Girl Scouts of the USA Moves Commerce to the Cloud With NetSuite

SAN FRANCISCO, May 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- NetSuite SuiteWorld 2012 -- NetSuite Inc., (NYSE: N), the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP software suites, today announced that Girl Scouts of the USA, the largest organization for girls in the world, is launching a new nationwide Ecommerce website expected to drive large gains in merchandise sales and brand awareness atop NetSuite SuiteCommerce, a new commerce-aware platform that provides a central system to manage all transactions with consumers and other businesses regardless of the touchpoint used, from websites to smartphones, tablets, social media and point of sale.

Girl Scouts, founded in 1912 and headquartered in New York City with 2.3 million girl members, 900,000 adult volunteers and nearly 59 million alumnae, selected NetSuite to replace their current ERP, warehouse management and Ecommerce software. The new NetSuite-based solution will be made available to 65 Girl Scout councils who currently maintain on-line shops with the objective of reducing council costs while enhancing the customer experience and increasing brand awareness. Additionally, about 47 councils without an Ecommerce storefront will have one for the first time when the NetSuite-based system is fully implemented. With about 2,500 merchandise SKUs, from uniforms and program resources to collectibles and badges, Girl Scouts has made NetSuite Ecommerce central to its strategy to grow its online business while delivering a cohesive Web experience for all customers.

NetSuite's SuiteCommerce platform is at the heart of NetSuite Commerce as a Service (CaaS), and enables businesses to manage interactions with other businesses and directly with consumers via a cloud platform that delivers an enhanced customer experience, through any touchpoint, directly on the core NetSuite ERP/CRM business management application. This technology transcends the limitations and complexity of first-generation Ecommerce systems to deliver new efficiencies for merchants and a superior experience for customers.

The new Girl Scouts solution will provide a unified Ecommerce and brand presence under a single domain name, www.girlscoutshop.com, with unique customized pages for each of the 112 Girl Scout councils. "We see a huge opportunity to both enhance business at the council level and reduce expenses. The more retail business the councils do, the more wholesale business we do at the national level," said Barry Horowitz, Vice President and General Manager, Girl Scouts Merchandise. "It's a win-win."

After a rigorous evaluation process, Girl Scouts selected NetSuite over competing solutions because of its full integration across Ecommerce, inventory, warehousing, order management, marketing and analytics, providing Girl Scouts with a central solution for complete order management. As a cloud system, NetSuite enables Girl Scouts to avoid high capital costs for hardware and software and ongoing maintenance expenses, while having scalability on demand as the business grows.

"The biggest draw of NetSuite is that it's fully integrated, from the storefront to the back office -- we were definitely in the market for an all-encompassing solution," Horowitz said. "We can eliminate the unproductive manual work of gathering and reporting on data across disconnected systems and take advantage of one centralized and uniform data set and targeted marketing and promotions on a national level."

Another appeal of NetSuite SuiteCommerce is the power and flexibility of the platform, which allows the design and implementation of its new Ecommerce site to be in three flavors -- B2C, B2B (for merchandise sales from headquarters to councils and other wholesale customers) and mobile. A new transaction-capable mobile app takes advantage of NetSuite's native support for smartphones and tablets to enable on-the-go browsing and purchasing. Leveraging the powerful customization capabilities, the new site will detect a visitor's IP address and direct them to the customized council pages in their geographic area.

About NetSuite SuiteCommerce
NetSuite SuiteCommerce is at the heart of NetSuite Commerce as a Service (CaaS), which enables businesses to manage their interactions with consumers via a cloud platform and delivers any desired customer experience, on any current or future device, directly on the core NetSuite ERP/CRM business management application. For more information about NetSuite SuiteCommerce, please visit www.NetSuite.com/suitecommerce.

About Girl Scouts of the USA
Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) is the largest organization for girls in the world. Its mission is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. Through activities in science and technology, business and economic literacy, and outdoor and environmental awareness, Girl Scouting provides girls with opportunities for fun and friendship while fostering the development of leadership skills and self-esteem. Founded by Juliette Gordon Low in Savannah, Georgia, on March 12, 1912, Girl Scouts of the USA was chartered by the United States Congress on March 16, 1950. Girl Scouts has 112 chartered councils nationwide that provide direct services to girls and the volunteers who work with them, and to the communities they serve.

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NOTE: NetSuite, the NetSuite logo and SuiteCommerce are service marks of NetSuite Inc. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between NetSuite and any other company.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to expectations, plans, and prospects including expectations relating to the implementation of the NetSuite SuiteCommerce platform as the new ecommerce solution for the Girls Scouts of the USA.  These forward-looking statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of both companies' management teams as of the date of this release, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.   These risks include, without limitation, that the partnership is less successful than currently anticipated, delays encountered during implementation including the expected product release date, unexpected disruptions of service that could occur at a NetSuite data center which could negatively impact their operations and revenues, and material defects or errors in the software or undetected computer viruses that could arise and impact operations.  All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof, and NetSuite disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

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SOURCE NetSuite Inc.