NetSuite (News - Alert) has also announced the hiring of Michael Ni as Vice President, Industry Solutions and Ecosystem. In this role Ni "will direct NetSuite's industry vertical initiatives, software developer programs, and oversee the continuation of the development of NetSuite as a vertical app platform," according to NetSuite officials.

 

"Third-party vertical application developers are struggling to move their client / server applications to the SaaS model, and NS-BOS provides the technology they need to do that quickly," said Zach Nelson (News - Alert), CEO of NetSuite, adding that Ni "has the experience and the skill to take our platform initiatives to the next level and to help our partners transition their business to the Software as a Service model."

 

Ni brings to NetSuite more than 16 years of experience in enterprise applications in business product and platform management. Prior to joining NetSuite, Ni served as Vice President, Product Management at Oracle (News - Alert) Corporation for PeopleTools, JD Edwards Tools and "Fusion Architecture" for Oracle Applications Platforms.

 

At Oracle, he directed the applications technology platforms, providing applications development and management tools to Oracle's customers, partners, and developers. Before that, he held multiple leadership positions at CRM / ERP vendors, technology startups, and in strategy consulting. These roles include VP of Product Management / Strategy at PeopleSoft, VP of Product and Operations at OnePage (now Sybase (News - Alert)), as well as Marketing Strategy Consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

 

Ni holds an MBA from Harvard University, an MS from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

In related news, SPS Commerce, a vendor of Software as a Service EDI products, has announced a new industry-specific application for manufacturers who need supply chain management visibility. Built using the NetSuite Business Operating System from NetSuite, this Supply Chain add-on for NetSuite uses SPS Commerce's multi-tenant trading partner network to build an application targeting companies in need of EDI services.

 

It "allows for end-to-end visibility and automation in one system when working with trading partners," according to the SPSers.

 

The new product uses the NS-BOS platform, including the SaaS (News - Alert) infrastructure, SuiteFlex, and the core NetSuite application. End-to-end visibility within the supply chain is particularly important for manufacturers, who tend not to like delayed shipments from trading partners, late orders for customers or costly production flow management.

 

The combined SPS and NetSuite product provides a B2B business exchange with EDI capabilities layered on top of the CRM, Accounting / ERP and E-commerce core of NetSuite.