NetSuite OneWorld for SAP Targets Subsidiaries of SAP Enterprise Customers

Shuna Boyd
Tuesday, 14 April 2009 09:00

NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated business management software suites for the mid-market enterprise and divisions of large companies, today announced a new version of NetSuite OneWorld that lets large SAP enterprise customers enjoy the cost savings and efficiency benefits of Software as a Service (SaaS) business suites and cloud computing at the divisional level while retaining its current investment in SAP on-premise systems at the corporate level. With NetSuite OneWorld for SAP, large SAP legacy accounts can now use NetSuite’s leading on-demand application to manage multinational, multi-subsidiary business operations in real-time and then roll-up division-level transaction and summary data to gain a key enterprise-wide view of business operations.

This new offering from NetSuite targets a huge market opportunity that is gaining significant attention in the current declining economy as large enterprises struggle to control costs and gain greater efficiencies across key business processes.  While some companies spend vast sums on corporate implementations of integrated suites like SAP, these business software systems often fail to deliver the functionality and flexibility to manage the processes that drive the multiple divisions and lines of business that make up today’s typical large, multinational corporations.  In order to compete effectively, these divisions often need software systems that are more malleable, customisable and flexible than that which is provided by the corporate parent company.  NetSuite OneWorld helps to address this need by delivering a modern, cloud-based software system that enables the management of complex, multinational and multi-subsidiary companies, and that also integrates with existing SAP implementations.

  “NetSuite OneWorld for SAP enables large companies to keep their investment in legacy business applications, while deploying a modern, web-based business application suite that reduces costs and helps make their divisions more competitive and employees more productive,” said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite. 

“NetSuite is looking to exploit one of the gaps in SAP’s strategy by offering a cost-effective product for smaller sites.  NetSuite intends to link the hub and spokes via the new SuiteCloud Connect for SAP.  This is a product and services offering that allows SAP customers to roll up transactional data generated by NetSuite applications, including invoices, purchase orders, shipments, inventory adjustments, invoicing, and order and payment integration with point-of-sale (POS) systems,” said Bruce Richardson, Chief Research Officer at AMR Research.  “NetSuite is positioning its product as more functional than SAP Business One and less expensive and complex than SAP Business All-in-One and the SAP Business Suite.  It does have some customer references to prove its argument.” (“When Clouds Collide: NetSuite Storms Into SAP’s Atmosphere,” AMR Research, Inc.)

SuiteCloud Connect for SAP

Key to NetSuite OneWorld for SAP is a new integration offering called SuiteCloud Connect for SAP.  SuiteCloud Connect for SAP is a product and services offering that enables SAP customers to roll-up data to their SAP system at the corporate level and any data that was captured and used in NetSuite OneWorld at the divisional level.  For example, using SuiteCloud Connect for SAP, a user could roll-up general ledger, order and revenue information from NetSuite to SAP for aggregate financial reporting purposes.

NetSuite’s SuiteCloud Connect for SAP is based on a number of industry standard technologies used for systems and application integration and data migration, including SOAP (Web Services), JavaScript, ODBC and CSV.  These interfaces are robust and well-suited for integrating NetSuite OneWorld with other ERP systems, particularly in their support for fundamental ERP data types, including:

* Invoices

* Purchase Orders

* Item Fulfillments (Shipments)

* Journal Entries

* Inventory Adjustments

* Time Entries and Expense Reports

The depth and breadth of the APIs available with SuiteCloud Connect for SAP enable numerous SaaS ERP integration scenarios, including:

* Accounting integrations with Parent Company Financial Systems

* Order, Shipment, and Inventory integrations with external Warehouse Management Systems and 3PLs

* Supply Chain (Purchasing) integrations with Suppliers

* Invoice integrations with existing Billing Engines

* Order, Shipment, and Billing integrations between NetSuite’s Ecommerce platform and parent ERP systems

* Product Catalogue and Inventory integrations for PLM and MRP modules