SuiteWorld 2011: Manufacturers explain benefits of cloud applications
May 12, 2011
Manufacturers are using NetSuite’s on-demand enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to cut IT costs and grow business. Jenny Williams reports.
During this week’s NetSuite SuiteWorld 2011 conference, several companies explained why they switched to NetSuite from Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics.
Mountz, which oversees quality of manufacturing products for customers, such as Apple and the US Navy, is one such organisation. It has replaced Microsoft Dynamics GP with NetSuite’s accounting, OneWorld and CRM systems.
Brad Mountz, CEO at Mountz, said: "We experienced a 40% decline in sales during the dot.com crash. We couldn’t pay the licence to upgrade the server so our decision was to find a less expensive and flexible model."
"I wanted everything out of our office. That meant we had to go to the cloud as I had too many staff," he added.
Steven Baumer, CTO at GoPro Cameras, uses NetSuite’s OneWorld, document management and manufacturing software to improve sales visibility and its error-prone order management process.
The company previously used Salesforce.com for six months but moved to NetSuite to handle integration with other services.
"We looked at potential other SaaS solutions but they had too many moving parts to connect CRM with accounting. NetSuite allows a single customer view and end-to-end order management process."
|
Use of dedicated server |
|---|
| Despite moving to NetSuite’s cloud-based applications, Mark Lemma, CFO at Speck – which manufactures mobile device protective cases – still uses a dedicated server to provide processing power. Mark Lemma explained it felt safer and meant the company can extend its timeframe for upgrades. The company also uses middleware, called Cleo Communications, to get electronic data interchange (EDI) directly out of NetSuite. "We don’t do anything manually anymore," added Lemma. |