NetSuite OpenAir for PSA and SRP Released to UK & European Marketplace

July 9, 2010

NetSuite OpenAir is a new professional services automation (PSA) and services resource planning (SRP) software for the UK and European marketplace specifically designed to help global professional services organizations automate and manage key aspects of their business—from marketing to project management, service delivery, billing, revenue management and driving repeat business from existing clients.

With this latest version of NetSuite OpenAir, international companies now have at their disposal an integrated application suite to meet the challenges of global services delivery, including comprehensive support for multiple languages, currencies, taxation rules and employee work guidelines. More than 9,200 users at Lloyd's Register, 3,500 employees at Software AG and 2,700 at Siemens today are relying on NetSuite OpenAir for project management and resource management.

NetSuite OpenAir addresses the unique and demanding needs of international mid-size and enterprise-class services organizations that need local, in-country control over key business processes, functions and workflows, as well as real-time global visibility across their entire business. This powerful capability enables services organizations to replace their current hairball of disparate, costly and often poorly integrated applications with an integrated suite that unifies project and resource management, project tracking and accounting, time and expense management, customer relationship management (CRM) and full enterprise resource planning (ERP) functionality.

NetSuite OpenAir for international companies is a powerful solution that has the potential to do for services businesses what SAP's R/3 software did for the manufacturing industry in the early 1990s with its pioneering work in establishing best practices for ERP.

"NetSuite OpenAir is a must have for any professional services organization trying to operate and compete on a global scale," said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite. "It's a critical solution designed specifically to help international services businesses meet the challenges of global services delivery while maximizing resource utlization, operational efficiency and project profitability."

According to IDC Research, uptake in SRP will grow rapidly, with more than a 10 percent annual growth every year through 2013. By then, the global SRP market will exceed US$3 billion. NetSuite's established customer base and value added reseller (VAR) footprint in Europe indicate a strong regional demand for cloud computing professional services solutions.

Services organizations today contend with fierce competition, global expansion challenges, intense cost reduction pressures and ever growing demands for better services from clients. In order to survive and thrive, especially in today's economic environment, services organisations have to find ways to improve productivity and efficiency, provide better services to clients, gain more agility and stay nimble while reducing costs.

"Economic and competitive pressures make SRP a must for companies with significant services revenue," said Mike Fauscette, Group Vice President of Software Business Solutions at IDC. "Siloed resources and administrative overhead are profitability killers, and SRP solutions provide the kind of proven, repeatable practices that can streamline a services organization of virtually any size."

NetSuite's PSA and SRP solutions provide services organizations with end-to-end, automated management of the entire services lifecycle allowing them to quickly realize benefits by abandoning archaic software systems, ad hoc spreadsheets and email lists to manage critical client projects. For the first time services companies can fully take advantage of the dramatic cost savings, service delivery improvement and productivity benefits of cloud computing.

The offering for international companies leverages the power of the cloud to deliver compelling capabilities and benefits, including:

Multi-currency and tax support —Built-in multi-currency support enables transparent billing, VAT calculations, and expense tracking in more than 100 currencies.
Localisation for the European market —NetSuite OpenAir is the most localized professional services solution for the broader European market, with support for English, Spanish, German and French.
Lower TCO—NetSuite OpenAir's cloud architecture reduces deployment and ongoing operating costs for project-based businesses by reducing hardware, maintenance and IT personnel costs. Cloud computing architecture provides enterprise scalability without the worry or cost of continuous uptime monitoring, system backups or performance tuning, thanks to an isolated-tenancy dedicated database, "sandbox" test environment and 24x7 global customer support.
Real-time visibility—Dashboards provide real-time, instant view of all services activities and key performance indicators (KPIs), delivering immediate insight into available resources and client opportunities on a global level. Client booking data flows dynamically from sales to the services organisation; invoices and expenses resulting from service delivery then flow from services to the finance and sales departments. This gives everyone in the organisation the real-time visibility required to deliver the best client management possible.
Metrics-driven management—Services organisations can manage their businesses using key metrics and be empowered to make timely, fact-based course corrections. Available analytics range from resource and project management, to KPIs, graphical report snapshots, trend graphs and scorecards.
Resource management—A unified, graphical approach to resource management with powerful skills-based filtering enables team leaders to maximise the output and efficiency of the organisation as a whole.
Integration and extensibility—NetSuite OpenAir can be easily integrated with other NetSuite applications, as well as SAP, Oracle, salesforce.com, and other enterprise systems.

NetSuite OpenAir Customers

Major enterprise companies in the UK and Europe already reaping the benefits of NetSuite OpenAir include Software AG, Lloyd's Register, Siemens PLM Software and m62 visualcommunications. Executives from these companies appeared on stage today at NetSuite's London launch event to share their experiences using NetSuite OpenAir. Here's a brief synopsis of their experience with the NetSuite OpenAir application:

Software AG (TecDAX: SOW), the global leader in Business Process Excellence. Software AG has been a NetSuite OpenAir user since 2005, with 3,500 professional services personnel, managers and support staff using the solution today in 59 countries. Software AG has realised an eight percent reduction in administrative overhead, unified resource utilisation and budgeting analysis and streamlined project data management.
Lloyd's Register, a certification, classification, and inspection service provider to the energy and transportation sectors. NetSuite OpenAir's cloud-based architecture is perfect for Lloyd's Register's far-flung global locations, including oil rigs and mining sites. All told, 9,200 Lloyd's Register users rely on NetSuite OpenAir for superior time tracking and expense management.
Siemens PLM Software, a provider of product lifecycle management software. The company adopted NetSuite OpenAir in 2008 for its 2,700 users in more than 15 countries. With NetSuite OpenAir, Siemens PLM gained greater enterprise visibility and more predictable revenue flow, streamlining the operations of more than 3,000 client projects using more than 1,500 products and skills tracked in the NetSuite OpenAir solution.
m62 visualcommunications, a leading global presentation development company, helping some of the largest and best-known global organisations increase sales and market share and solidify branding. A small company with large, complex global challenges, NetSuite OpenAir provides m62 the visibility needed to manage resources effectively in a rapidly growing environment with changing requirements and resources. NetSuite OpenAir enables m62 to stabilise and minimise the impact of change on its projects to deliver greater results for its clients and grow its business.

NetSuite OpenAir is available immediately on a worldwide basis. Pricing starts at US$49/seat/month — UK pounds Sterling 34/seat/month.