Leading Japanese Accounting Software Provider to Distribute and Help Localize NetSuite; Takes Equity Stake in NetSuite K.K.
TOKYO and SAN MATEO, Calif. €” November 17, 2006 €” NetSuite, Inc., the leader in on-demand business software suites, today announced a major partnership with Miroku Jyoho Service (MJS), a leading accounting software provider in Japan. The new partnership expands NetSuite€™s reach in Japan to an extensive network of accounting service companies as well as small and medium-sized businesses. NetSuite will leverage the expertise that MJS has in providing ERP software to SMEs and accounting firms, which accounts for 25 percent of the market share in Japan. Additionally, MJS has made a significant investment of nearly $5 million that represents an equity stake in NetSuite K.K. (NetSuite€™s Japan subsidiary) and a combination of distribution rights and joint engineering commitments. This is yet another significant partnership following NetSuite K.K.€™s partnerships with transcomos and Inspire Corporation announced in May 2006. NetSuite today also announced the updated investment commitments from transcomos and Inspire in conjunction with the MJS announcement. For more information please visit www.netsuite.co.jp.
“NetSuite’s strategy of providing an integrated application suite to automate an entire business is built on solid accounting and ERP functionality,€ said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite, Inc. €MJS — with its 30-year history of market leadership — brings to NetSuite expertise in local Japanese accounting standards that is second to none. The combination of MJS’s market position with NetSuite’s unique, on-demand software will give Japanese SMBs the powerful, integrated business applications that only the world’s largest companies could afford. NetSuite is both honored and excited to have MJS as a partner in our entry into the Japanese market.”
The new NetSuite partnership with MJS creates huge market opportunities for NetSuite€™s award-winning product offerings to reach to the accounting industry and SMBs. Founded in 1977, MJS has built a full range of accounting, ERP and tax software to serve the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. With more than 8,400 CPA firms licensing its product, MJS has a strong user and referral base. The new partnership with NetSuite K.K. details:
Equity investment of 5 percent of NetSuite K.K.
Financial commitment to assist NetSuite in localizing all ERP and tax modules for the Japanese market
Joint sales and marketing to MJS€™s installed base of end customers and CPA firms
Product referrals from the accounting industry-leading €UMI€ portal http://www.bizocean.jp/
A distribution contract and an associated product sales commitment
Commitment to create a partner program and assist NetSuite K.K. in recruiting new sales partners in Japan.
€Partnership with NetSuite K.K is very important in our long-term business strategy,€ said Nobuhiko Koreeda, Chairman and CEO of MJS. €NetSuite is the only on-demand software application with an integrated approach which we firmly believe will bring more value to our client base than any other software found in the market. The synergy of this partnership will create an ultimate win-win for both MJS and NetSuite in delivering the best technology solution to our client base throughout Japan.€
Today€™s announcement also includes updates of NetSuite K.K.€™s partnerships with transcomos and Inspire Corporation. The details include:
transcosmos €” since the signing of the partnership in May 2006, transcosmos has worked very closely with NetSuite K.K. to sell the NetSuite solution to a number of transcosmos€™ existing web marketing and outsourcing customers.
€We are very pleased to have worked with NetSuite K.K. for the past few months,€ said Masataka Okuda, president and COO of transcosmos. €With the success we have achieved thus far, we look forward to more creative and innovative ways of reaching to the wider market with NetSuite in Japan. We also feel that the addition of MJS as a strategic partner, distributor and technical collaborator can only further strengthen NetSuite€™s viability and strength in the Japanese market. We applaud NetSuite on its good choice of strategic partners.€
Inspire Corporation €” Headed by Makoto Naruke, an industry luminary and a former president of Microsoft Japan, Inspire assisted NetSuite with the MJS deal and continues to introduce and promote NetSuite products to key industry leaders in Japan.
€It€™s such a pleasure to work with a world class software company like NetSuite K.K.,€ said Makoto Naruke, CEO of Inspire Corporation. €Being in the Japan IT industry since the beginning, I have the utmost confidence that NetSuite will be a huge success in Japan. To further our commitment, Inspire will increase our investments as well as IT resources to introduce this great product to the market.€
About Miroku Joho Service
Founded in 1977, Miroku Joho Service is the leading accounting software provider in Japan. With 988 employees, MJS reaches out to 8,400 accounting service companies which account for 22 percent of the market share in Japan. In addition, the company also has a customer base of 17,000 small and medium-sized businesses in Japan. For more information about MJS please visit www.mjs.co.jp
About transcosmos
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo-based transcosmos inc. has been pioneering Japan€™s outsourced information services field since 1966. Led by President and COO Masataka Okuda and traded on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (symbol: 9715), it had 7,604 employees and annual sales of 91.9 billion (consolidated) in the year to March 2005.
Since its founding, transcosmos has continually striven to enhance client-corporations€™ competitiveness through innovations combining the strengths of human resources and technology to offer outsourced services with higher value-add. Foreseeing how the quickening spread of broadband Internet and VoIP is going to facilitate more direct communication of mutually valuable information between companies and consumers €” and the implications this has for corporate marketing €” in June 2002 transcosomos moved to transform itself into The Marketing Chain Management Company. With a new communications channel now taking shape through the integration of telephone, the Web, email, and even live video using Internet protocols, transcosmos realizes that Internet-expertise will be indispensable in the running of contact and call centers. Continuing in its tradition of developing more advanced outsourcing services while adapting the latest Internet technologies, transcosmos is committed to further maximizing these, its unique strengths, to help clients speed up business processes, expand sales, cut costs, and enhance customer satisfaction. To find out how transcosmos can help your company with its cutting-edge interactive solution, visit its Web site at http://www.trans-cosmos.co.jp.
About Inspire Corporation
Minato-ku, Tokyo-based Inspire Corporation is the leading firm starting with €the 1st Japan Strategic IT Fund€ which stimulates strategic investment for IT systems through investment and fund offerings to middle class public companies in order to trigger management innovation in the invested companies. Inspire administrates several funds with different objectives such as €Inspire Advanced Technology Fund€ that fosters companies holding the latest technology and the latest patent technology itself, making contribution for the flexible solutions for management issues. Inspire keeps providing support for different aspects to the business fields that would activate the Japanese economy including the concept of The 1st Japan Strategic IT Fund; the concept of Inspire Advanced Technology Fund; Self-financed Investment, JV, Specific Purpose Venture Capital Fund. Inspire has a team of professionals with extensive experience in various fields, such as finance, IT, marketing and intellectual property. For more information about Inspire Corporation visit http://inspirecorp.co.jp/eg.
About NetSuite
NetSuite, Inc. is the leader in on-demand business software suites and the fastest-growing software company in North America (source: Deloitte Fast 500 study). NetSuite enables companies to manage all key business operations in a single system, which includes accounting/Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Ecommerce. NetSuite is delivered as an on-demand service, so there is no hardware to procure, no large, up-front license fee, and no complex set-ups. Finally, NetSuite’s patent-pending “real-time dashboard” technology provides an easy-to-use view into role-specific business information that is always up-to-date.
NetSuite’s Japan office is located at:
Akasaka 1-chome Mori Building 6F
1-11-28 Akasaka
Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052
Telephone: +81-3-5545-7621
Facsimile: +81-3-5545-7622
Web: www.netsuite.co.jp
For more information about NetSuite visit www.netsuite.co.jp
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Temple University, Japan Campus, Goes Live on NetSuite, Managing Its Student Prospect Pipeline Online
Oldest and Largest Foreign University in Japan Manages 20 Percent Annual Growth with NetSuite
TOKYO and SAN MATEO, Calif. €” November 17, 2006 €” NetSuite, Inc., the leader in on-demand business software suites, today announced that Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ), is successfully running NetSuite to automate management aspects of its student prospect lifecycle, from first contact to final registration. This greatly improves both the university€™s administrative processes and the experience of prospective students. NetSuite helps TUJ manage its 20 percent annual growth in new undergraduate students. The number of TUJ€™s prospective students worldwide €” from about 40 countries €” has accelerated rapidly following the Japanese Ministry of Education€™s recognition of TUJ as the nation€™s first €Foreign University, Japan Campus€ in February 2005, which in turn gave it the ability to sponsor student visas. TUJ receives an average of 10 to 30 inquiries a day, and the NetSuite system handles approximately 20,000 prospects at any one time. For more information about NetSuite€™s customers in Japan, visit www.netsuite.co.jp
With a wide variety of undergraduate, graduate, adult, and corporate education programs and with a 2,830-strong €” and growing €” student body, managing student applications is a huge administrative task for TUJ. Developing an effective customer relationship management (CRM) capability was therefore a very high priority for the school. Previously, initial application data was manually entered into a Microsoft Access database or Excel spreadsheet by staff in the TUJ Information Center, and then each member of the TUJ recruiting team kept and used their own files. However, this led to a lack of consistency and an inability to have an overall, accurate perspective on the prospect pipeline and on TUJ€™s responsiveness and service. This became a much more serious issue after TUJ€™s ability to sponsor visas led to a rapid increase in the number of inquiries and applications.
TUJ looked at many solutions, including Salesforce.com, SAP, and other non-hosted applications. Although they offered good CRM capabilities, they lacked either the required ERP or the hosting functionality. Other choices focused more on education and, specifically, on managing student prospects, but none of them were as flexible, platform-oriented, extendable, and customizable as NetSuite. With NetSuite, TUJ got the full package and customized it for their specific needs. Now, the full prospect lifecycle, from first contact with the student to final registration, is automated through the one system, significantly improving both the administrative processes, the ability to predict future enrollments, and the interaction with prospective students. TUJ is so satisfied with NetSuite that it is now also considering using the platform for other aspects of its operations, including expense reporting and budgeting.
€The NetSuite system represents a huge improvement in the way we do things now,€ said Paul Raudkepp, TUJ€™s CIO. €It allows us to provide the high quality and consistent service that prospects deserve, with prompt responses and timely follow-up. In the past, no part of this process was properly monitored or tracked. Now the team can easily share data. The reliability of the data and time savings are much improved because we can readily enforce rules.€
End users at TUJ greatly appreciate the benefits of using NetSuite: €Searches are a snap and allow you to find any and all information you need,€ said Nicole Despres, senior counselor in TUJ€™s Admissions Counseling Department. €It€™s awesome to finally have one system that every department can use to accomplish their individual tasks and that, when put together, can manage the entire admissions process.€
About Temple University, Japan Campus
Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ), is the oldest and largest American and foreign university in Japan. Founded in 1982, TUJ has developed into a nationally recognized institution offering an extensive range of educational programs. In addition to its core undergraduate program, TUJ offers graduate programs in law, business, and education; an English-language preparation program; continuing education courses; and corporate education classes. TUJ is located in Tokyo. For more information, visit www.tuj.ac.jp.
About NetSuite
NetSuite, Inc. is the leader in on-demand business software suites and the fastest-growing software company in North America (source: Deloitte Fast 500 study). NetSuite enables companies to manage all key business operations in a single system, which includes accounting/Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Ecommerce. NetSuite is delivered as an on-demand service, so there is no hardware to procure, no large, up-front license fee, and no complex set-ups. Finally, NetSuite’s patent-pending “real-time dashboard” technology provides an easy-to-use view into role-specific business information that is always up-to-date. For more information about NetSuite, visit: www.netsuite.com.
