NetSuite initiates fight in "software's last battleground"

On-demand CRM and business apps vendor NetSuite has declared its intention to fight for control of the mid-market, declaring it "the last great battle in the software market".

Dubbing it the 'Suite Wars', the company's CEO Zach Nelson said vendors must make sense of the challenges faced by mid-sized companies who need to cut through the clutter and complexity of their IT systems. And he had harsh words for rival vendors who he accused of trying to ship overly-complex solutions.

"I guess with a name like NetSuite you can guess what our opinion is," said Nelson, who claims companies have too many fragmented systems and cannot pay the King's ransom which enterprises shelled out to large integrators in order to join up their own disparate systems.

"What the mid-market needs is very different to what the enterprise needs," said Nelson, adding that ease of use and simpler implementation are vital as smaller companies lack the resources for complex projects and often need to be more reactive than a lengthy and costly rollout will allow.

Speaking at a launch event for NetSuite version 11.0 at the Oakland Coliseum in California, NetSuite customer Tom DeWerff, retail accounting manager at Associated Grocers, supported this point, saying many of the stores he works with are run by people "some of whom have never touched a computer before".

To that end, NetSuite claims its greater use of Ajax (asynchronous java and XML), which allows for a more Windows-like, drag and drop, customisable environment, is a revolution.

Taking pot-shots at his rivals, who he claims have "spread fear and uncertainty" about the on-demand and hosted offering, NetSuite's Nelson said smaller companies cannot rely on the old adage of 'nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft'.

"Even Microsoft can't get Dynamics CRM to work with Great Plains, so what chance do these small businesses have?"

Of SAP, he said they "will still ship you a CD and dare you to install it".

Nelson was also critical of Salesforce.com's recently announced AppExchange service and that compay's intentions to become 'the iTunes of business applications'.

"Salesforce.com is the anti-suite," said Nelson. "Why have one platform when you can have hundreds?"

"People call it Lego blocks. It's more like spaghetti," he said. "We're supposed to believe all this stuff will just magically work. Sprinkle the magic pixie dust and it will just work."