NetSuite customers talk success

Yesterday evening I listened into a webinar run by NetSuite and which showcased three customers: Kardia Health, CoverAll Technologies and ClearChoice. The session was moderated by Paul Turner, senior director NetSuite. It is always interesting to listen in on customers. On this occasion I wanted to learn about some of the factors that influenced the buy decision along with benefits achieved. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a repeat of many topics I have advocated on these pages.

Bear in mind these are businesses that are considered small in the US and somewhere between small and medium in the UK. They’re businesses that need an ERP rather than pure financials. In this case, these were companies moving away from Microsoft Great Plains. In one case, the company was moving away from a collection of systems and had not fully implemented all NetSuite capabilities.

The most consistent gripes with Microsoft were

• the need to keep paying for the creation of custom reports and
• rifling through multipole databases in oder to get the information needed by business managers.

In comparison, the words on everyone’s lips were that NetSuite provides data visibility and easy reporting. Modern SaaS systems have reporting baked in. It is not an afterthought as was often the case with older on-premise solutions. In one case, the company reported that:

• Exception reporting is a snap
• Period end close is much faster
• The single database design means the creation of subsidiaries is easy – this was cited as important in M&A situations

It should come as no surprise that two of the speakers were CFOs. Now to the things they looked for when making a selection:

• How was the system backed up, where?
• Assurances about uptime. NetSuite promises 99.5% in its service level agreements. That’s equivalent to about 44 hours downtime a year.
• Vendor viability – how well financed is the provider, what’s their track record?
• Ease of customisation. In this context I wasn’t entirely clear whether the customers were talking configurations but the fact it was easy had made a solid impression.
• Ability to support growth and acquisitions.

One question I didn’t hear answered – the extent to which customers needed to compromise on functionality. On the basis of what I did hear, this was presumably a non topic. One surprise was the fact NetSuite allows auto scheduling of prepayments and accruals, along with fixed asset depreciation, something GP doesn’t accommodate. (I need to check this latter point.)

When you look objectively at these answers it is clear that:

• Customers who are buying into SaaS are not concerned about putting so-called sensitive data into the cloud provided they receive appropriate assurances
• Those looking for SaaS/cloud solutions are not thinking so much about the transaction but the surfacing of information.

OK – so this is only three customers but as I speak to more and more customers similar patterns emerge. There are elements of transformational benefit, especially in the ease of adding new businesses. I wasn’t clear these customers have fully realised benefit but they have gone a considerable way towards running highly effective finance departments that contribute to driving business value.

One final thought. I am often told small businesses in the UK don’t care about some of the hygiene factors noted in this post. That might be true today but it won’t be true going forward. As I have said many times before, not all vendors are created equal. Remember the Clear Books debacle? We will see more of these. In the meantime, you can start to safeguard by at least considering the issues outlined.