At SuiteWorld's Second Day, NetSuite's Evan Goldberg Introduces B2B Customer Center
SAN JOSE, CA—At its annual SuiteWorld user and partner conference here, NetSuite released the B2B Customer Center, built on its SuiteCommerce platform.
The new B2B Customer Center enables B2B merchants to extend functionality for B2B buyers to view order status, details, and history; track shipments; reorder goods; approve quotes, make payments, manage account information, request refunds and returns, and more in a secure, password-protected environment.
Also included with the B2B Customer Center is a next-generation self-service customer portal and responsive Web design capabilities that optimize sites for multiple devices.
Available today to customers using NetSuite SuiteCommerce, the B2B Customer Center integrates with the SuiteCloud Development Platform to give B2B merchants new flexibility to tailor the B2B Customer Center interface and back-end processes and data.
Also included is unified customer experience management, with site management capabilities, based on technology that NetSuite gained from its March 2013 acquisition of content management systems provider Element Fusion, Evan Goldberg, NetSuite's co-founder, chairman, and chief technology officer, said during his morning keynote to open the second day of the conference.
In a separate afternoon session, Soren Schreiber-Katz, manager of service enablement at NetSuite, said the new B2B Customer Center "allows customers to see their cases and transactions with you." In a nutshell, she said, "it lets them see what's going on in their relationship with you."
But the B2B Customer Center was just one of many changes Goldberg announced during his keynote.
In what he called NetSuite 14.2, Goldberg said the company has invested in all areas of the suite, including CRM, mobile, and e-commerce. All these products contain a new user interface, streamlined workflows, and extensive customizations and personalization.
According to Goldberg, other innovations coming from technology developers at NetSuite include a revamped version of NetSuite for the iPhone, with push notifications and phone call logging among the many enhancements. The company is also working on an Android version of its mobile app, due for release early next year, and a version of NetSuite for tablets, he said.
Also on tap are greater data integrations, with unified data available in a single database across CRM, e-commerce, and ERP systems and other data sources, drag-and-drop functionality, advanced search, and a more visual interface, according to Goldberg.
Goldberg also introduced a new Script Queue Monitor, which will allow users to see how call scripts are working in real time.
Schreiber-Katz said in her session that NetSuite users will benefit from an integrated knowledge base, more omnichannel customer service in response to customer cases that can come in via phone, email, fax, and Web forms, and enhanced dashboards, metrics, and reporting capabilities.
Despite all the changes announced, some customers walked away from the conference with an empty feeling, lamenting the fact that the company talked more about what is to come than what is currently available.
But Laurie McCabe, an analyst at SMB Group, says that is a positive for NetSuite. "NetSuite's hard work is finally starting to pay off," she told CRM. "They tackled all the hard stuff—ERP and financials—first, and now are starting to build out their CRM products."
That, she says, is important today. "Many companies are finally starting to recognize the value of an integrated suite of products. NetSuite is coming out strong. CRM is finally coming together within their packaged product."