NetSuite alternative for small businesses – what happens next?
I’m always saddened when a good idea doesn’t quite turn out right for its conceivers. The NetSuite ‘alternative and affordable’ ERP solution was once the answer for small businesses compelled by the ‘one system to run your business’ vision. Now NetSuite’s churn rate appears to be steadily increasing as their customers and prospects seek the NetSuite alternative.
I’ve heard “NetSuite is or has become too expensive”, “NetSuite as a company is too difficult to deal with” and “NetSuite is too bloated”. Further more there is sufficient public evidence that NetSuite is moving away from the small business market and therefore it’s no surprise that alternatives are rapidly emerging to fill the small business ERP gap.
Larger vendors such as SAP have done an excellent job of educating the business communities that an ERP solution is undisputedly better than a group of ‘glued’ together point solutions to meet the needs of key functions such as back office accounting, sales order management, customer relationship management etc. Savvy small business owners know that ERP promotes joined up thinking and can present a clearer comprehensive picture of their business activities.
The rapid emergence and acceptance of relatively low cost and easy to deploy Software as a Service (SaaS) applications to manage key functions such as CRM has caught the business markets attention and increased confidence and trust in on demand solutions. Small businesses in their thousands are turning to the cloud in their quest for more complex applications like ERP. The combination of ‘trust’, speed of deployment and significantly lower cost presented by SaaS or ‘cloud computing’ is a compelling, accessible and relatively low risk option for small businesses.
Successful adoption and implementation of small business ERP still requires a skilled and experienced hand and whilst the instances of professional services opportunities are increasing, the project sizes are decreasing. Aggressive players such as salesorder.com are shrinking ERP SaaS license costs and creating demand for low cost services. This is driving vendors and third party implementers to rethink their services delivery model and innovate. Veterans such as US market leader Skyytek with nearly a thousand SaaS implementations under their belt are already adept at ‘over the net’ deployments with experienced consultants working remotely delivering coaching and implementation services at significantly lower cost than traditional ‘on premise’ consultants.
Vigorous continuous improvement driven by rising demand and the need for speed in services delivery is a fertile breeding ground for new more sophisticated and higher margin ‘digital service’ products that enable DIY implementations and need minimal assistance. This definitely spells trouble for the ‘old guard’ professional services firms and it is from these well stocked hunting grounds that the nemesis for companies like NetSuite and their partners will emerge. The disruptive, low cost and ruthlessly efficient players like salesorder.com and Skyytek with their cost cutting edge as sharp as a hunters blade are today’s and tomorrow’s alternative, and they just like the small businesses they serve will grow and most probably prevail.
NetSuite is already behaving like a pursued and delirious animal as it senselessly lashes out at giants like SAP, snatches the spoils of it’s partners and taunts resellers with its ‘SaaS will wipe you out messages’. It’s only a matter of time before everyone conceives alternative ideas about NetSuite…