SAN FRANCISCO — Online enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N) used its annual SuiteWorld user conference to launch SuiteCommerce, its new “commerce as a service” platform.
While NetSuite has offered e-commerce technologies for some time, this product aims to up the ante and replace first-generation e-commerce platforms, which largely revolve around purchases made through company websites.
Today, e-commerce customers buy not only through web sites but also via their smartphones, social media and in-store kiosks, said NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson. SuiteCommerce is designed to be “future-proof” in that it’s not tied to any one touchpoint or method of interaction, he added.
“We need the ability to support any touchpoint and all these myriad devices; even devices we haven’t even imagined yet. There’s no way to anticipate what the next user interface will be that you’ll have to support.” said Nelson. “(And whatever the interface) customers want you to recognize them all and it needs to be a consumer quality experience, even in business to business (B2B).”
SuiteCommerce, under development for several years, consists of two main new pieces. One, called SuiteCommerce Experience, is used for building user interfaces across multiple device types. The other is a set of services for connecting interfaces built with SuiteCommerce Experience to back-end components in the core NetSuite system, such as for payment processing and order management.
Customers who decide to use third-party tools to build out user interfaces for their e-commerce efforts can still use these services, Nelson said.
And companies that already have an ERP system from the likes of Oracle and SAP can deploy SuiteCommerce as a stand-alone system, and then integrate its data back to their core ERP, according to Nelson.
A version of SuiteCommerce aimed at small and mid-sized companies is available now, with a fuller-featured Enterprise edition available in controlled release. Nelson said it will be limited to 100 customers this year, with channel partners bring brought on board late in the year as support programs are developed.
On the enterprise end, NetSuite also sees a need for a new category of partner expertise around marketing and branding creating the e-commerce platforms. Andy Lloyd, general manager of e-commerce products for NetSuite, said he sees NetSuite’s traditional midmarket resellers partnering with a new class of partners, called agency partners, to marry the technology implementation skills with the brand management expertise.
Craig West, NetSuite’s vice-president of channel sales, added the vendor is working to put programs in place to facilitate that collaboration. They also expect some VARs will choose to develop that expertise in-house.
Pricing for the midmarket edition starts at US$1,999 per month, while the enterprise version begins at $3,999 per month. NetSuite will differ from other e-commerce vendors by selling its software via licenses for modules and internal users, instead of a percentage of the total revenue that flows through the system, Nelson said.
“It’s an entirely new model that I don’t think our competitors are going to like, but I think our customers will,” said Nelson.
Follow Jeff Jedras on Twitter: @JeffJedrasCDN.
— With files from Chris Kanaracus, IDG News Service.