NetSuite's Latest CRM Release: "Everything, Simply"

NetSuite, Inc. has launched its NetSuite-Software Company Edition, described by company officials as "designed to manage a software business and the software customer life cycle."

The product has added financial management functionality including revenue recognition and usage-based billing that can cost a lot when purchased from niche providers.

This edition of NetSuite includes new versions of NetSuite's AJAX Dashboards, designed to give software company executives and frontline users real-time visibility into performance indicators.

Company officials say many of the improvements in the NetSuite-Software Company Edition "result from NetSuite's own use of the product, as well as feedback."  The result, they claim, "enables a software company of any size to manage its entire business in a single business application suite."

This sort of "everything -- simply" notion is the heart of what NetSuite wants to be. "We felt that the way SMB companies tried to run their business, attempting to tie together an accounting application from one vendor to a sales application from another vendor to an ecommerce application from another vendor, was broken and would never work," NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson told this reporter last year.

"It takes large enterprises millions and millions of dollars to achieve integration, with equally poor results I might add, and it’s no easier to tie QuickBooks to Act! than it is to tie SAP to Siebel."

Most software companies, in fact, buy multiple generic applications to run their business -- one to manage the sales team, one to manage marketing, one to manage support, and several more to deal with the financial aspects of running a business etc. While you can cobble together a pretty cost-effective system this way that works fine for your business, there's also a greater chance that the programs aren't talking to each other and information's falling between cracks.

One thing NetSuite's emphasizing in the new suite is its ERP capabilities. "Software companies have incredibly complex financial processes, from complex billing requirements to revenue recognition to licensing and subscription management," company officials say (from experience, no doubt). The new product has "a host of new functionality to streamline all of these processes, reducing pain, error rate, and cost."

Good customer relationship management (CRM) can make or break a software company, let's face it. The products aren't exactly fungible, but there's very little out there that's completely unique, basically a lot of repeat business and word-of-mouth is due to customer service and the customer experience -- "Wow, sorry your software vendors are being such dorks about that. Hey listen, the guys I deal with pick up the phone and sweat a little to help solve our problems…"

First Coffee^SM agrees with NetSuite that complete lead-to-order functionality in-system, that elusive "360-degree customer view," is vital to delivering a high level of service, thereby increasing sales conversion, up-sell and retention. It's heartening to see companies putting time and effort into making software designed to provide that.

That's why it's good to see this NetSuite product has stuff like a Partner Relationship Management function, which focuses on partnerships with resellers, referral and business development partners and makes them full allies. Now software companies can have the same level of visibility, transaction management and performance metrics with reseller, consulting or marketing partners that they have with their internal teams.

The self-service customer portals providing password-protected self-service access to order history, outstanding invoices, and trouble tickets, are also a great idea, providing greater service at lower cost.

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

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