phone, local database like Bento and Filemaker, to a customer database cloud like Performance Desk to organize and track your interactive sales pipeline.

Tip One - Have a clear method to prioritize opportunities and customers every day. Sort your business cards or database files in a way in which you will clearly know the customers that need the most attention and what time of day they need to get it. If you're a nationwide rep that means working your customers east to west coast, but in most cases it will mean looking at which opportunities are closest to close on your pipeline and focusing your efforts appropriately.

Tip Two - Have a clear methodology for every call and stick to it. Some products like Performance Desk even provide a categorized opportunity worksheet that will help guide your notes into a clear report and remind you to stay on track, to work smart and close faster. In the case of Performance Desk you can sort your notes into friendly info that help build rapport, understand customer needs, notate customer objections, probe for customer pain and most importantly close more sales and grow your business.

Tip Three - Focus on sales, not reporting on your progress. If you are in a small company or work for yourself in San Jose or Seattle, the last thing you need is to pay a fortune for software that's main purpose is to report your progress and projections to the head office in New York. Most of the suppliers of online CRM and sales management products have placed all of their effort into satisfying the needs of enterprise size customers because that is their bread and butter.

The complexity and features that deliver complex analytics to help a vice president of sales decide who performs the best, have nothing to do with the features that each salesperson needs to track and close an opportunity. Often sales professionals are forced to work their sales on pad and paper then spend valuable time transferring that data into the complex system after the fact, rather than focusing on the next opportunity to get those dollars in the door and grow your company.

All about cloud computing

Does your company use Microsoft Exchange Online? Do you have a Google Mail account? Have you ever used WebEx to set up a conference call or an online meeting? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you're using cloud computing.

So what exactly is cloud computing? Think of it as Internet-based computing. All software, information, and resources are located on a provider's server that sits on a network far away. These services are provided to your computer, and other devices, on demand. Most cloud computing services are so quick and easy to use that you don't even realize you're accessing software that's not located on your computer's hard drive

You can get applications, called Software as a Service (SaaS) and hardware resources, called Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), from the cloud. SaaS providers, which include such companies as Cisco, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, NetSuite, Salesforce.com, and others, install and maintain their software on their network of servers. Cloud applications are designed so that each customer has its own customized instance of that software; data and configuration details are kept separate from any other customers. Customers pay a monthly subscription fee for only the exact number of users who need the application. Of course, some personal cloud applications, like Google Mail, are free.

IaaS providers, including Amazon, Rackspace, and Terremark, deliver storage capacity and computing resources. These providers charge customers for the resources they consume on an on-demand basis, or they charge a subscription fee for reserved resources. With either option, you're not paying for an expensive server set up to handle spikes in your website's traffic that only occur during certain times of the year.

Small businesses can get a lot of bang for the buck with both types of cloud computing - and many already are. Cisco surveyed more than 500 small and medium-size businesses to find out how they're using cloud computing. At least 75 percent of them are using cloud computing for a variety of applications, especially security, storage, and desktop productivity applications.

But what can cloud computing do for your company? Check out these five reasons to give it a chance: 1.Pay only for what you need. You pay for the IT resources you actually use in the cloud, so your company no longer risks overinvesting in hardware that is underutilized, or underinvesting in software that soon needs additional licenses.

2. Eliminate complex software installations. Your PCs already have Web browsers installed, and that's all you need to access tools in the cloud. In general, the providers handle the complex configurations and updates.

3. Access to enterprise-grade applications. Small business software is usually less robust than its enterprise counterparts, but cloud-based applications give you access to advanced, big business features. By securely sharing an application with others, you are able to utilize these advanced features at an affordable price while also maintaining protection for your company's confidential information. In addition, providers upgrade their applications more frequently than most small companies can afford to.

4. Respond to business changes quickly. Adding seats or increasing server capacity in the cloud is as simple as logging on to your cloud service. You can scale up or down as your business requires, and you can do it in a matter of minutes.

5. Try before you buy. Many business applications, such as CRM (customer relationship management), are available in the cloud, and providers frequently offer free trials and extensive demos so you can see if the application is right for your company. Even monthly subscriptions make it easy-and affordable-to check out new software.

Are you already using cloud computing? If so, for what applications or services? Tell us what's working - and what's not working - with cloud and your company.