CyberWorld

By Linda Orlando

Managing Small Businesses, One Byte At a Time
The Internet has become a complex marketplace of ideas, products, and services. If you don’t know the detailed ins and outs of integral online business processes such as accounting, e-commerce, reporting, order processing, and customer support, you may want to check out NetLedger, a powerful small business software application from Oracle, the industry leader in business database technology.

A Powerful, Popular Web-Based Solution
Many websites devoted to business management seem to be clusters of various third-party services slapped together into one package. Others are simply well disguised portals to more expensive, sometimes esoteric services. But one popular business management service used widely today was clearly built from the ground up with the primary objective of providing businesses with tools to leverage the Web for business success, and it just keeps getting better.

The Oracle Small Business Suite, powered by NetLedger, is a Web-based application that provides multi-user capability, online collaborations, access to your accounting system from any location via the Internet, and seamless connections to employees, customers, and suppliers. Because the suite is Internet-based, it is automatically compatible with different operating systems. You don’t need to pay for hardware or software, and upgrades and backups are managed for you. It integrates complete front-office and back-office application functionality, thereby allowing companies to run their entire enterprise on a single hosted service. Although it is simple to learn, it is secure, reliable, and scalable to grow as your business grows.

NetLedger Makes Their Small Business Service Sweeter
Because of its Oracle Small Business Suite, NetLedger reigns as the leading provider of integrated customer relationship management (CRM) application services, and now the company has boldly entered an even more impressive frontier. In September 2004, NetLedger announced the launch of NetCRM, built on the CRM functionality found in the Oracle Small Business Suite. NetCRM is the first online CRM application that automates the entire sales process, from marketing to lead generation, to prospect management, to sales orders and support.

In addition, NetCRM adds important new features not found in any other online CRM solution. Customizable "Dashboards," unique to NetCRM, highlight key information related to the roles of individual users within an enterprise. Graphical snapshots provide sales personnel and management with performance comparisons, and saved searches highlight the latest results of marketing campaigns. Shortcuts and quick searches keep customer information readily available, and reminders within a Dashboard make it easy to keep track of problems that must be solved and tasks that must be completed.

Selling is made easier and forecasting more accurate by NetCRM’s integrated lead capturing and order processing capabilities, which allow businesses to track sales as they actually occur. An online form captures each lead, sends a personalized e-mail auto reply, and then routes the lead to the correct person for follow-up within your sales pipeline according to customizable territory assignment rules.

Sales representatives create sales quotes or orders within NetCRM by selecting from product or service catalogs, and then sales managers receive notification on their Dashboards when sales orders require approval before closing. This close monitoring of sales transactions helps provide managers and executives with a complete and accurate view of current and future forecasts.

Because NetCRM seamlessly integrates purchase history, you can create tailored campaigns to target specific customer segments of your market. End-to-end campaign management includes system-provided templates, e-mail campaign creation and distribution, and results measurement and analysis—all in one application. With this terrific customer intelligence built in, NetCRM allows businesses to deliver the right message in marketing campaigns much more effectively, since marketing efforts are personalized with customers’ names and information they have proven their interest in. After the campaign is executed, NetCRM tracks the results and provides accurate cost-of-acquisition statistics for the entire sales cycle.

NetCRM’s knowledge management technology, NetAnswers, can provide huge cost savings and increase service capabilities by allowing customers to search an online database for answers to their questions without calling customer support. Companies can track frequently asked questions, standard problem resolutions, and known issues, and organize information into different levels of topics and solutions based on individual experience as well as collective knowledge.

NetCRM also provides a complete compliment of task management tools, partner relationship management features, XML server-to-server integration capabilities, various configurable user security levels, complete document management functionality, and intranet content publishing capabilities. Its numerous powerful features far outperform those provided by competing CRM products.

For more information about NetLedger and NetCRM, visit www.oracle.com. If you have been searching for a solution to automate processes from presale to post-sale support and everything in between, NetCRM may just be the most versatile and economical match for your needs.