CSI REBRANDS TAX AND ACCOUNTING LINE: Tax and financial software provider Creative Solutions has rebranded its entire product portfolio under the name CS Professional Suite. The company said that the change was enacted to better position each suite and its component products.
"We believe that moving to a suite strategy more accurately communicates how tightly Creative Solutions products are integrated," said Jon Baron, chief executive officer of Creative Solutions.
A sampling of products under the newly christened CS Professional Suite umbrella includes Client CS, NetClientCS, UltraTax CS, Payroll CS and File Cabinet CS.
HEEGER TAPPED AS PAYCYCLE CEO: Payroll services provider PayCycle has named James Heeger as chief executive of the online concern. Heeger, who most recently was senior vice president of Adobe Systems, succeeds company co-founder Rene Lacerte as CEO. Lacerte will remain with the company as chief financial officer and as a board member.
Heeger had served as president and CEO of Fotiva Inc., a photography software company, before it was acquired by Adobe in 2001. While at Adobe, Heeger oversaw the launch of the Adobe Creative Suite, as well as other flagship products. Prior to that, he spent several years at Intuit, where he was CFO and later senior vice president and general manager of Intuit's small business division. He helped grow the QuickBooks installed base to more than 2 million small businesses and extend the franchise into payroll.
NETSUITE REVEALS FIRST OUTSIDE INTEGRATION APP: NetSuite Inc., an online business applications provider, has unveiled NetFlex, its first "outside" integration product for customers linking NetSuite products with disparate software.
The company said that NetFlex will be available in April, and will be hosted online with the rest of NetSuite's products, free of charge and with automatic upgrades. However, the company said that some charges may be applied to the initial integration, depending on the complexity of the process.
"The key trend for 2005 is the move by companies to one system to run their entire business," said NetSuite chief executive officer Zach Nelson in a statement.
NetFlex is comprised of three parts - Web services, customization and a toolset - that work together online to help NetSuite's master record communicate with desktop add-on software. Using Web services and an XML-based interface to access data stored on a user's NetSuite record, NetFlex is based on the Simple Object Access Protocol standard. By using SOAP, the new application will support any other platform utilizing the SOAP standard, such as Java and Microsoft .Net.
The new product also offers point-and-click personalization and configuration. This customization supports role-based dashboards like those containing search summary analysis; allows business and industry-specific terminology to be applied through NetSuite, i.e. changing "customer" to "client;" lets users track additional data points; and permits the customer to create tabs to share information.
NetFlex AppBuilder, the toolset, allows customers to create their own database tables, navigation tabs, dashboards and other applications that house data, user interfaces, data validation or business processes.
BEARINGPOINT TO ERECT SOFTWARE PLANT: Consulting giant BearingPoint Inc. has unveiled plans to erect a software development operation in Hattiesburg, Miss.
The former consulting arm of Big Four firm KPMG estimated that within three years the facility will employ roughly 275 software developers, programmers and engineers.
The Hattiesburg facility will develop SAP and Oracle software solutions for federal government and commercial sector clients, including system design, development, unit testing and documentation. The firm said that it would recruit and train application developers, testing and technical support staff for the facility in groups of up to 40, beginning in the spring.
The initial efforts will center on meeting the immediate needs of the federal contracts that the company holds with an array of government agencies. Additional capabilities for other critical products and services will be added at a later date.
In related news, Harry You, former chief financial officer at Oracle, has been named chief executive of consulting and business services at BearingPoint.
