E-Commerce and LAN Solutions

Ways to ferret out the root cause

As with any web hosted environment, response time and performance are a major issue. I would say the entire SAAS industry (software as a service) will have to deal with this problem for the forseeable future. Only Google seems to have figured out how to provide consistently speedy web hosted applications, and they couldn’t do it without their hundreds of thousands of servers. For those mortal companies who have somewhat less than that, performance will always be a major issue.

1. Tip one: Troubleshooting NetSuite back-end performance
   
   When logged in to the NetSuite ‘back end’, where all the actual work is done, sometimes things are slow. To find out some more information, simply double-click the NetSuite logo in the top left corner. You will get a pop-up like this:
   
   
   This breaks down the time it took to load the page. The total is shown first, then the time spent generating the page on the server, next the time it took to transfer the page to the browser, and lastly how long the client’s browser took to render the page. If the server time is a big percentage of the total, you can be sure the problem is on NetSuite’s side, and has nothing to do with your Internet connection or local computer.
   


2. Tip two: Diagnosing web site slowness
   
   To a lesser extent, the e-commerce web sites that are public facing and powered by the NetSuite application do sometimes have speed issues as well. To peek behind the curtain for a given page, simply load it in your browser and view the source code. The last few lines will look something like this:
   
   <!-- 41 39% #12-->
<!-- [ shop-java002.svale.netledger.com ] [ 11.0.4.84 ]-->
<!-- [ 411534 ] [ shopper@411534.com ] [ /s.nl ] [ Wed Dec 20 10:14:01 PST 2006 ] -->
<!-- Not logging slowest SQL -->

   The first number on the first line is how many milliseconds it took to build the page on the server side (I’m not sure what the other numbers on the first line are). The second line starts with the name of the specific server you are connected to in the cluster. This can be useful to watch if some people are seeing a specific problem on your web site but not others. Often it will be only those connected to one or a few of the servers running your site.

   A note on clusters: NetSuite, Google and others employ a technology called clustering to provide enough computing power to run their applications. It’s basically a way to make an arbitrary number of servers appear to work like one server to the outside world. Typically a load-balancing server will direct traffic for a web site to one of a number of servers that can handle the request, and uses a cookie to direct the user back to the original one the next time.
   

Quite a few people have complained about NetSuite’s continuing performance issues since their last major release, 11.0. Hopefully armed with some of these tools, NetSuite users will be able to see a more dedicated response to this critical issue.

A Google Co-op based engine that searches NetSuite resources

Last week Google annouced yet another great new feature: the ability to create you own customized search engines using Google Co-op. Of course the first thing that sprang to mind was to create a search engine for the NetSuite web developer. To gather all the sites I’ve found with guides, information and documentation on customizing NetSuite and make it easy to search them all. One of the problems I’ve always had when trying to learn some new feature or tweak was finding the information – there simply isn’t that much out there and it can be hard to find.

So I’ve added the 12 sites I’ve found with good information and put the search box in the header of my site. You can also use this search engine on its homepage. Please try it out and let me know what you think, especially if you have sites that aren’t in the list that I should add.

You can also try out some sample searches:

• froogle


• Google Analytics


• csv import

Details of a Netsuite Customization Project

One of the projects I’ve been working on lately has gone live, and I like to annouce these things when relevant. In particular, this project highlights a number of lesser-known Netsuite customizations and techniques that the do-it-yourselfer might find interesting.


DNA Worlwide: DNA and Paternity Testing

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One of the more annoying features of Netsuite is the inability to get rid of their name & branding from a Netsuite-hosted e-commerce web site. The shortcut icon (that little graphic that shows up next to the site title when you create a bookmark)

Shortcut Icon

defaults to a Netsuite ‘N’ graphic. I’ll show you how to overwrite that with a custom icon. You will first need a 16×16 pixel graphic named favicon.ico. If you don’t know how to make one, here is a tutorial.
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As a Netsuite customer and consultant, I’m surprised that I’ve never heard talk of Netsuite’s IPO plans. In all the usergroup posts and official Netsuite notifications, nothing has ever been mentioned, which strikes me as strange. Maybe it’s not, who knows.

At any rate, it seems like more than a possibility at this point. A few quotes from some articles I found:

The San Mateo hosted software firm plans to file IPO papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the second half of 2006, when the company expects to reach profitability.

The company’s head count grew from 300 to 450 in the last year, including adding a new worldwide marketing director and product marketing director. Nelson hopes to employ 500 by year’s end. CFO McGeever said the company’s biggest hurdle to growth is hiring and training enough professional services staffers to help Netsuite’s 7,000 customers implement its software.
Full article

We’ll all know a lot more when NetSuite actually files its registration statement. Clearly, if they are on pace to double revenues and reach profitability, the company seems well positioned to have a successful IPO particularly given the rabid appetite for SaaS plays. However, expecting NetSuite to be afforded a valuation similar to that of salesforce.com may be a tad aggressive.
An interesting take on Netsuite’s prospects

And another article about it for good measure.

I think for a while there was some debate about whether Oracle would snap up Netsuite, but I think it stands to do pretty well on its own in the market, especially considering how hot SaaS (Software as a service) is for investors. Netsuite is rumored to be expecting twice its 40M in sales from 2005 in this year, and to become profitable. Add in an IPO and a near doubling in headcount, and that’s a big year for a young company.

As a customer I’m mostly concerned about how they handle their growth – I’ve worked with a lot of businesses as a consultant and seen many that couldn’t handle the transition from one order of magnitude to the next. I’ve always believed that it was the talent of the employees that makes the biggest difference to a company, and hiring great people is a big challenge. I love reading about the hiring practices about the world’s most progressive companys – first it was Microsoft and their famous day-long interviews, and now Google has gleaned a rep for picking talent.

I think the only safe bet is that it’ll be an interesting year for anyone following Netsuite’s story.