I've been poking around NetBooks and it's pretty darned good. Only available in the US market right now (don't run away UK folks), this latest entrant to the SaaS market is hoping to plug the 2-25 user market. It is not really a service industry facing solution and is no good for time and project tracking. But...it is VERY good for small manufacturing units or relatively simple warehouse operations.
Unlike NetSuite which goes for power under the hood, NetBooks takes a much more simple approach to the problem of addressing business processes. It's seamless handling of UPS shipping into the order and billing processes was spot on. Its understanding of the difference between inventory and warehouse goods measures is simplicity itself.
At this point I have to stand back a pace. As an accountant by training I often make the mistake of taking the number cruncher's view. On this occasion I don't have to. The way NtBooks is organized, you enter it according to the role you fulfill. That means you only ever need use the screens that are pertinent to you. I found myself drawn into the product for the subtle ways in which it presents complex processes in a simple fashion.
As I said at my ZDN blog, there will be the inevitable comparison with QuickBooks but I believe those comparisons are wrong:
QuickBooks was designed to address the bookkeeping problem. NetBooks was designed to solve the whole business management problem: sales, customers, vendors, production, inventory, shipping, and yes, bookkeeping.
That fact it is not available in the UK right now is a good thing. It gives smaller practitioners an opportunity to think about how they're going to assemble the skills to deal with entire business processes. Furthermore, could this represent a realistic opportunity to think about process outsourcing. Online saas systems lend themselves well to this approach and given the package is priced at $200/month for a 5 user system plus a book-keeper and accountant, cost should not be an issue.
Here's another reason to like this company. Founder Ridgely Evers has a hugely entertaining and useful small business blog. See what he has to say about running a business on second hand computer equipment.
In the UK, any new entrant has to compete with a growing list of newbies plus the incumbents like Sage, MYOB and Intuit. Nevertheless, NetBooks approach is sufficiently differentiated for it to stand a good chance of success - provided it can find the right partnerships.
Technorati Tags: Intuit, MYOB, netbooks, Sage
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