NetLedger Inc. officials said they believed the recent upgrade to the companys NetSuite hosted ERP offering was so significant that they changed the companys name to NetSuite Inc.
The update, NetSuite 9.0, provides midsize companies with functionality typically found in enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and e-commerce software as a Web-based service.
Version 9.0, which went live this month, offers a new, more flexible and configurable user interface that employs a dashboard paradigm. Embedded business intelligence features can be moved around by simply dragging and dropping them across dashboard components, according to CEO and President Zach Nelson.
Nelson said he was particularly proud of NetSuite 9.0s Xtreme List Editing capability, which lets users quickly customize lists.
NetSuite 9.0 includes new features for distributors, including matrix items for describing goods, units of measure, bar coding, serialized inventory and quantity pricing. It embeds shipping tools integrated with United Parcel Service of America Inc.s Online Tools. Next month, NetSuite, in San Mateo, Calif., will add capabilities for calculating value-added taxes, Nelson said.
Since the NetSuite software is the code for Oracle Corp.s Oracle Small Business Suite—a hosted business automation software service for small companies—the update to NetSuite 9.0 means that Oracle SBS got an update. SBS 9.0 includes a few core applications—for example, accounting and a Web store—and a few of NetSuite 9.0s new features, including the new user interface and the editable lists capabilities. Since they are running the NetSuite code with some features disabled, SBS customers can upgrade to the full NetSuite easily, officials said.
NetSuite user Mark Hill, owner of Companion Products Inc., is looking forward to the UPS integration to speed shipping information from his distribution company to its partners. “Its going to cut down a lot of time and make things much easier,” said Hill, in Kingston, Ill. “We do a lot of drop shipping. We get calls [from our partners] all the time [asking], When did this ship? They want to bill their customer. With the UPS tool, we will be able to e-mail the invoice instead of fax it.”