The Perth-based Kitchenware Direct has requested to be one of the first 100 companies worldwide to integrate NetSuite’s Commerce as a Service platform, an arrangement which was announced last week.
Kitchenware Direct already uses NetSuite’s ecommerce interface, but the latest deal marks an expansion from this basic platform. Peter Macaulay, an executive at Kitchenware Direct, expressed hopes that the new Commerce as a Service system would deliver rapid improvements for customers. He expressed excitement as the Kitchenware Direct is slated to be among the first companies to use the newly-adopted system.
In its initial phase of release, NetSuite will be limiting the distribution of Commerce as a Service to 100 international clients, not limiting the test phase to U.S. clients. NetSuite will be choosing from its over 14,000 different international clients. Thus, it is not a sure-fire likelihood that Kitchenware Direct will be among the 100 initial users.
Among the first ten companies that aided in the development of the new services from NetSuite was a large Janapanese technology firm, says Dean Stockwell, vice president for professional services at NetSuite. This company, along with the other nine that initially helped to develop the platform, are the most forces most likely to shape the form of the final product.
As Stockwell noted in a public communication, NetSuite is “drip-feeding the product out” on purpose, mostly to ensure both that the service worked properly and that NetSuite’s back-end data centers would be ready for the increase in data flow that the release would create. NetSuite is being conservative in its release in order to ensure that the final product is widely available only when both its design and its customer support are ready for enterprise levels.
Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite, spoke recently at the Suite World conference in San Francisco. Unveiling the Commerce as a Service platform, Nelson was applauded for continuing to develop the cloud-based interface at NetSuite. Evan Goldberg, CTO of NetSuite, also made transparent the product cycle timeline, release it to the public shortly after the conference.
The updated dashboard interface was among the most enthusiastically-received improvements. This dashboard allows rapid reporting of a business’s performance based on real-time data feeds in ERP systems. Macaulay noted that the present dashboard can cause something of an “information overload” for the end user. The new dashboard interface presents vital charts and graphs that collate data more efficiently, eliminating the need for a separate data repository.
Other companies that are considering the move include Maintenance Systems Solutions, which is one of 250 Australian companies that signed up for the test phase.