New thinking and new technology help NetSuite Web-based applications leapfrog on-demand and even traditional on-premise applications to create a new class of business application. The new functionality in NetSuite 10.6 solutions adds a host of new user interface, application extensibility and productivity tools.

With new capabilities introduced in Release 10.6, NetSuite combines rich business intelligence and analytics with seamless business process management in a single hosted application designed to meet the needs of growing small and medium-sized businesses.

NetSuite on-demand solutions continue to break user interface barriers associated with browser-based applications. With NetSuite 10.6, users can perform complex business functions that dynamically change data without regenerating the browser page, extend NetSuite with any application, and integrate with widely-used applications like Microsoft Office and Google® Maps simply.

The new features introduced allow users to manage their role-based work more proactively via Dashboard enhancements, to completely tailor NetSuite solutions to meet their exact business needs using NetFlex customization enhancements and to work interactively with their Microsoft Office desktop tools.

The New "AJAX" Dashboard
NetSuite is the leader in dashboard-centric business management, and NetSuite 10.6 takes this capability to the next level by being the first major business application with broad support of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). AJAX encompasses several different ways of presenting and manipulating data in a Web page. The basic functionality of AJAX is to provide a way for end-users to dynamically change data without having to regenerate the whole HTML page. NetSuite 10.6 solutions take this basic concept and apply it in several patent-pending techniques to provide an incredible, high-performance user experience.

Virtually every page uses one or more aspects of AJAX including:

• Drag and drop technology reconfigures browser-based dashboards on the fly
• Extreme list editing allows for quickly changing large lists in the browser (for example, a sales representative could edit a list of calls to make right on their dashboard without drilling into each record to update it)
• Populating subordinate forms from a master form (for example, when generating an opportunity record, any common fields can automatically be populated from the master customer record)
• "Quick add" forms that allow new records such as leads, opportunities and calendar events to be created easily and quickly with just the right information
• Lists of customers, vendors, and transactions can quickly be sorted and reconfigured without having to regenerate the underlying data. For example, a sales report could be instantly sorted by largest sale to smallest simply by clicking on the header

The NetSuite 10.6 dashboards also benefit from some new visualization and alerting technologies to add to NetSuite's existing capabilities including:

Graphical KPI Meters let users convert any KPI into a visually distinguishing gauge including comparison, time periods and threshold values for at a glance recognition of performance and identification of issues requiring rapid action.

Trend Graph Average Comparisons let users display a "Rolling Average" line on their trend graphs.

Saved Search E-mail Alerts initiate an e-mail alert for records that match any search criteria. Alerts prompt proactive management of an out-of-tolerance situation and provide a link back to NetSuite where users can drill-down on the updated results and take direct action for resolution of an issue or to capitalize on an opportunity presented. For example, NetSuite could e-mail an alert when ever a new opportunity over $100,000 is created, or when an outstanding balance is more than 90 days past due, complete with any data resident in the corresponding records.

Learn more about NetSuite Role Based Dashboards

NetFlex Custom Centers Deliver on Vision of an On-Demand Operating System
The new Custom Center capabilities of NetSuite 10.6 solutions, used together with the capabilities of NetFlex AppBuilder, allow users to design, build, deploy, manage and access entirely new applications through a unified interface. These custom built applications share the benefits of a robust on-demand architecture provided by NetSuite solutions such as:

• A unified data structure and data relationships which allow for easy linking to core objects such as Customers in complex many-to-many or simple one-to-one organizations
• A single role-based graphical user interface designed to match the user's function within an organization
• A comprehensive security and permissions model to ensure users can only access information pertinent to their department and position
• A drop-down menu navigation model proven to help users transition from Windows-based applications to browser-based solutions
• Analytic capabilities instantly built-in with powerful real-time Dashboards
• Custom Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), graphical KPI meters and Custom Report Snapshots which provide at-a-glance insight into business metrics
• Patent-pending eXtreme List Editing which account for tremendous gains in productivity

Custom Centers can also be used together with other capabilities of NetFlex AppBuilder to design and build entirely new applications from the ground up. The data structure, data relationships, graphical user interface and navigation menu links that comprise an application can all be defined easily. Most importantly, analytic capabilities are instantly built-in for all Custom Centers with powerful real-time Dashboards that can be built to contain custom Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), graphical KPI meters, custom report snapshots, summarized analysis via Saved Searches, and lists with NetSuite's patent-pending eXtreme List Editing. For example, if you've built out a Warranty Management System using NetFlex AppBuilder, you can now add a custom "Warranty Center" to go along with the new application. As seen below, the custom Warranty Center has one custom tab—Warranties, and a few standard tabs—Activities & Opportunities, all mingled together with a published tab—Intranet. To use a Custom Center, you create a custom role from scratch—Warranty Manager in this case—and assign it to the Custom Center.

Fast, Seamless Third Party Integration
Even when using one system to streamline and run major business operations, companies sometimes have a need to easily tap into other applications such as popular productivity tools from Microsoft, or access information over the Web such as maps from Google.

NetSuite 10.6 solutions add several new ways to easily integration with these types of systems:

Microsoft Outlook® Integration. The majority of businesses today, prefer Microsoft Office as their business productivity tool kit. NetSuite furthers the productivity of employees and communication with contacts, customers and partners via tight integration with Outlook. For Excel jockeys who prefer offline spreadsheet analysis, NetSuite improves data transfer and analysis capabilities for customer, contact and operations intelligence via integration with Microsoft Excel.

• NetSuite Microsoft Outlook integration ties robust desktop communication and analysis tools with NetSuite's business management capabilities for enhanced productivity and collaboration. NetSuite maintains the integrity and continuity of information as the system of record for all data. NetSuite users can now:
• Attach outgoing Outlook e-mail messages to NetSuite records throughout the customer lifecycle including Contacts, Customers, Opportunities, and Cases.
• Save received messages to NetSuite records. Users can select messages received in their inbox or Outlook folder to customers and contacts in their NetSuite account. The same capability applies to opportunities and cases furthering communication lifecycle management.

Microsoft Excel® Integration. NetSuite Microsoft Excel integration gives quant-jocks easy access and transfer of data to and from NetSuite for offline analysis.

• Excel Web Query retrieves data from reports generated in NetSuite and transfers it to Excel for further analysis. Data can be refreshed with the latest information when needed.
• E-mail reports with messages. Reports can be routed and noted for individual or team analysis.

Custom Record Managers. Now administrators can give granular access to employees to manage only certain custom records, and not others. You can specify employees to be "Managers" of a custom record type, which allows them to change the custom record type, add/remove/edit fields, and define forms. This is important for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and in general, a great addition to those looking for greater process enforcement and control of access to custom record definitions.

Dynamic Hyperlinks provide a quick and easy way to access information on Web sites and Web applications without requiring any coding. This new powerful capability uses tag substitution, or "merge", to build URLs on-the-fly that redirect the user to new pages based on information on the current record. For example, a custom field called Address Map can be created on the customer record with tags appended to the standard Google Maps URL. The tags generically represent billing address fields. When a user pulls up a customer record, the generic tags are processed and "merged" to represent a dynamic, customer specific URL. So when the user clicks this hyperlink, they are taken to Google Maps and the billing address from the customer record they were on is automatically passed through so the map displayed is specific to that customer.

Customizable Case Notification Messages allow users to completely customize and transform Customer Support email notifications using templates that reflect corporate branding and personalize the communication by including the relevant details to create the perfect message. With NetSuite you can use the standard templates or use these to create custom notification messages, inserting tags for Case information in the messages. Messages are completely customizable—both the subject and the body of the message can be customized.

Custom, Scriptable Buttons. Custom Buttons offer more flexibility in workflow and are another way in which external applications can be easily integrated with NetSuite solutions. Custom Buttons can be added to any form to call custom code scripts written in JavaScript. These scripts can query information in other systems, provide validation or even invoke external Web Services.

Release 10.6 Features 100+ Customer Requested Enhancements
NetSuite and its customers are celebrating the fruition of hard collaborative work to make the world's best business management application better through continuous improvement. This year, as in years past, NetSuite has worked with the NetSuite User Group to canvas customers for requests for enhancements and put them in control of prioritization for improving NetSuite capabilities so they can do their work better and make it easier.

Our enhancements showcase the collaborative relationship we have with our customers as an ASP. This direct—rather than arm's length—relationship means we keep a continuous dialogue between our Product Management team and our customers on how to continue improving NetSuite and delivering users the tools they need to better manage their businesses and at the same time continually reducing complexity for broader, simpler business management.