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NETSUITE ANNOUNCES MAJOR CUSTOMER WIN IN THE UK
London-Based Forest YMCA Standardise Entire Operation on NetSuite 250 User NetSuite Implementation Halves IT Costs, Increases Turnover by 70%
SAN MATEO, CA. MAY 27, 2004—NetSuite, Inc., Makers of Oracle Small Business Suite today announced the largest customer win in the UK since it opened its UK office in January 2004. NetSuite's UK office is located in the Oracle campus in Reading, Berkshire (www.netsuite.com/uk). London-based Forest YMCA has standardised its entire business operations – from financials to customer relationship management – on NetSuite, the most widely used integrated ERP and CRM suite for the small and midsize market. For more information about the YMCA story, please go to www.netsuite.com/ymca. The Oracle Small Business Suite name is used under license from Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL).
Forest YMCA previously used DOS-based accounting; spread-sheets and Access databases, and was frustrated with decaying, ad hoc IT systems which cost too much to maintain and were unsupported. Facing the challenges of needing a system that could produce proposals to bid for UK government contracts, and to produce reports for local, regional and national YMCA groups in England, Forest YMCA evaluated software such as Microsoft Great Plains, Siebel CRM and SAP Business One. After an exhaustive review of these products, Forest YMCA turned to NetSuite to heal its IT wounds.
With NetSuite, Forest YMCA has overcome the previous challenges it faced. The accounting department has become a revenue generator from a cost centre. Additionally they can monitor the cost of each service it provides to the community. NetSuite's CRM tools are used to construct a development plan to boost donations from the YMCA's member lists and reporting functions are used to compile bids to provide additional government services. Within two months of the implementation of NetSuite, Forest YMCA has seen immediate ROI with the following key results:
- Eliminated 60 departmental databases
- Cut IT costs in half, from £200,000 to £90,000 annually
- Able to standardise entire organisation (250 users) under one, integrated system
- Less need for IT support
- Able to get one view of every YMCA client, supporter and partner
- Enable everyone in the organisation to ask responsibility for financial matters
- On target to increase turn-over from supporters by 70%
"We investigated the use of various applications, but they were discounted because of the lack of functionality, the cost of managing disparate systems, and a complex and costly upgrade path," said James Nicola, volunteer ICT Strategic Director for Forest YMCA. "NetSuite offered us a much better value proposition with a high degree of integrated functionality, that has replaced the many disparate software applications we had. NetSuite is now used at the YMCA across the whole organisation from accounting to customer relationship management."
"Shortly after a pilot program with NetSuite, YMCA decided to strip all of their existing software and implement NetSuite throughout the entire organisation," said Dean Mansfield, VP of EMEA for NetSuite. "This is a clear indication that decaying client/server software is not working for businesses that want to operate at low cost while focusing on their core competencies. NetSuite provides one solution that can take away the pains associated with traditional software systems."
The software applications utilised by most small and midsize companies do not allow business processes to run seamlessly across front and back office functions. These companies run their business on separate, expensive software packages – one for accounting, one for warehousing, one for sales force management and one for customer support. Additionally, the ongoing cost of running the software and integrating data from such multiple, incompatible systems has been high. Stand-alone applications cannot address the critical needs of a business.
For more information about NetSuite visit: www.netsuite.co.uk.
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