NetSuite unveils enterprise plans
Cloud-based financials / ERP software vendor NetSuite (NYSE: N) today demonstrated a new direction with a move into the enterprise via a series of new channel partner and customer announcements.
Although traditionally focused on the SME and midmarket space, the firm’s biggest growth is now in the enterprise (1000+ employees), where sales increased 37 percent between 2009 and 2010.
At the company’s first global user event, SuiteWorld 2011, CEO Zach Nelson unveiled customer wins that included Groupon and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) in the US.
Groupon – reputedly the fastest growing company in history – went live with NetSuite OneWorld in five international markets in six weeks. Meanwhile, 3G and wireless provider Qualcomm selected NetSuite OneWorld as part of its strategy to consolidate its mid-tier ERP architecture on the vendor’s cloud-based offering.
The Qualcomm deal comes via a new channel signing, Accenture. The global systems integrator, with net revenues of $21.6bn in 2010, serves 94 of the Fortune Global 100.
However, Nelson says the firm is not abandoning its small and midmarket customer base. He said the firm was using relationships with global integrators like Accenture to target the Fortune Top 50 companies, but will continue to sign up smaller channel partners to target the “Fortune five million”.
NetSuite is still celebrating being recently named the fastest growing financial management systems vendor in the world by Gartner. This is reflected in the firm’s customer list, where 33 percent of the world’s fastest growing companies run NetSuite.
Nelson says NetSuite’s 10 year head start is significant in the cloud battleground, and that the company is perfectly positioned to take advantage of ERP’s move to the cloud. In a jab at its on-premise rivals, Nelson says customers are “betting with their wallets.” Quoting the same Gartner research into financial management systems vendors, he said Microsoft’s market share shrank 4.28 percent, and Sage dropped almost 12 percent.
