CRM vendor NetSuite has announced a partnership with BT (News - Alert), to distribute, resell and support NetSuite in the UK and EMEA.

 

The BT/NetSuite (News - Alert) announcement comes on the heels of NetSuite's introduction of NetSuite OneWorld, a new on-demand product that enables multi-national companies to manage their company in a single application.

 

In 2004, the Department of Trade and Industry estimated that there are 4.3 million business enterprises in the UK and 99.9 percent were small to medium-sized enterprises, many of whom have requirements for multi-national CRM, ERP and ecommerce capabilities.

 

The majority of these, NetSuite officials say, "still buy separate, expensive software packages to run and manage their business." Historically, the cost associated with running and integrating data from these incompatible systems is often high, they say, adding that "because of this application fragmentation, the software infrastructure used by many companies does not allow business processes to run efficiently across front and back office functions, nor across geographic boundaries."

According to recent research by BT Business, client relationships are the most critical factor to the success of UK SMEs — the research put it at "43 percent."

 

NetSuite's integrated business management software suites include one single system to manage business operations, which not only gives SMEs a CRM product but also a business management product that spans accounting, ERP and e-commerce.

 

Earlier this week NetSuite announced that Virgin Money Australia, the financial services arm of Virgin Group, has switched from an outsourced product to NetSuite OneWorld.

 

NetSuite OneWorld provides Virgin Money with "one system to run its business operations more efficiently," according to NetSuite officials.

Since May 2003, Virgin Money has been, in its own inimitable Bransonesque tones, "fighting to keep the big banks honest with home loans, superannuation and credit cards."

By early 2007 the company was looking to shake off its outsourced business accounting software and bring the task in-house, Virgin Money officials say, and on a platform that could handle more of Virgin Money's needs, plus its rapid growth: "The challenge was that if the company chose to manage the previous business accounting software in house, instead of having it outsourced, it would have required extra capital expenses for servers, storage, climate control and security measures."

NetSuite "can be tailored to suit every role in our company, giving staff the information they need and the access rights we want them to have" said Andy Sampson, Financial Controller at Virgin Money.