WHSmith Transforms Global Franchise Business With NetSuite And Accenture

New B2B Online Commerce System Streamlines Business Operations for International Franchise Partners

LONDON, Oct. 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP and omnichannel commerce software suites, and global consultancy Accenture (NYSE: ACN), today announced that WHSmith, the UK-based retail chain offering a wide range of books, newspapers, magazines, stationery and gifts, has launched a new cloud-based, B2B online commerce system on NetSuite SuiteCommerce to support its rapidly growing franchise business.

SuiteCommerce's B2B capabilities allow WHSmith to provide a robust, secure and easy-to-use commerce system where the retailer's franchise partners and wholesale partners across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia can efficiently make purchases, manage payments, review order history and account details, and request refunds and returns from a secure, password-protected online environment. WHSmith has also eliminated manual processes from its previous systems such as faxing and emailing orders. SuiteCommerce has helped position WHSmith to more rapidly secure additional franchisees, improve operational efficiencies and deliver rich self-service capabilities and exceptional customer service.

"WHSmith sells its own brand and selected branded merchandise to over 200 franchise stores and various wholesale customers throughout the world. To meet the needs of our customers we needed to develop a world-class business-to-business commerce capability. NetSuite SuiteCommerce offers an ideal combination of rapid time to market and rich functionality that will help us support the growth of our franchise and wholesale business," said David McGrath, Head of Shared IT Services at WHSmith. "It's a win-win for both WHSmith and our franchise partners that will streamline operations, help us future-proof our business and open the door to strategic opportunities for continued growth."

WHSmith selected SuiteCommerce based on its depth of functionality and speed of implementation versus the complex and protracted option to extend its legacy, on-premise systems. Accenture's alliance relationship with NetSuite and broad experience implementing complex digital commerce projects made it an obvious choice for the project. Accenture integrated SuiteCommerce with WHSmith's on-premise system. Accenture and NetSuite helped the global retailer launch its new self-service commerce system and speed time to value.

SuiteCommerce provides the flexibility and agility WHSmith needs to drive superior customer experiences, increase efficiencies and future proof its business. With SuiteCommerce, ecommerce is seamlessly integrated with back-end operational systems, including order and inventory management, marketing, customer support and financials. Businesses that run SuiteCommerce are empowered to deliver innovative and seamless brand experiences across multiple touchpoints – all from a single, unified, cloud-based commerce platform that provides unprecedented visibility into business and customer data.

SuiteCommerce enables WHSmith to offer the following key features and benefits to its franchise partners:

Great user experience. The intuitive, user friendly website enables franchisees to easily and quickly accomplish what they need to do to support their business and streamline business operations.

Buying efficiencies. Buyers can create and save custom shopping lists to expedite recurring purchases.

Mobile commerce. Native, responsive web design capabilities in SuiteCommerce optimise the site for any device, meeting the growing need of buyers to access information and complete transactions anywhere, anytime.

Self-service account management. Customisable dashboards provide buyers with outstanding and available balances, deposits, credit limits and memos and current terms. Buyers can authorise purchasers, print statements, view transaction histories and update key account data.

Billing and payment flexibility. Buyers can view and pay invoices online in a secure, password-protected environment.

Inventory visibility. Franchisees can see up-to-date inventory to enable accurate purchasing decisions and sidestep problems that can occur with unexpected stock-outs.

Today, more than 24,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex, mission-critical business processes globally in the cloud. Since its inception in 1998, NetSuite has established itself as the leading provider of enterprise-ready cloud business management suites of enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and ecommerce applications for businesses of all sizes. Many FORTUNE 100 companies rely on NetSuite to accelerate innovation and business transformation. NetSuite continues its success in delivering the best cloud business management suites to businesses around the world, enabling them to lower IT costs significantly while increasing productivity, as the global adoption of the cloud accelerates.

About WHSmith
WHSmith operates over 1,300 stores, in the UK and in international locations including Northern Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. The retailer occupies over 700 retail units in airports, railway stations, hospitals and motorway service areas and more than 600 high street stores. With more than 14,000 employees, WHSmith sells a wide range of newspapers, magazines, stationery, books and confectionery products, with WHSmith Travel tailoring its offer to meet the needs of people on the move. To learn more, please visit http://www.whsmithplc.co.uk.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 358,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$31.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2015. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About NetSuite
NetSuite Inc. is the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials / Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and omnichannel commerce software suites. In addition to financials/ERP and omnichannel commerce software suites, NetSuite offers a broad suite of applications, including financial management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), ecommerce and retail management, commerce marketing automation, Professional Services Automation (PSA) and Human Capital Management (HCM) that enable companies to manage most of their core business operations in its single integrated suite. NetSuite software allows businesses to automate operations, streamline processes and access real-time business information anytime, anywhere. For more information about NetSuite, please visit www.netsuite.co.uk.

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SOURCE NetSuite Inc.