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Mid-Sized Wholesale/Distribution Companies Switch from Microsoft Great Plains to NetSuite for CRM, Ecommerce and ERP / Accounting Software

With NetSuite, Companies Automate End-to-End Business Operations from Lead Generation through Sales, Warehouse and Inventory Management, and Shipping — with Accounting Support Throughout — at a Fraction of the Cost of Microsoft Great Plains

SAN MATEO, Calif., —October 2, 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 some of the latest companies from the wholesale / distribution industry to switch from Microsoft Great Plains to NetSuite to take advantage of NetSuite's unique integration of enterprise resource planning (ERP) / accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), and Ecommerce capabilities in a single on-demand application. These customers, which include Telebyte, J. Frank Golden & Associates, Total Beverage Solution, and Camcal Inc., also cited advanced functionality and ease of use as the other compelling reasons for moving to NetSuite from Great Plains' antiquated architecture and cost model. For more information on NetSuite's product offerings, please visit www.netsuite.com.au/greatplainscantdothis.

On-premise software applications like Microsoft Great Plains were once very popular within mid-sized companies but are rapidly falling out of favor due to a number of deficiencies. Most do not allow business data to move easily across departments, resulting in a lack of real-time visibility across key metrics needed to optimise business operations. In addition, wholesale / distribution companies that deploy best-of-breed applications like Microsoft Great Plains are forced to manage their business on separate on-premise software packages — one for accounting, one for inventory and warehousing, one for sales force management and one for Ecommerce — an approach that requires costly integration to get them to work together. The cost of implementation, integration and on-going application maintenance in such environments can be many times the cost of the software itself. In addition, tying together disparate systems typically does not provide the integrated real-time visibility across business metrics that is essential to managing growth in a dynamic business environment.

In contrast to Microsoft Great Plains, NetSuite is designed to help solve the challenge of bringing together these different systems because it is a single system for ERP, CRM, inventory, and Ecommerce operations. As a result, wholesale / distribution businesses benefit from 360-degree, real-time visibility into their customers' purchase, payment, shipping and service history. In addition, NetSuite is delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS), so not only is the cost of integrating disparate systems eliminated, but also the on-going cost of maintaining on-premise applications.

Thanks to NetSuite's SaaS delivery, wholesale / distribution businesses gain the added benefit of anytime, anywhere access, which allows them greater flexibility in expanding their business to multiple locations without the cost of installing on-premise applications, such as Microsoft Great Plains, in those multiple locations. This anytime, anywhere access is particularly useful to companies in the wholesale / distribution industries since they typically have distributed workforces.

The most recent wholesale / distribution companies that have defected to NetSuite from Microsoft Great Plains include:

Telebyte (www.telebyteusa.com) is a manufacturer of data communications equipment for copper and fiber networks based in Hauppauge, New York. The company also offers local loop simulators and noise generators for testing broadband equipment. Founded in 1983, Telebyte has deployed thousands of its products around the world to industry leaders such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, IBM, NEC, Motorola, GE Medical Systems, and Intel.

"The principal reasons we switched to NetSuite from Microsoft Great Plains were cost, software features and true integration," said Michael Breneisen, President, Telebyte Inc. "We are saving at least $150,000 per year using NetSuite — having spent more on Great Plains support alone than we do for all of NetSuite! In addition, NetSuite is easier to use and has more features, such as case management. Microsoft Great Plains claims to offer integration, but it's not true integration. NetSuite actually has accounting and CRM fully integrated, which has been a big benefit to our growing business."

Total Beverage Solution (www.totalbeveragesolution.com) is an importer of fine wines, single-malt Scotch whisky and premium beers based in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The company was formerly known as Vino.com.

"The best thing about NetSuite is that it's very easy to use and customise compared to Microsoft Great Plains," said Sam Grizzle, Controller, Total Beverage Solution. " NetSuite has changed the way we disseminate information and the way we track and report on our customers, products and finances because we can easily tailor it to suit our needs as things change. Before, we had a complex and static product available to only a few employees. Now our entire company has access to the information that's specifically important to their job, available at their fingertips." 

Camcal Inc. (www.camcal.com) is a retail wholesaler of petroleum equipment based in Kent, Washington. Founded in 1961, Camcal calibrates meters for oil refineries, repairs reels, hoses, pumps and meters, and re-sells and wholesales petroleum equipment.

"With my programming and accounting background, I can tell you that Microsoft Great Plains was not very flexible or easy to use compared to NetSuite," said Cass Goetting, Accounting Manager at Camcal Inc. "Everything was hard coded and it was rather clunky. With NetSuite we have a friendlier, flexible system that allows me to create reports and see things visually that I couldn't see before."

J. Frank Golden & Associates (www.jfrankgolden.com) is a jewelry wholesaler based in Hampton, Georgia. For over 36 years, they have worked side-by-side with jewelers across the country and across the world with the objective to be the most comprehensive colored stone source.

"After using Microsoft Great Plains for a number of years, we came to the point where we had to upgrade, and we put it off as long as we could — until we heard about NetSuite," said Glenn Golden, Marketing Director, J. Frank Golden & Associates. "We're now in our fourth year with NetSuite, and it has been wonderful. We were able to customise our quote system in NetSuite, and now we can log in from anywhere. We don't have to deal with servers and batch processing, and we don't have to hire an IT person. And we've saved money. NetSuite helped us make it work to fit our budget, and we couldn't be happier about that."

For information about NetSuite Inc., please visit www.netsuite.com.au.

 

NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are service-marks of NetSuite Inc. Other marks are the property of their respective owners.

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