NetSuite OpenAir Mobile Comes to Android Devices

The platform allows Android OS users to update and submit time and expense reports for projects on their smartphones and tablet devices.

Cloud-based enterprise resource management (ERP) and financials software specialist NetSuite announced the availability of its OpenAir Mobile time tracking and expenses management platform for Google's Android operating system.

OpenAir Mobile for Android includes a calendar to track and manage time, access to OpenAir time sheets and expense reports using the Android user interface and instantaneous synchronization with OpenAir accounts to use up-to-date customer, project and task data.

"Services professionals increasingly rely on smartphones and tablets while on the road or anytime they need to access an OpenAir account," Ed Marshall, NetSuite Service Vertical general manager, said in a statement. "This new mobile app for Android puts the power of the cloud in the palm of their hand to perform more efficiently and speed time and expense reporting and approvals."

The platform allows users to update and submit time and expense reports for projects. Along with entering receipt data, the app lets professionals in IT services, consulting, digital marketing and advertising, as well as media and publishing to take a photo of an expense receipt with their Android device, attach it to a record and synchronize the information with the organization's back-end NetSuite OpenAir PSA account.

As an example, services organizations that bill clients based on specific time and expense reports could accelerate processes and cash flow when consultants are able to enter time and expense data through a smartphone or tablet. The application is free and only requires a customer's OpenAir credentials to sync with their account.

Although an application that could run on Apple's iOS platform was a near-necessary development half a decade ago, application developers are increasingly turning to Android app development as the platform has skyrocketed in popularity.

The analyst firm IDC estimates that Android commanded 75 percent of the worldwide smartphone market in the third quarter of 2012, about five times greater than the Apple iOS for the iPhone. In addition, Android's year-over-year growth rate of 91.5 percent for the 12 months ending on Sept. 30, 2012, was nearly double the 46.4 percent growth rate of the smartphone market at large, according to IDC.

In the tablet market, the Android platform powered more than 44 percent of tablet shipments as of Q3 2012, second only to the Apple iOS on the iPad, which claimed a market share of 55 percent. Despite maintaining its lead for 10 straight quarters, competition from tablets powered by Android continued to eat away at Apple's success. Nearly 14 percent share was given up in the quarter to several benefactors, including Amazon, Google and Samsung.