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First and Only Provider of PSA Software That Enables Businesses to Manage Time Tracking and Expense Business Processes via Full Mobile Access

BOSTON - May 7, 2009 - OpenAir, Inc., a NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N) company and a leading provider of on-demand professional services automation (PSA) software, today announced the availability of OpenAir Mobile, giving businesses the ability to manage business processes via full mobile access including time tracking and expense management that are key to professional services. OpenAir is the first and the only PSA software company that makes it possible for services professionals to run their businesses via the iPhone. To download OpenAir Mobile, OpenAir customers can go to Apple’s AppStore (http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore) and search for OpenAir in the iPhone App Store and select to install. OpenAir Mobile for the iPhone is free and only requires a client’s OpenAir credentials to sync with their account. 

Unlike other competitors such as QuickArrow and Daptiv, OpenAir has given services professionals an additional tool to run their business in real-time while on the move. OpenAir Mobile includes the following features that every services professional desires to have:

  • Intuitive calendar interface to track and manage time
  • Access to OpenAir timesheets and expense reports using the easy-to-use, familiar iPhone user interface
  • Instantaneous synchronization with your OpenAir account to utilize up-to-date customer, project, and task data
“Our customers thrive in a mobile culture,” said Morris Panner, CEO of OpenAir. “Our iPhone application is yet another example of OpenAir enabling the services workforce to be as effective as possible. For an industry of road warriors, we offer an outstanding solution and continue working to make it better.”

Among the many OpenAir clients taking advantage of the enhanced mobility and access to the new OpenAir Mobile for iPhone application are Portal Solutions and Kono Consulting. 

Portal Solutions, based in Rockville, MD, is one of the top Microsoft SharePoint consulting firms and depends on the real-time access to key project data that OpenAir provides.

“We are very excited about the release of the iPhone application for OpenAir; this offers a new way to ensure time and expenses are being entered accurately and shows OpenAir’s continuous innovation in providing the right tools for the job,” said Daniel Cohen-Dumani, CEO of Portal Solutions. “The iPhone platform is being embraced by many of our consultants and will enhance the way we track time.”

Kono Consulting, based in San Francisco, CA, is a leading provider of Microsoft-based ERP applications to small and medium-sized businesses. Kono provides advisory, implementation and support services to help companies maximize the potential from their integrated business software. As a consultancy, Kono uses OpenAir to manage resources and projects, and to track time and expense for reimbursement and billing purposes.

“With the OpenAir native iPhone app, our team can record our time and expense anywhere, anytime,” said Tom Battelle, President of Kono Consulting. “Not only do we benefit from enhanced accessibility to OpenAir, but also we have experienced awesome performance.”

About OpenAir
OpenAir, Inc., a NetSuite Inc. company, is a leading provider of Software as a Service (SaaS) services automation software. Offering both professional services automation (PSA) and project portfolio management (PPM) solutions, OpenAir provides project-based organizations and firms the tools they need to grow their businesses quickly and profitably. Providing enterprise-level functionality for businesses of all sizes, OpenAir has more than 50,000 active users at over 350 world-class firms using the software to better capture billable time, manage projects and resources and bill customers. Coupled with a team of highly experienced consultants from some of the world’s leading services firms, OpenAir’s services automation solutions drive higher profits through improved utilization, visibility and data collection. To learn more, please visit http://www.openair.com.

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Discussion Forum
Seeking Opinion on When to Bill and When Not to Bill?

We are a professional services organization within a software product
company.  Our products are all large scale applications in the electronic
payments field.  Every implementation is heavily customized to suit the
business needs of the client.  We are having internal discussions on
what activities should or should not be billed to the customer; mostly
surrounding project management but the discussion extends to all PS
staff as well. 

For example, our delivery methodology specifies that we have weekly
meetings with our senior management to review the status of projects. 
Project Managers prepare for and conduct a portion of the senior
review.  Should that PM time be logged against the customer project
and billed to the customer? 

Another example:  PMs spend time preparing invoices, addressing
billing questions, entering/checking/verifying/editing data in our
Oracle financial and project accounting systems.  Do other companies
bill the customer for this administrative time logged by PMs? 

Another example:  Since our applications are customized for every
implementation, there are inevitably software bugs.  Those software
bugs lead to internal review meetings, delays in delivery, and rework.
Although we would not bill for rework, should the time the PM spends
coordinating all the internal activities be charged to the customer? 

One last example:  our delivery methodology calls out specific
activities & deliverables such as Quality Gates, Quality Audits, Post
Mortem analysis, Executive Review sessions with customer execs,
weekly status reports and many more.  Where do other companies
draw the line between when an activity is billed to a customer because
it is part of the customer project, and when the activity is not billed
because it is an internal action that the company elects to perform that
is only tangentially part of the customer project?

This may seem like a simple question but it is really quite complicated. 
We are finding that making the transition from a pure software vendor
(our old model) to a services company (the new model) is not that
easy.  Maybe you have experienced the same thing. 

People are lining up on both sides of the aisle.  On one side are the
people who think we should bill every hour of time that we think about,
do something about, talk about or work on a project.  On the other side
are those who think that some of the things we do are driven by our
own internal desire for process, methodology and data, and, if an
activity is internally driven, we should not bill the customer as it is a
‘cost of doing business’. 

I’d be interested in any opinions or examples you have on the topic.

Thanks.

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