NetSuite moves early to support Chrome
NetSuite said Friday that it will offer native support for Google's Chrome browser, which is in beta and may not be enterprise strength yet.
In a statement, NetSuite said its CRM, e-commerce, accounting and OpenAir unit will support Chrome in phases with support being complete in mid-October. The enterprise implications of Chrome are a bit unclear at the moment and it's notable that NetSuite is moving so early to a browser that still has plug-in problems and open ended security questions.
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When asked whether NetSuite was moving too early a company spokesperson noted that the company is cautioning that Chrome (all coverage) is in the beta stage and there are bugs. In other words, NetSuite knows it is early, but thinks the rewards outweigh the risks. All things considered NetSuite said it is "determined to try to be everywhere customers want to be."
I outlined the enterprise playbook on Chrome's launch and noted how it may make sense to give it a spin and hang back to see how it develops. The thinking went like this: Your users will download Chrome so you'll have to support it anyway. The problem is Google has a penchant for perpetual betas. Dennis Howlett noted that no CEO, CFO, CIO etc. should pay much attention to it. ReadWriteWeb offers similar findings.
Yet here's NetSuite going whole hog on Chrome. NetSuite's argument is that it's about choice. If a customer wants to go Chrome, NetSuite will be ready to roll with it--and Firefox 3 and iPhone apps--with native support.
NetSuite's company line:
Since it is optimized for Web 2.0, the new Google Chrome Browser enhances the performance speed for AJAX-powered features of NetSuite, such as eXtreme list editing, type-ahead lookups, rich text editing, drag-and-drop and quick-add portlets. OpenAir experiences similar performance gains for dynamic workflows, such as assigning project resources and managing project tasks. NetSuite and OpenAir support three other Web browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.
Fair enough and given NetSuite's customers are the early adopter types it makes sense. What's unclear is whether NetSuite's customers actually are standardizing on browsers other than IE and Firefox.