"Access to timely and relevant information has always been the purpose of business management software, but traditional systems have often left small- and medium-sized businesses with an expensive infrastructure and outdated reports," says Michael Emaus, President and CEO of eEnterprise (www.eEnterprise.com), a global integrator of NetSuite, the world's leading on-demand business management software. "In contrast, Web-based solutions level the playing field."



Owners of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often underestimate the necessary expertise or the budget to implement and support a traditional on-site Information Technology business management solution. "In essence, business owners can think of on-demand, Web-based applications as a revenue stream, while the traditional Information Technology department requires both an initial investment and abundant expenses to support it. Managers need real-time, actionable information in order to grow and gain profitability, but instead become distracted with untimely and distorted reports," says Emaus.

In contrast, on-demand, Web-based applications such as NetSuite allow business owners and department managers to focus on the "Information" necessary to grow the business while the traditional requirements of "Technology" - updates, security, hosting, and support - are intuitive. "NetSuite on-demand removes traditional IT requirements, and the expenses required to support that infrastructure," says Emaus. "In that sense, on-demand is the great equalizer, allowing small- and medium-sized businesses to have the sophisticated tools that are available to their big business counterparts."

For example, NetSuite integrates four major components - sales (CRM), back office (ERP), support, and eCommerce - and makes them accessible in a single system via the Internet. As a result, when an employee, a partner, a vendor, or a customer enters information, it is available to the enterprise in real time, regardless of location. Previously reserved for the Fortune 500, this integrated solution is particularly crucial for businesses with growing market pressures to offer support for real-time partner, vendor, and multi-location relationships.

As a result, managers and owners can spot data trends as they occur and drill down to determine the factors involved. "Small- and medium-sized businesses can focus their attention on the information, not the technology, and quickly make informed decisions based on actionable data," says Emaus.

For the growing small-and medium-sized business, traditional software continues to require a significant investment with the goal to have many disparate systems talking with one another. Generally, in today's SMB environment, accounting is not integrated with sales, sales are not shared with support and eCommerce is a report that is fed back to sales and accounting. For the NetSuite workplace, each employee, vendor, partner location, and global resource shares a common communication network. "In today's world of virtual offices and multiple locations, the inherent drawbacks of traditional software are taking their toll on small business," says Emaus. Not only are businesses faced with a variety of computers and operating systems that may not readily "speak" to one another, but redundant resources are hired in each location to support the enterprise. "With an on-demand solution, timely access provides better managerial control of the business." says Emaus.