NetERP unifies supply chain and back-office processes for mid-sized enterprises
SAN MATEO, CA. July 30, 2003 — NetLedger, Inc., makers of Oracle® Small Business Suite, today announced NetERP, a complete back-office application integrating order, inventory, and procurement business process automation with robust financials to provide supply chain management and e-commerce for mid-sized businesses. NetERP includes complete automatic website generation, website hosting, and e-commerce capabilities, enabling mid-sized enterprises to bring back-office data (inventory availability, customer specific pricing terms, etc.) and processes (order-to-cash, procure-to-pay) to the Web without pain or additional fees. NetERP also advances the company's strategy to augment its core product offerings to meet the needs of specific industries by adding a host of new features targeting companies in wholesale and distribution markets. Finally, NetERP provides users with customizable real-time dashboards with up-to-the moment information for well-informed decision-making. The Oracle Small Business Suite name is used under license from Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL).
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) applications have traditionally only been available to large businesses with correspondingly large IT budgets. Typical ERP implementations require lengthy, expensive consulting projects to perform initial installation and application integration and require substantial ongoing maintenance. Mid-sized companies often need to automate similarly complex business processes, but have far fewer resources available to address these issues. They have, therefore, had to live with multiple disparate systems in which data is maintained in separate silos for each department and which is brought together periodically in order to prepare financial statements.
NetERP provides an advanced, Web-based solution that meets the needs of these mid-sized businesses. It is built on a single data store so that traditionally separate applications like financials, inventory management, order management and e-commerce are now managed in a single data repository. It includes deep functionality usually only found in much more expensive solutions such as serialised inventory, units of measure, matrix item management, and bar coding. NetERP enables companies to extend their operations to business partners, vendors and customers via a complete integrated Web hosting and e-commerce capability. For internal system users, NetERP's powerful customizable "dashboards" allow core functionality to be accessed easily, and data to be displayed quickly and informatively. Finally, NetERP, when included in the company’s NetSuite solution, is integrated with front-office functionality to provide complete business process automation from contact to contract to cash.
"NetERP lets mid-market companies automate their back-office business processes without the headaches, hassles and costly implementation cycles of traditional enterprise software;" said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetLedger. "NetERP's integration of complete Web-hosting and e-commerce technology allows our customers to easily extend their enterprise systems for on-line, business-to-business transactions."
"Larger vendors are forcing mid-sized suppliers to transact business on-line, and businesses are struggling to find a cost-effective way to meet this requirement quickly," said Helen Chan, SMB analyst at the Yankee Group. "NetERP's integration of an ERP-class solution with complete Web hosting and e-commerce capabilities is an innovative offering that allows mid-sized suppliers to move their business processes to the Web quickly and rapidly, without the expensive upfront licensing and integration costs of higher end solutions."
NetLedger is a recognised leader in bringing to market advanced on-line solutions for comprehensive, affordable business management. NetERP is the next leap forward for NetLedger's advanced accounting technology that has been delivering sound, auditable financials since 1999. NetERP provides mid-sized businesses with a back- office with a view through the following functionality:
NetERP introduces large enterprise capabilities at mid-market prices
NetERP encompasses features currently available in NetSuite, its integrated ERP/CRM solution, including multi-company consolidation and multi-currency, multi-location inventory and robust financials. NetERP adds advanced capabilities such as serialised inventory, multiple units of measure, matrix option items, and quantity-based pricing to bring a level new level of functionality to mid-sized companies.
NetERP provides real-time e-commerce including Web site, Web store, customer, vendor and employee portals
NetERP includes full-featured B2B/B2C e-commerce capabilities at no extra charge. Companies can configure a fully personalised Web site portal to service business customers, including customer-specific price levels, terms-based purchasing, with catalog item availability based on inventory status at the moment of order. Proactive notifications alert users to events requiring their immediate attention, thus accelerating business process cycles for greater customer service. A full service, password-protected customer center is built in for customers to check order status, view open invoices, and make payments online. Other features also include item matrix options (for example, different size and color combinations of a shirt can be managed together but tracked separately for inventory), quantity-based price breaks, and cross-selling with related items. Businesses can also create audience-specific content sections, making them available only to certain customers, vendors or employees. NetERP's unique customer, vendor and employee portals leverage a company’s Internet presence to improve communication with those important stakeholders.
NetERP provides the link in the supply chain
Tying procurement, inventory, order management and billing processes together in a single application, NetERP supports a company's entire supply chain, providing feedback to users at every step. For example, at the point of entry of a sales order the user is provided item availability information that is updated in real-time based upon what has just been received in the warehouse or what has just been ordered by other customers - even if they ordered online through the Web store!
Real-time business intelligence via customizable dashboards
NetERP is the only mid-market hosted business management solution that offers real-time business intelligence via real-time dashboards, providing information such as best selling items, top customers, AP/AR, bank balances, reminders such as orders to approve, to fulfill, purchase orders to bill, bills to pay, returns to authorize. The dashboard can also be customised for roles including warehouse managers, providing them with shipping receiving, return authorisation and inventory management.
Automatic integration with vendors to support timely fulfillment
NetERP also integrates with vendors to support fulfillment such as automatic drop shipping on items not held in inventory. When an order is entered, a purchase order is automatically created and routed to the appropriate vendor who then seamlessly fulfills the order. In addition, NetERP seamlessly ties together multiple locations in a single view, serves as an extension to a CRM system and provides customizable reporting capabilities with more than 100 pre-configured and customizable reports.
NetERP delivers customised financial statements
NetERP provides standard professional financial statements and allows users to define customised financial reports catered to their specific needs. It also allows users to customise the layout, content, and language in ways that let them view the critical information they need to make more informed decisions.NetERP is customizable to specific business needs
Built-in configuration and Customisation capabilities allow each business to tailor NetERP to meet their specific needs and business processes. And Customisation is automatically carried forward across product releases, rather than requiring expensive re-implementation by a consulting team. Standards-based integration technologies allow data-migration and ongoing data exchange with legacy and/or vertical-specific third party applications.
CRM + ERP = NetSuite
NetERP can be implemented as a point solution for managing the back-office business processes only. However, as a result of the single application architecture philosophy pioneered by NetLedger it can be upgraded to the NetSuite product offering at the click of a button to incorporate front-office functionality for marketing, sales and support operations. The lack of CRM integration with ERP is one of the major contributing factors to the disappointing lack of ROI improvement many companies have endured these last few years. With all of the business data residing in a single database and accessible in real-time by an application that has been designed from the ground-up to integrate business processes, NetSuite provides unparalleled up-to-the-moment intelligence for decision making for all users – from sales people, to warehouse manager to customer support representative to Controller to CEO.
Pricing and Availability
NetERP is currently in Beta testing. It will be delivered to current subscribers of NetSuite during August and September for no additional charge during their subscription period. NetERP will be made generally available in September both as a stand-alone offering, as well as part of the NetSuite integrated ERP/CRM solution.
NetERP is priced at $4,800 for the first user, per year, with each additional user priced at $75 per user, per month.
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