NetSuite Release J Puts Japanese Business Management in the Cloud
Localised for J-GAAP, Financial Reporting and Consumption Tax in Japan — Fundamentally Changing the Way Businesses are Run
TOKYO AND SAN MATEO, CALIF —December 9, 2008 —NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated business management software suites for mid-market enterprises and divisions of large companies, today announced NetSuite Release J, the first available Software as a Service (SaaS) enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite for the Japanese market. NetSuite Release J has been fully localised for the accounting rules, usage conventions, regulations and taxation compliance of the Japanese market. This new ERP functionality, combined with the full breadth of NetSuite's SaaS customer relationship management (CRM) and Ecommerce capabilities, make it possible for Japanese companies to run the core aspects of their business completely in the cloud. For more information about NetSuite Release J, please visit www.netsuite.co.jp.
Founded in 1998 by Evan Goldberg and Oracle Corp. founder Lawrence J. Ellison, NetSuite is a leader in the industry of delivering cloud-based computing solutions that enable companies to manage the core aspects of their business on the Internet. Built from the ground up as a single business management software system that includes ERP, CRM and Ecommerce, NetSuite enables mid-size companies to automate their business processes across organisational functions — from financials and warehousing to marketing, sales force automation, and customer service. NetSuite Release J brings this capability for the first time to the Japanese market.
According to recent forecasts from market research firm IDC for the period of 2007-2012, the Japanese SaaS market compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.3% is expected to far out-strip the CAGR growth rate of 5.1% projected for traditional on-premise enterprise resource management (ERM) applications and 5.5% for traditional on-premise CRM applications. In addition, IDC estimates that SaaS ERM applications will have a higher CAGR of 26.8% as compared with the CAGR of 18.5% for SaaS CRM.
"We expect that the Japanese business market will appreciate the fact that NetSuite Release J supports the business practices of Japan, such as consumption tax and per-customer billing cycle standard," said Tomoko Akagi, Group Manager of the Software team at IDC Japan. "Unlike most ERP SaaS vendors in the Japan market who are now trying to focus on improving accounting / taxation features, NetSuite has developed and delivered the SaaS ERP suite application to manage business operations across multiple functions and multiple levels of an organisation. It is quite remarkable that NetSuite Release J provides a multi-functional, high-performance application integrating ERP, CRM and Ecommerce via the SaaS model."
Tomoko Akagi continued: "NetSuite Release J provides real-time business intelligence as a standard feature, which gives Japanese businesses a huge competitive advantage. As important, NetSuite Release J's real-time dashboard gives CEOs visibility into their companies' business performance, giving them real-time information to make informed business decisions, which is a very effective tool for SMEs in today's tough business environment. We expect that NetSuite's launch of NetSuite Release J will give enterprises value across multiple business processes rather than efficiency improvement in each division."
Built over the last 18 months in partnership with joint venture partners Miroku Joho Service (MJS) and transcosmos inc., NetSuite Release J introduces several important firsts to the Japanese market:
"Cloud computing holds the promise of making it possible for companies of all sizes to operate on a global scale, serving customers, hiring employees and interacting with business partners wherever they may be," said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite. "Today's introduction of NetSuite Release J not only makes it possible for a Japanese company or subsidiary to run a business from end-to-end in the cloud, it makes it easy. NetSuite is the ultimate product to achieve the vision of seamless business management, not just across financials, but across every aspect of the business — from lead to forecast to order to cash collection."
"We expect that NetSuite Release J will fundamentally transform the way businesses operate," said Takishiro Higashi, President of NetSuite K.K. "The combination of NetSuite Release J's powerful capabilities and NetSuite's cloud computing delivery platform eliminate the cost and technology barriers facing mid-size companies operating globally or across multiple locations."
"The success of NetSuite is proving that CRM and ERP can be delivered successfully via the Software as a Service model," said Yoichi Kawano, Corporate Executive Officer and Service Planning Division Manager of transcosmos inc. "We fully expect that we can deploy NetSuite Release J with our various outsourcing services throughout the Japanese market, as well as the rest of Asia."
"After working in the SMB accounting market for 30 years, we have seen the rise and fall of many business management applications," said Hiroki Koreeda, President and COO at Miroku Joho Service, the leading accounting software provider in Japan, with 22% of the market share. "We firmly believe that the company and the SaaS ERP model will continue to build and grow as time goes on."
New Japanese Customer Wins
NetSuite today also announced the latest customer wins in Japan (please see the accompanying press release), including mid-size businesses and divisions of large enterprises. These companies have chosen NetSuite over disparate business management applications to grow their businesses and have embraced NetSuite for its integrated suite which delivers ERP / accounting, CRM, and Ecommerce capabilities in a single SaaS application. NetSuite's latest customers in Japan include Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc., Premiere Global Services, Sinsouki, and Sensirion.
Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc. (http://columbia.jp), the nearly100-year-old Japanese music company, recently went live on NetSuite Release J for managing its entire online business operations. NetSuite is the backbone for Columbia Music Entertainment's newly launched "On-Demand CD" Web store (www.ondemandcd.jp), where visitors can make their own CDs directly from the site. Columbia Music Entertainment employees in Japan are using NetSuite for Ecommerce, as well as ERP / financials and CRM, including sales force automation, marketing automation, and customer support. Columbia chose NetSuite for its low cost and ability to get up and running quickly, as well as its advanced capabilities in performing customer analysis and managing sales operations via a single system that integrates CRM, ERP and Ecommerce. NetSuite is helping Columbia more effectively sell services in a udio/video soft production, promotion and sales, and in the management of music artists.
"We're very excited about how NetSuite supports our business from end-to-end, from enabling our new "On-Demand CD" Website, a built-to-order service in which customers create their own CDs, to the back-office processes needed for fulfilling
those orders," said Mr. Hiroshi Furukawa, General Manager of Japan Sales, Marketing & Administration, Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc. "With NetSuite's business intelligence capabilities, we can now quickly figure out the ever-changing demands of our consumers. We also found NetSuite's lower cost of ownership, compared to competing on-premise software, very attractive for a new business like ours."
Six Apart Embraces NetSuite Release J
Six Apart, already a NetSuite customer in the U.S. (www.sixapart.com), is based in San Francisco and is a leading independent blogging software and services company. In 2007, the company integrated its business operations with NetSuite OneWorld and plans to soon add NetSuite Release J to support the company's subsidiary in Japan, providing cloud-based multinational, multi-company consolidation.
NetSuite enables Six Apart's TypePad, Movable Type, and VOX blogging businesses to have one suite of business accounting software, including financials and revenue recognition, without requiring a large accounting staff or expensive on-premise business software. After acquiring a subsidiary in France and creating one in Japan, Six Apart found itself needing to invoice its customers in euros and yen as QuickBooks was unable to perform this function across different locations and multiple currencies. NetSuite OneWorld has enabled Six Apart to consolidate its three instances of NetSuite into a single, unified view, giving the company's Chief Financial Officer the ability to view financials in local currency (for each individual entity), as well as the ability to run financial reports in a consolidated, multi-currency ERP / accounting software system. In addition, with NetSuite OneWorld Six Apart has been able to avoid significant spending on IT administration costs — shaving days off its monthly accounting closing cycle and making the company much more efficient, and giving executives insight into the details they need by channel, customer, product and region.
"Six Apart has been experiencing continued growth, particularly in Japan where blogging is an important part of business life," said Nob Seki, General Manager of Six Apart Japan.
"NetSuite OneWorld allows us at the local level to focus on our local business — from taxation and accounting systems unique to the Japanese market, to currency, to financial reporting — while still providing an instantaneous global view and compliance management. Our headquarters in San Francisco has real-time visibility of a consolidated view of each region. We are excited about NetSuite Release J announced today and look forward to the continuing benefits from NetSuite OneWorld."
Pricing and Availability
NetSuite Release J is available now through NetSuite KK, with prices starting in Japan at ¥ 60,000 per month and $499 per month in the U.S.
About NetSuite
NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N) is a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated business management software suites for mid-market enterprises and divisions of large companies. NetSuite enables mid-market companies to manage core business operations in a single system, which includes accounting / enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and Ecommerce. NetSuite's patent-pending "real-time dashboard" technology provides an easy-to-use view into up-to-date, role-specific business information. For more information about NetSuite please visit www.netsuite.com.sg.
NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are registered service marks of NetSuite Inc.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are registered service marks of NetSuite Inc.