SAN MATEO, Calif.—May 3, 2007—NetSuite, Inc., the leader in on-demand business management software, today announced that BMW ORACLE Racing is running its entire financial operations on NetSuite® — including its global accounts, payables, taxes, financial reporting and complete team expenses — leading up to the America's Cup and the Louis Vuitton Cup races. With NetSuite, BMW ORACLE Racing runs its global business smoothly around the clock across three continents — from Anacortes, Washington; where the hulls are built, to Valencia, Spain; where most of the team is headquartered; to Auckland, New Zealand, where BMW ORACLE Racing maintains an office. For more information, please visit www.netsuite.com/bmworacleracing.
Every sailor dreams of winning the America's Cup. But before they can compete for the world's oldest international sporting trophy, they have to earn the right by winning the Louis Vuitton Cup, which began on April 16. BMW ORACLE Racing is off to a good start, winning its first six races in the Louis Vuitton Cup against Germany (United Internet Team Germany), China (Team China), South Africa (Team Shosholoza), Sweden (Victory Challenge), France (Areva Challenge) and Italy (Luna Rossa). This puts BMW ORACLE Racing as the current leader in the point standings. If the team emerges victorious in the Louis Vuitton Cup, it will move on as the Challenger to face Cup defender Alinghi (Switzerland) in the ultimate America's Cup match, which begins on June 23.
Although the business of BMW ORACLE Racing is different from many other companies, behind the scenes the outfit shares much in common with any other enterprise — vendors to pay, employees to manage and regular reports to its shareholders. But because of the global nature of the company it is a much more complex business to manage than many operations of a similar size. This requires sophisticated financial software to meet the needs of budget management, local tax requirements, statutory reporting and multi-currency management. The team's business operates in three currencies, the New Zealand dollar, the US dollar and the Euro. Using NetSuite, BMW ORACLE Racing has been able to standardize business processes across its various operations, minimizing costs and improving efficiency while ensuring accurate financial reports are available in a timely fashion — something that is absolutely vital in a business that operates under tight budgetary constraints.
Additionally, the need for real-time financial reporting presented challenges for the team that were easily met with NetSuite's advanced dashboards. The NetSuite dashboard provides senior managers a bird's eye view of their entire business in real-time while the operations team can get specific and detailed accurate financial reporting at their fingertips at any time.
Finally, with globe-spanning operations, BMW ORACLE Racing required a solution that would work across geographic, currency and time zone barriers, and NetSuite's software as a service (SaaS) delivery model enabled painless "anytime, anywhere access." In addition, BMW ORACLE Racing adopted NetSuite to provide flexibility and global reach without the need for expensive servers or dedicated in-house support staff. For BMW ORACLE Racing, reliability and availability have been running straight and true with NetSuite.
"The racing business is a complex multi-national and multi-functional operation, and the team recognises the need to have an effective and efficient enterprise system to support the sailing, design and shore teams — they must have accurate and timely information to aid their decision making," said Diana Puketapu, CFO for BMW ORACLE Racing. "NetSuite is our total financial operations package — we use it to prepare all of our monthly management reports at the line manager level, and our senior managers use it for overviews of the entire operation. I have done a lot of traveling between New Zealand and Spain, with trips to the US en route, and I can always stop somewhere, log in, and see what's happening. And we're happy to be coming into this year's Louis Vuitton Cup with NetSuite doing exactly what we want it to."
"NetSuite brings the power to run a complex multi-national business with unmatched ease of use and ease of administration," said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite. "The deep functionality to address with the accounting challenges of multi-nationals combined with easy anytime, anywhere access for all users is exactly what companies need to run a successful global businesses. NetSuite's power to run their business is matched by BMW ORACLE Racing's prowess on the water."
About BMW ORACLE Racing
BMW ORACLE Racing is the Challenger of Record for the 32nd America's Cup representing Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco, and the only American entry in the contest for sailing's most prestigious prise and the oldest trophy in international sport. Team owner is American Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle. Partner of the team is German premium car manufacturer BMW. Sponsors include Allianz, leading global financial services provider; Girard-Perregaux, Swiss manufacturer of high-class mechanical timepieces; Henri Lloyd, Technology Partner and supplier of team clothing and Network Appliance, Inc. (NetApp), a world leader in unified storage solutions.
The Louis Vuitton Cup, the Challenger Selection Series for the 32nd America's Cup, started 16 April in Valencia, Spain. Eleven teams from nine nations are vying for the right to Challenge for the America's Cup. The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup will face the Swiss Defender Team Alinghi in the 32nd America's Cup Match starting 23 June in Valencia.
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