Business Software

Cloud-based business software provider NetSuite (News - Alert) has unveiled NetSuite OpenAir, what company officials are terming "new professional services automation and services resource planning software for the UK and European marketplace."

It's specifically designed to help global professional services organizations automate and manage key aspects of their business, NetSuite officials say, from marketing to project management, service delivery, billing, revenue management and driving repeat business from existing clients.

According to IDC (News - Alert) Research, uptake in SRP will grow rapidly, with more than a 10 percent annual growth every year through 2013. By then, the global SRP market will exceed $3 billion.

OpenAir is being marketed by NetSuite as delivering the Holy Grail of services applications, including everything needed to run a project-based business. The product includes:

Multi-currency and tax support, with built-in multi-currency support enables transparent billing, VAT calculations, and expense tracking in more than 100 currencies.

Localization for the European market. NetSuite OpenAir is the most localized professional services product for the broader European market, company officials contend, with support for English, Spanish, German and French.

Lower TCO. NetSuite officials say OpenAir's cloud architecture reduces deployment and ongoing operating costs for project-based businesses by reducing hardware, maintenance and IT personnel costs. Cloud computing architecture in general, they say, provides enterprise scalability without the worry or cost of continuous uptime monitoring, system backups or performance tuning, thanks to an isolated-tenancy dedicated database, "sandbox" test environment and 24x7 global customer support.

Real-time visibility. Dashboards provide real-time, instant view of all services activities and key performance indicators, showing you available resources and client opportunities on a global level. "Client booking data flows dynamically from sales to the services organization," NetSuite officials say. "Invoices and expenses resulting from service delivery then flow from services to the finance and sales departments."

Metrics-driven management. Services organizations can manage their businesses using selected metrics. Available analytics range from resource and project management, to KPIs, graphical report snapshots, trend graphs and scorecards.