Key UK Resellers Adopt NetSuite PRM to Manage Entire Business Cycle
NetSuite PRM Allows Hundreds of Partners 24/7 Self-Service to Manage End-to-End Business
SAN MATEO, Calif. and LONDON—28 September 2006—NetSuite, Inc., the leader in on-demand business software suites, today announced the wide usage of NetSuite for Partner Relationship Management (PRM) by industry-leading companies such as Opal Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Carphone Warehouse Group plc (CPW.L, a UK FTSE 250 company) and key UK resellers. NetSuite's 5th generation of Partner Relationship Management and Self-Service portal capabilities enables partners to do much more than other PRM applications available on the market. NetSuite enables them to jointly manage leads and customers with their parent organisation — including lead registration, opportunity management, order management (entering orders, invoicing and billing), Market Direct Fund (MDF) management, email campaigns and customer service inquiries through a Dashboard with business intelligence and publishing capabilities. This personalised self-service portal is available anytime, anywhere. For more information about how NetSuite's Partner Relationship Management capabilities are helping companies run their partner channels, please visit www.netsuite.co.uk/partner.
The widespread growth in adoption of NetSuite PRM is a global phenomenon. In the US, ViewSonic, a worldwide leader in visual display products, has deployed NetSuite for complete partner relationship management, creating a comprehensive partner portal that allows its thousands of partners 24/7 self-service access leveraging NetSuite's 5th generation Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Self-Service portal capabilities. In Asia, Singapore-based UP Your Service! ® College, founded by internationally acclaimed service and partnership innovator Ron Kaufman, has implemented NetSuite to help build a global ecosystem with access to all its company, customer and partner business information in real-time. NetSuite allows International Service Innovator's partners to manage entire business cycles through self-service in one system.
Opal Telecom (www.opaltelecom.co.uk), with headquarters in Warrington and divisions in Manchester, London, The West Midlands and Glasgow, offers voice services primarily to the corporate and SME (small and medium sized enterprises) market in the UK. While implementing NetSuite in a phased approach, Opal Telecom is already utilising many of NetSuite's customer and order management features to manage its fast-growing business. More importantly, NetSuite Partner Relationship Management is used to manage its army of partners who work directly with end users. With NetSuite, Opal Telecom's 150-plus partners can now manage and forecast opportunities as they work them through the sales cycle, providing invaluable forecast visibility to Opal Telecom's Dealer Channel sales group against their established quotas.
BlueBridge One (www.bluebridgeone.co.uk) — is using NetSuite PRM for entering orders, invoicing and billing; partner commissions; and marketing campaigns including telemarketing and e-blasts. "By using NetSuite's PRM capabilities, we are able to view and share information on our prospects, deal status and existing customers both internally, across lines of business and with our NetSuite channel representatives. This saves time and improves efficiency," said Jon Ryan, MD, BlueBridge One.
"Previous to NetSuite, our Dealer Channel sales team — with about 150 Dealers — operated by way of a paper-based system," said Andy French, Head of Information Systems at Opal Telecom. "NetSuite's PRM capabilities have helped us streamline the process for our Dealer Channel sales teams, with opportunities feeding the forecast, so we now have complete visibility into our forecast for Dealer Channel sales."
In the same vein, NetSuite resellers such as Nolan Computers and Bluebridge One use NetSuite's PRM capabilities to manage their day-to-day business. Because NetSuite is one system, it provides the resellers the functionality to run their business seamlessly ranging from customer support — for tracking enhancement requests and support issues; to sales and marketing efforts — for email campaigns, prospecting and the collaboration of sales efforts; to internal management — for viewing their own account information such as balances and transactions; to order management — for entering orders, invoicing and billing; to calculating partner commissions — which serve to motivate their sales reps and guide sales behavior to complement overall business goals.
Nolan Computers (www.implementcrm.com) — is using NetSuite's PRM capabilities for support tracking; sales and marketing materials; prospecting and collaborating on sales efforts; and reviewing their own accounting information such as balances and transactions. "Using NetSuite Partner Relationship Management allows us to collaborate with the NetSuite team, helping to eliminate the conflicts of interest often faced by resellers in other channels," said Tim Nolan, MD, Nolan Computers UK.
Launched in February 2003, NetSuite's PRM capabilities are in their 5th generation of product development. NetSuite Version 11.0 includes a new Incentive Management tool for partners which can handle sophisticated multi-level channel sales compensation plans and provide invaluable motivation to partner reps by allowing revenue share visibility. These latest advancements add more power to the only complete on-demand Partner Relationship Management solution that allows an organisation to manage its end-to-end relationships with partners from lead registration to completing the sale and delivering a joint service or product to the end customer.
The cornerstone of NetSuite solutions is the collaborative web of processes for end-to-end business management that it enables. NetSuite's PRM capabilities seamlessly extend those processes to provide a platform for collaboration among the extended enterprise of partner channels. Companies such as Opal Telecom, Nolan Computers and BlueBridge One benefit by leveraging NetSuite's PRM capabilities Because the opportunities are managed directly in the same system as their other sales, marketing, service and finance operations, they get visibility into partner pipelines and forecasts. Redundant day-to-day partner support is eliminated since partners can now access much of what they need to know simply by logging into the self-service portal. Customers can determine the effectiveness of joint marketing campaigns, and set up and run incentive compensation plans with as much complexity and levels as required to align the partner channel with strategic goals for business growth. This provides partners with visibility into their revenue share in real-time as new orders are entered, ensuring a high adoption rate of the partner self-service portal.
Moreover, the company providing this partner access doesn't have to do anything special to enable the self-service portal. There's no complex data to be imported or exported, no tricky XML or Web services to be written. All that's required is a simple point and click graphical user interface to define what data and application functionality a specific partner has rights to view and edit, and the partners can be online — leveraging all the advanced sales and order management functions integrated in NetSuite along with joint marketing program management and delivery of customer support and service. Ultimately, it is the companies that "get" this level of collaboration with their partners that will realise competitive advantage in today's market and in the future.
About Opal Telecom:
Opal is one of the UK's largest telecoms network operators and is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Carphone Warehouse Group plc (a UK FTSE 250 company). Opal's strategy is for the group to lease transmission capacity and focus capital investment on the development of bespoke intelligent network solutions. The business has developed its own intelligent network (IN), interactive voice response (IVR) and internet service provider outsourcing (ISPO) platforms. Against a background of deregulation in the market for telecoms services, Opal has been successful in winning new business and growing customer revenue streams rapidly. Through a multi-million pound investment in technology, Opal Telecom is a major player in the delivery of business-focused telecom solutions that are at the forefront of the new communications era.
About Nolan Computers
Nolan Computers Plc is a specialist in corporate and business solutions. As a software development house, it plays an integral part in thousands of installations of business systems worldwide. Its customers cover a range of industries, including IT, financial and distribution. Nolan has many years of experience in the software development, distribution, and support market. Offices in the UK, United States and Australia give Nolan a worldwide infrastructure.
About Bluebridge One
BlueBridge One is a leading provider of integrated on-demand business solutions — including software, services, training and support. Its goal is to provide sophisticated integrated enterprise solutions without the complexity and associated cost to high-growth small and medium-size businesses. BlueBridge One is an accredited partner of NetSuite Inc. and Sage PLC and was the leading NetSuite EMEA solution provider for 2004.