Software as a service (SaaS) vendor NetSuite has today announced a major new addition to its enterprise software suite, allowing users and resellers to construct their own additions to the platform, and resell or offer them to other NetSuite users.
SuiteBundler is a new component of the company's SuiteFlex development environment, which was launched a year ago to allow NetSuite users to develop their own custom extensions to the NetSuite package, an all-encompassing hosted suite of business applications and tools including CRM, ERP, eCommerce and accounting functions.
"One of the biggest problems for the ISV community is how you add value to a hosted software service" said Zach Nelson, chief executive of NetSuite, speaking at the company's NetSuite Revolution conference in San Francisco.
SuiteFlex allows any NetSuite user or specialist to take an extension constructed in SuiteFlex, be it a custom dashboard, external data integration or custom application such as a training booking system, create a packed installer and then share or sell it to other users, or deploy it to other business units. Developers have full control over who they can share a bundle with, and whether it is made freely distributable or whether it is controlled.
"It has been a year since the launch of SuiteFlex, and in that time there has been a major transition happening in the IT services industry that is intrinsically linked to software as a service. The services industry is keen to get involved with SaaS, but needs a way to add value and access mid-market verticals that are painfully under-serviced by technology" said Nelson.
"The ability to take a piece of custom functionality that was designed as a one-off extension for one company in a particular vertical, and use it repeatedly across multiple instances of NetSuite in the same vertical has been the holy grail for services companies, yet it remains complex to achieve in SaaS solutions, particularly if you are a third party. SuiteBundler, combined with NetSuite, finally delivers on this promise, and truly enables VARs, systems integrators, and ISVs to develop and add value to NetSuite and support specific vertical market requirements"
As the NetSuite platform is centrally managed and hosted, all users are on the same version and migrated to new instances of the suite at the same time, ensuring compatibility of bundles as they are inserted into other instances of the NetSuite application.
NetSuite also announced a number of third-party vertical solutions developed with SuiteFlex and deployed across users using SuiteBundler, servicing vertical sectors including agriculture, publishing, retail and distribution and shipping management.
