NetSuite Targets SaaS App At iPhone

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) business management software company NetSuite has announced the release of a free cloud computing mobile enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch.

The SuitePhone app brings users access to NetSuite’s integrated business management suite, including real-time dashboards that deliver enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and e-commerce operational data.

The interactive dashboards include key performance indicators (KPIs), report snapshots, trend graphs, scorecards, reminders and recent records. Also included is a calendar with support for accepting or declining events and marking tasks as complete, as well as lead, prospect and customer records tailored to mobile sales, field service and executive leadership, including access to associated contacts, marketing campaigns, opportunities, quotes, orders, purchase history, financial history, cases and issues.

Along with the dashboard and calendar are several other features, such as click-to-call from any NetSuite record containing a phone number, click-to-e-mail from any NetSuite record containing an e-mail address and click-to-map (via Google Maps) from any NetSuite record containing a physical address.

“This is a great release by NetSuite,” said Elliott Rabin, president of Ridout Plastics, a plastics manufacturer based in San Diego. “Access is very fast overall, and trend graphs are much faster than through a browser. From a CEO view, I can see my KPIs and can get top 10 information quickly—by sales, customers, sales reps, etc. Like in a browser, the app lets me find a customer quickly through searching—and I’m one who loves ‘recent records’ for quick access to information. The iPhone application adds tremendous value to my NetSuite experience.”

In addition, if a company has implemented custom fields, custom records, role-based security or custom dashboard elements in their NetSuite account, they will all be reflected in the NetSuite app.

NetSuite is aiming the application at three main customers: sales representatives, who the company said can benefit from access to leads and opportunities, as well as the ability to view customers and contacts, and review quotes and orders; field service users, who can inquire about customer history, browse associated cases and see all issues filed by a customer; and executives for browsing financial trends, watching dashboards in real time and looking into KPIs, as well as generating report snapshots and scorecards.

And the release will likely strengthen the SaaS company’s claims that cloud-based systems are the greenest computing option, with this added mobility capacity.

Additional reporting by Miya Knights.