Innovative Technology Allows ISVs, VARs and SIs to Create Industry-Specific Vertical Solutions, Delivered in a Repeatable Fashion
SAN MATEO, Calif. (October 24, 2007) – NetSuite Inc., a vendor of on-demand, integrated business management application suites that provide Accounting/ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and Ecommerce functionality for small and medium-sized businesses and divisions of large companies, today announced SuiteBundler, the newest and a key component of SuiteFlex, NetSuite’s application development and integration platform. The new SuiteBundler tool delivers numerous technology breakthroughs that enable the creation of third-party vertical applications within NetSuite, as well as end-to-end business process customization for any end-user company.
The introduction of SuiteBundler and its ground-breaking capabilities ushers in a new concept for the rapidly growing Software as a Service (SaaS) market — “Service as Software.” Just as SaaS transformed the software business in lowering total costs of ownership and ongoing maintenance, Service as Software/SuiteBundler is designed to change the face of implementation and value-added services delivery by professional consulting service partners. The introduction of SuiteBundler enables service partners to take on this business model transformation and turn their services expertise into repeatable and resellable software solutions, built and delivered on NetSuite as more complete SaaS vertical applications to meet the complex needs of today’s mid-sized businesses.
NetSuite service partners have already begun to leverage the introduction of SuiteBundler to open up new vertical-focused business opportunities, serving as proof that the “Service as Software” revolution has begun. New vertical solutions for NetSuite delivered via SuiteBundler include those targeted at companies in software, media/publishing, IT resellers, agricultural equipment dealerships, seaport management, retail, electronics distribution and shipping material franchises. (Please see accompanying press release: “NetSuite Partners Introduce New Vertical Versions of NetSuite and Horizontal Extensions to Core NetSuite Functionality.”)
For more information about today’s announcements please visit www.netsuite.com/suitebundler
“We believe that SuiteBundler will prove to be one of the most important pieces of software written in the last decade,” said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite. “The ability to take a piece of custom functionality that was designed as a one-off for customization for a single customer and use it repeatably for other implementations has been the holy grail for services companies. SuiteBundler, combined with NetSuite, finally delivers on this promise, and truly enables VARs, systems integrators, and ISVs to participate in the SaaS revolution.”
The Consulting Services Challenge in a SaaS World Necessitates “Service as Software” Revolution
The economics of the “old world” client/server software model — where a services provider could expect 1 to 5 times the price of the software in services revenue related to data migration, business process customization and training — simply do not convert to the lower cost annual subscription model in the new SaaS world. Customers, particularly small to mid-sized businesses, are not willing to pay for what amounts to up to 10 times their annual subscription for the same dollar amount of services. To be successful, service partners therefore have to look at a new business service delivery model and migrate from a labor-intensive delivery approach. One-off implementation services must become re-usable, re-sellable solutions and business process value-add needs to be encapsulated. Horizontal technical knowledge of how to install and tune hardware, software and databases needs to be replaced with business knowledge relevant to a client’s industry. The introduction of SuiteBundler enables partners to take on this business model transformation and turn their services expertise into a repeatable software solution, built and delivered on NetSuite as complete SaaS vertical applications to meet the dynamic needs of today’s mid-market businesses.
SuiteBundler: The “Service as Software” Enabler
SuiteBundler is the newest addition to NetSuite’s SuiteFlex platform and delivers a myriad of innovative features that serve to enable the “Service as Software” revolution. Vertical solutions, add-on applications, end-to-end business process customizations, and integration solutions developed using the other components of SuiteFlex — such as SuiteBuilder, SuiteScript and SuiteTalk — can now be packaged together to create a SuiteBundle, which can in turn be repeatedly installed by customers at the click of a button. SuiteBundler includes:
oBundle Builder — an easy 3-step graphical assistant for selecting and creating SuiteBundles. Bundle-able components include anything configurable and customizable in NetSuite from the simple elements — such as user roles, Dashboards, custom tabs, custom centers, custom KPIs and Scorecards, custom reports, custom lists and custom forms — to database elements — such as custom fields and custom records/objects — to scripted business process and application development elements — such as client SuiteScript, Server SuiteScript, SuiteScript UI Objects and Suitelets.
oBundle Distribution — choose from 3 modes when making SuiteBundles available to customers. Partners creating a SuiteBundle for commercial availability would distribute it as Shared to particular customer accounts that have purchased the solution, while customers leveraging SuiteBundler to prototype their own customizations and implementation of new business processes would set availability to Private. Finally, some developers or even customers can choose to distribute a Public SuiteBundle, fostering an open-source community for sharing small add-on enhancements to NetSuite.
oSuiteSource Bundle Repository — partners creating SuiteBundles can leverage the SuiteSource Bundle Repository in their development process to conveniently save off the customer-installation-ready version of their SuiteBundle, while continuing to work on the next iteration of their solution in their NetSuite developer account.
oBundle Installation — customers looking to install a SuiteBundle would first locate it by browsing the SuiteSource Bundle Repository or searching by a specific Bundle ID given to them by the partner they purchased the solution from. Once they have located their particular SuiteBundle, installation is as easy as one-click and all the contents of the bundle are automatically inserted into their account. Un-install is also available in SuiteBundler if it turns out that the bundle contents need to be removed. All customizations and solutions deployed using SuiteBundler are carried forward with version upgrades, just as is the case with customization changes made directly in NetSuite accounts.
New Vertical & Value-Add Solutions Delivered via SuiteBundler
NetSuite and its partners have embraced the Service as Software revolution by introducing many vertical solutions spanning a spectrum of markets including:
oSoftware
oMedia and Publishing
oIT Resellers
oAgriculture Equipment Dealerships
oSeaport Marina Management
oRetail (Point of Sale)
oFranchises for packaging and shipping materials
oElectronics Wholesale Distribution
Additionally, NetSuite solution providers are leveraging SuiteBundler to deliver valuable add-ons to core NetSuite functionality in the areas of:
oFixed Asset Management
oTax Automation
oWarranty Management
Pricing and Availability:
Available now, complete SuiteBundler capabilities to create, share and install SuiteBundles are included in NetSuite CRM, NetSuite CRM+ and NetSuite at no additional charge. NetSuite Small Business includes the ability to install SuiteBundles, but not create or share them.
Source: NetSuite