NetReturn News 2008
Press Releases
NetSuite and Apple iPhone
While Australia is still waiting for a release date of the Apple iPhone, "sometime in 2008", NetSuite has taken advantage of the inevitable popularity of the the US release of the iPhone last year.
The Apple iPhone was a natural pairing with a SaaS solution such as NetSuite, taking advantage of the increased move towards a flexible, mobile workforce and our efforts in achieving a work/life balance.
The integration between NetSuite and the Apple iPhone allows for truely mobile enterprise computing, however as with any mobile integration there are advantages and disadvantages.
A NetSuite distributor in the US, Skyytek, have had the opportunity to evaluate the merits of using the NetSuite and Apple iPhone integration and came up with the following results.
NetSuite can be readily accessed from any browser. The same ease of access is prevalent using the iPhone. You login much like you would on a PC and navigate using the easy to use zoom function and simply tapping on the tab or hotlink. Most functions (albeit we did not test everything) seem to work. And now for the screen timings. The test was run on a WIFI network. All test were performed using default screen layouts and standard NetSuite functionality.
Function | iPhone Times (Secs) |
|
|
| Login | |
Login Screen (Bookmarked) | 1.50 |
Home Page (Extensive Dashboard to Fully Load) | 10.00 |
| Total | 11.50 |
| Enter New Lead and Generate Estimate | |
Navigate to Lists | 5.00 |
Navigate to New Lead | 7.00 |
Enter New Lead (5 required fields, email, phone, details) | 30.00 |
Save | 5.00 |
Navigate to Opportunity | 4.00 |
Enter Opportunity (2 line items) | 35.00 |
Save | 6.00 |
| Create Estimate from Opportunity and Email | 7.00 |
| Total | 99.00 |
| Run a Income Statement | |
| Navigate to Reports | 5.00 |
| Run Income Statement | 7.00 |
| Total | 12.00 |
| Create Sales Order | |
| Use Global Search to Pull Estimate | 5.00 |
| From Estimate Generate Sales Order | 8.00 |
| Total | 13.00 |
| Global Searches | |
| Company (From 70,000 using first 5 letters - 60 results) | 7.00 |
| Estimate | 5.00 |
- Times improve as the pages get cached. These were all first load pages.
- Times improve as you get used to data entry.
- Better results will be obtained during entry if you cut all the clutter out using custom forms. In this test, standard forms were used.
All in all, these times were excellent for a device of this nature. Some of the slowness in data entry is due to long list selects (eg. partner lists) - we could not figure out a way of short cutting these lists using the roladex style interface.
Pros
- Safari really helps here with the ability to zoom and navigate around the pages.
- Acceptable speed times.
- Most functions seem to work well.
- Bar the need for specialist applications, eliminates the need and expense of Mobile integration and companies that sell such.
- Multiple instances of the pages makes it easy to multi-task.
Cons
- Long lists are difficult to select in the drop down. Anything > 50 takes a bit of time.
- Some of the UI is difficult to navigate due to poor UI design in certain instances. eg. selecting item options. What is clunky on a PC is compounded on the iPhone.
- The NetSuite product times out after a set period of inactivity. This is annoying and due to the NetSuite system not having a user configurable time-out.
Who would use such a device ?
- Anyone that is mobile and away from the office.
- Anyone that needs real-time information and not necessarily at a PC.
- Sales People to process orders at client sites without using a laptop.
- People who need contact information quickly.
- The applications are endless.
Outlook Syncronisation
Using NetSuite's Intellisync the synchronisation of Outlook worked fine in our tests. When you plug in the iPhone to your computer your events will show up in your calendar.
Quote from Skyytek
Ray Tetlow, CEO of Skyytek Worldwide states, "Several of our sales people, consultants and executives are using the iPhone and NetSuite when they are on the road and not in the office. Already its decreased our response times, improved our customer service and above all, enabled us to enter urgent sales orders in a timely manner. Its a great device and will only improve over time".
NetReturn is the sole Australian and New Zealand distributor of NetSuite, and Australia’s leading online service company.
