About Avaya

Avaya, a telecommunications company, was spun off from Lucent Technologies in 2000. The company can trace its roots to AT&T, but it has now become a communications powerhouse in its own right. The Santa Clara-based Avaya started business as a public company but was returned to private status in 2007 after being purchased by two private equity firms. It returned to public status in 2011 in a successful attempt to raise money to buy Sipera Systems. Over its history, Avaya has purchased many companies to expand its product offerings, including Ubiquity Software Corporation and Traverse Networks. A $900 million deal in December 2009 gave them control of Nortel Enterprise’s assets, including patents. Led by CEO Kevin Kennedy since 2009, the company continues to build up the infrastructure to deploy all-inclusive communications solutions.

Avaya’s many services and products revolve around communications, customer experience, networking and the cloud. Avaya provides the hardware, including conference, desktop, and wireless phones, for communication systems and networks. Once the system is set up, the company offers management services to keep the system working at an optimal level. Contact Center and Data Networking Managed Services are just a few examples. Many of these products and services are bundled together as “Vertical Solutions” for customers in banking, healthcare, insurance, hospitality and higher education. Companies can even select Avaya solutions based on the number of employees.

Ranked among the global top 100 software companies by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2016, Avaya has been the recipient of many industry awards. Customer service awards won by Avaya in 2016 include the Northface Scoreboard Award from Omega Management group and the Contact Center Technology Award, presented by Customer Magazine. Avaya Breeze, a platform for online collaboration, was recognized as Communications Product of the Year by TMC. Avaya is also regularly recognized for innovation. Previous innovation awards include TechTarget’s Innovation Network Award in 2015. Avaya was also named as a finalist in the Fierce Innovation Awards: Healthcare Edition in 2016.

About Netsuite

Netsuite is a cloud computing company based in San Mateo, California. The company offers a wide range of software, from Cloud ERP, Cloud Financials and Ecommerce Solutions, compatible with most operating systems. The Netsuite CRM+ is also cloud-based and is geared toward SMB organizations. The CRM works with customers in many industries, like wholesale distribution, retail, manufacturing, and media/publishing. The program offers sales force automation, customer data management, marketing analytics, business partner relationship management, and ecommerce. There is also a mobile version of the application for iOS.

Analytics functionality is a big plus of this CRM software, as it enables teams to integrate the entire organization by combining back and front-office metrics to offer a complete, overall view of the company. Additionally, it’s possible to customize the platform according to the needs of the business.

Deployment via the cloud is in the software as a service (SaaS) platform, so the software is continually updated as new versions become available without the need for any maintenance. Additionally, all of the information is stored on a secure server in the NetSuite data center, which offers access from anywhere and the promise that the data remains secure even when computer problems hit locally.

Netsuite CRM+ covers most requirements for managing both the CRM and financial aspects of a business, so in that way, it is a dual-purpose tool. Managing all the company’s finances is possible from a single dashboard, but the Netsuite site notes that it does require some training. Once familiar with the platform, the simple dashboard allows for complicated actions and gives a comprehensive look at the accounting portion of the business. This part of the program also helps accountants to prepare financial statements and end-of-year accounting and tax statements.

Netsuite’s CRM allows team members to track leads, manage contacts, create and manage tasks and action lists, and monitor sales management end-to-end. As noted, this is not “sign up and start using” CRM software. To get the most out of the Netsuite platform, investing in user training is imperative, and fairly expensive. While the program offers major computing power, it might be overkill for a small company, as it is fairly complex and takes total buy-in from every user in order to be the all-compassing tool it was created to be, with new employees challenged until they receive proper training, making this a platform that might be better suited to enterprise-level companies.

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