Not so long ago, NetSuite barely
factored in to Microsoft’s ERP business, but a recent initiative by the
mammoth technology concern
has channel partners on both sides
agreeing that Microsoft has become
concerned about NetSuite’s rising
status in the market.
In March, Microsoft announced
that it would pay $850 to every U.S.-based NetSuite user that switched
to one of its Dynamics ERP products, which include Dynamics GP,
Dynamics NAV, Dynamics AX and
Dynamics SL. The new promotion
is available until June 25.
For its part, NetSuite has made its
own competitive moves. The company recently announced a bid to
draw in more value-added resellers
of its cloud-based accounting and
business management software by
offering VARs a 100 percent margin
on first-year license subscriptions.
Dallas-based ePartners — a major Microsoft ERP reseller — claimed
that it has not lost any business to
NetSuite and sees a great future
for Dynamics products. But chief
executive Michael McCarthy still
sees the significance in Microsoft’s
recent move. “The ERP market has
been reasonably flat for the past
couple of years, and this news sends
a powerful message. [Microsoft is]
getting serious about the competition,” he said.
A number of VARs that carry
both NetSuite and Dynamics products, however, claimed that the issue has come up. San Francisco’s
AIS Group, which has been in the
Microsoft channel for 10 years,
became a NetSuite partner last fall
after noticing that customers were
asking for NetSuite more often,
enough so that it lost GP business.
“We were losing GP deals to
this product in spaces like finan-
cial services. That made us take a
long, hard look at NetSuite,” said
AIS chief operating officer Simon
Whittle. “We are still active Micro-
soft partners and will recommend
GP in the right situation.”
Roslyn, N. Y.-based Business So-
lutions Partners also resells Net-
Suite as well as Dynamics GP and
MS CRM, and sees the concern for
many strictly Microsoft Dynamics
resellers. CEO David Smooha, how-
ever, believes that the decision for
a user to switch from one product
to another is more challenging than
a financial incentive can fix. “The
Microsoft and NetSuite battle in ERP space
BY SETH FINEBERG
[Microsoft] incentive is just not a
major decision factor,” he said. “In
the end, anything either [vendor]
would give is minimal to help over-
come the pain of a transition.”
NetSuite chief executive Zach
Nelson is confident that Microsoft’s
incentive will have little impact on
NetSuite’s overall business: “I guar-
antee you, for every one customer
of ours they take, we will take 100
from them.” AT
