SAN MATEO, Calif. (March 28, 2007) – NetSuite, Inc., the leader in on-demand business management software for small- and mid-sized businesses, today announced that Linden Lab®, creator of Second Life®, the popular 3D virtual world, has selected NetSuite® to help manage its rapid growth. In January 2007 alone, Second Life Residents converted their Linden Dollars into approximately US$5 million. NetSuite operates invisibly in the background to manage back-end operational processes. In addition, Linden Lab is in the process of implementing NetSuite CRM functionality. For more information please visit www.netsuite.com/lindenlab
“Second Life has grown nearly seven-fold in the last twelve months,” said John Zdanowski, Linden Lab’s chief financial officer. “We needed a system that could support our growth as we take our financial and accounting infrastructure to the next level.”
Due to its exponential growth, Linden Lab quickly outgrew its original business applications, which were used to run its back-office financial operations. It needed business software that could be installed quickly — in about 60 days — and just as swiftly scale with its rapid growth. Linden Lab chose NetSuite for its proven speed-to-implementation, its ability to replace separate ERP and CRM applications with a single, integrated business management application, and its track record in scaling with growing companies.
“We designed NetSuite to bring a rich business application suite to the mid-market by combining deep, integrated functionality with the ease of use and ease of access of an on-demand application. It’s always thrilling for us to see the world’s fastest-growing companies like Linden Lab use NetSuite to help make their vision a reality,” said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite.
A leader in the application market for growing companies, NetSuite runs the front- and back-office operations and ecommerce of thousands of organizations around the globe and has enabled customers like Linden Lab to grow their businesses at an unprecedented rate.
Having purchased NetSuite through NetSuite Solution Provider Skyytek Worldwide (www.skyytek.com), Skyytek and Linden Lab quickly implemented NetSuite. Linden Lab has rebuilt its chart of accounts; migrated accounting operations; integrated NetSuite with its back-end systems; and implemented a paperless accounts payable process, using Skyytek’s integrated transaction processor SkyyTran (www.skyytran.com), all within 60 days.
“Having a third party solution provider focused on our specific business needs and understanding our business processes ensured that we implemented the system properly,” Zdanowski said, “And it was a way to extend our own internal resources quickly with Skyytek people who had extensive experience with NetSuite.”
“We analyzed Linden Lab’s business needs and realized that we could do this in 60 days because of our extensive NetSuite expertise,” said Ray Tetlow, CEO of Skyytek Worldwide. “Using our best practices, the NetSuite service is easy to implement and we have done this successfully many times with other customers. It was an exciting opportunity to help a company as hot as Linden Lab and Second Life prepare itself for the next level.” For more information about the Skyytek-Linden Lab implementation, visit http://www.skyytek.com/Info/Newsletters/February-07
About Second Life and Linden Lab
Second Life is a 3D online world with a rapidly growing population from 100 countries around the globe, in which the residents themselves create and build the world which includes homes, vehicles, nightclubs, stores, landscapes, clothing, and games.
The Second Life Grid is a sophisticated development platform created by Linden Lab, a company founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale, to create a revolutionary new form of shared 3D experience. The former CTO of RealNetworks, Rosedale pioneered the development of many of today’s streaming media technologies, including RealVideo. In April 2003, noted software pioneer Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation, was named Chairman. In 2006, Philip Rosedale and Linden Lab received WIRED’s Rave Award for Innovation in Business. Based in San Francisco, Linden Lab employs a senior team bringing together deep expertise in physics, 3D graphics and networking.
Source: NetSuite