NetSuite Streamlines Workflows in Flagship CRM App

NetSuite has added new features to its NetSuite CRM+ flagship product, focusing on building new and tweaking existing marketing automation and knowledge management workflows for customer support and service.

NetSuite also announced support for Firefox 3, the latest version of the Web browser from the Mozilla Foundation. Firefox supports multiple operating systems, including Windows, Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) OS X and Linux.

Ajax Roots

The new workflows are powered by Ajax, the foundation of most of NetSuite's platform, Mini Peiris, vice president of product marketing at NetSuite, told CRM Buyer.

"What we heard from customers is that they didn't have the resources to best use the knowledge management and marketing automation features in-house. So what we did was use Ajax to streamline the workflow for agents," she noted.

For instance, with the upgraded app, the customer service agent can more easily search for product or customer information while on the phone with that customer. "It is a much more interactive experience for the agent," Peiris added.

New Changes

That capability has been achieved through enhancements to the knowledge management module, namely a new keyword search workflow for case management. This addition makes it easier for the rep to find relevant data from the knowledge store.

The marketing automation upgrade is a two-step assisted workflow for group creation that allows marketers to segment and slice their target audience data. In similar fashion, the workflow to create marketing and e-mail templates, as well as upload HTML-based (HyperText Markup Language) marketing templates, has been greatly streamlined.

Another change allows customer service reps to add content for inclusion in the central knowledge store from information already entered on the case.

A handful of partners -- LivePerson, Velaro, Pardot and Silverpop -- just delivered additional new functionality, such as lead management, Live Chat and further enhancements in e-mail marketing and marketing automation through product extensions that they built using the NetSuite Business Operating System (NS-BOS), Peiris said.

The company introduced NS-BOS in February; since then, more than 1,000 independent software vendors and developers have created more than 60 applications across 15 vertical application areas using the development language. The latest apps are LivePerson's LiveChat, Velaro's online conversion management app, Pardot's lead management platform and Silverpop's e-mail marketing product.