Press Releases

Contact

Danielle Tarp

Oracle NetSuite Corporate Communications
Email

NetSuite Launches NetSuite CRM+

NetSuite CRM+ Fills the Gaps of Traditional CRM Applications by Adding Order Management, Partner Management and eCRM

NetSuite CRM+ Moves Beyond Opportunity-Centric CRM by Putting the "Customer" in CRM

SAN MATEO, Calif.,—May 2, 2005—NetSuite, Inc. today launched NetSuite CRM+, the first hosted Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application that integrates order management, partner management, incentive management, and project tracking to give growing businesses a 360 degree view of all customer interactions. NetSuite CRM+ also offers eCRM, which includes Web site hosting, Web site analytics, customer portals, partner portals and partner management, making it as easy to sell and service customers via the Web as it is in person or on the phone. These advanced capabilities make NetSuite CRM+ the only CRM solution to automate the entire customer lifecycle – from a "suspect" browsing a company's Web site, to an interested lead, to a qualified prospect, to a customer who has actually placed an order, to servicing that customer and finally, to guiding that customer to re-purchase. For more information on NetSuite CRM+, please visit: www.netcrm.com/plus.

There are numerous on-demand and on-premise CRM software packages available for small, medium and large companies. These legacy systems are built around managing information about prospects before they become customers – often called opportunity management – which only encompasses about a third of the full customer lifecycle. None of these systems capture customer data natively because they lack the basic building block of a customer relationship – what was purchased. NetSuite CRM+ captures this fundamental definition of a customer via Order Management, which serves as the key driver in determining important CRM metrics such as marketing ROI, sales effectiveness, forecast accuracy, sales incentives, and demand forecasting. Because other CRM systems do not capture the details of what a customer has purchased, they frequently provide incomplete and incorrect results for marketing campaigns and sales forecasts, and zero visibility for sales representatives' commissions. With no record of what or how much has been ordered by each customer, marketing has no way to know if the leads generated are actually converting to customers, sales managers have no way to know how their forecasts compare to actual sales and sales representatives have no way to see their compensation.

Additionally, traditional CRM systems integrate poorly with corporate Web sites, a major failing given most customers view the Web site as the preferred point of interaction. NetSuite CRM+ breaks down these barriers found in traditional CRM applications by managing the complete process from lead to prospect to customer in a single system, regardless of channel – on the phone, in person or via the Web. By incorporating the corporate Web site into the selling process, businesses are able to tap into a wealth of information right from the "suspect" stage of a customer who is evaluating the potential of doing business with them. Once they become customers, a self-service portal will allow them to see their outstanding quotes, re-order products and services, view a complete service history and enter new trouble tickets or cases. Providing this level of visibility greatly increases customer satisfaction and the likelihood that they will continue to transact with the same business and place additional orders. And finally, complete partner relationship management capabilities allow businesses to incorporate referral and selling partners that make up their extended enterprise into the same processes applied to their internal sales organisations. Partner self-service portals available in NetSuite CRM+ allow for lead sharing and registration, visibility for partners into sales converted from their leads, and the ability to act as the "front line" when it comes to providing support and service for joint customers.

"NetSuite gets it. The release of NetSuite CRM+ shows me that NetSuite understands how 21st century business works," said Paul Greenberg, author of CRM at the Speed of Light: Essential Customer Strategies for the 21st Century; 3rd Edition. "When you have customer data populating an enterprise value chain that links the demand, supply and support chains, you have the means to identify and support the processes that the customer and the company needs in the digital age. That is the paradigm around which NetSuite CRM+ is organised – the customer, not just the data. This is leading edge stuff."

"CRM has been a misnomer because today's hosted CRM applications are not designed to handle real customer data. They have been designed to handle prospect data," said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite. "NetSuite CRM+ for the first time puts the ‘C' in CRM."

"We switched to NetSuite because salesforce.com didn't have the extra features NetSuite has, including order management," said Fabrice Cancre, CEO, U.S. Operations, R/D Tech Corp. (www.rd-tech.com), a manufacturer and distributor of testing equipment and headquartered in Waltham, MA. "We have gradually increased our NetSuite usage to our 100-plus member distributed sales team. We can create quotations and sales orders, and measure the forecast by product and service offered - something we couldn't do with salesforce.com. We're continually deploying more NetSuite features and are planning to use even more of the advanced CRM+ features NetSuite is offering, as well as extending the Suite to our international offices with the upcoming release of NetSuite 11.0."

Leveraging the award-winning forecasting, contact management, opportunity management, and Customisation of NetSuite CRM, the new NetSuite CRM+ goes beyond traditional CRM capabilities by adding broad functionality never before seen with a CRM application including:

• Order Management: Everything in NetSuite CRM+ is built around customers and orders – reports, dashboards, and customer intelligence all key to this tangible relationship with the customer, making it easy to connect with them over the Web as well as in person. This order management capability also allows sales people to work on a deal through the pipeline, right through to the actual close. So businesses can finally see booked orders in their sales forecast, greatly increasing its reliability, predictability and accuracy.
  
• Upsell/Cross-sell: Rich purchase history driven by past orders can be mined easily using flexible point and click query tools. Other lead, prospect and customer profile data can be mixed with the purchase history criteria to further segment target groups, allowing very specific messaging to be used to maximise the reach of multi-channel campaigns.
  
• Incentive Management: Commission is a true motivator in sales force management, and NetSuite CRM+ offers the industry's first and only integrated Incentive Management capabilities. Complex compensation plans can be created using multi-tiered rules based on quota, total sales or quantity by item. NetSuite CRM+ even includes integrated expense reporting with approval routing, providing an easy way for tracking expenses incurred during the sales process.
  
• Project Tracking: Projects and jobs can be tracked through each detailed status with associated activities needed to complete the job. Time is measured against each task, event or phone call linked to the project while all projects are associated with central client records, providing complete visibility into all aspects of the client relationship.
  
• Web Hosting and Analytics: NetSuite CRM+ integrates what has become the customer channel of choice, and a business's most pervasive marketing vehicle - the company Web site. Web hosting capabilities include rich site builder tools that allow for dynamic content driven from the CRM system, including an online product catalog, lead capture, and customer self-service. One-to-one publishing capabilities allow for personalised and targeted content to be delivered to prospect or customer portals. Site Analytics add rich integrated Web reporting that provide aggregate site metrics previously only available through 3rd party monitoring services, as well as unique visitor-specific click-through and page hit information invaluable to targeted sales and marketing follow up. Robust Intranet publishing capabilities are also included with specific audience controls that allow content to be tailored to different departments or groups of individuals such as managers versus all employees.
  
• Customer Portal: Customer self-service provides real-time, cross-channel views of all interactions for delivery of superior customer service – whether the interaction occurred on the Web just seconds ago or with a sales rep in person yesterday. In addition, customers can view outstanding quotes or orders and even request returns. Most importantly, detailed order history allows for an easy check of entitlement to service levels as well as intelligent upsell/cross-sell offers, helping turn the call centre into a profit centre.
  
• Partner Management: Removes the traditional arm's length partnership with re-seller, referral and business development partners and makes them full allies with visibility, transaction management and performance metrics. These are available to partners throughout the customer lifecycle thanks to flexible partner self-service portals and partner sales tracking. Partners can even be empowered to act as the "front-line" of customer service with complete case ticket visibility and online knowledge base access.

Pricing and Availability
NetSuite CRM+ is available in June at $129/user/month, and includes order management, upsell/cross-sell, project tracking, partner management, and basic Web site hosting capabilities. Incentive Management, Advanced Site Builder and Web Analytics are available as modules at an additional cost of $199/month per module. NetSuite CRM is also available in June for $79/user/month.