CRM vendor NetSuite (News - Alert) has appointed Per Jakobsen as its new vice president of product management. NetSuite officials say Jakobsen is expected to spearhead the strategy, initiatives and operations of product management relating to NetSuite's accounting/ERP, CRM and e-commerce software suites, as well as lead the company's product management team.

 

Jakobsen was vice president of products strategy at Salesforce.com (News - Alert) from 2005 to 2008, where he headed the team responsible for designing and launching a new financial services CRM vertical. Prior to that, he was VP of services and operations at Ventaso.

 

Jakobsen spent 10 years at Oracle (News - Alert) in Denmark and the US.

 

Evan Goldberg, founder, chairman and chief technology officer of NetSuite, said Jakobsen is "a first-rate technology professional with a proven track record in the enterprise and CRM software industry."

 

Earlier this month NetSuite announced the release of NetSuite OneWorld Software Company Edition. This latest offering, company officials say, gives users "the ability to run and manage integrated end-to-end software business processes spanning global operations."

 

This new edition includes all the capabilities of NetSuite OneWorld -- announced in April 2008 -- which lets companies run global operations in real-time, and includes features such as renewals automation, revenue recognition, complex commission management and multi-tier channel management.

To address accounting and reporting requirements, historically many software companies have purchased multiple applications to run their software business operations. "This fragmented approach typically is costly, can lead to a higher rate of errors in calculating financial results, and can result in less favorable customer experiences, particularly at the time of renewal," NetSuite officials say.

 

NetSuite OneWorld Software Company Edition can "cater to any business model, from subscription billing to traditional software licensing," company officials say.

 

Zach Nelson (News - Alert), CEO of NetSuite, said "we know how a global software company works because we are one, and we have been successfully using our own software to operate our business for the past 10 years."

The product is pitched as delivering "deep and locally or nationally appropriate functionality" -- currency, taxation, language, reporting, revenue recognition, dashboards -- with "real-time subsidiary management and business consolidation capabilities."