 |
SAP became NetSuite's customer. Business ByDesign will be closed
May 18, 2012 | Author: Michael Stromann
Most of all NetSuite loves trolling its rival - SAP. From time to time they organize anti-SAP conferences, marketing campaign a la Business ByNetsuite and produce videos like that one above. And they haven't missed the opportunity to joke on SAP at this time. At the opening of the conference SuiteWorld, Zach Nelson (CEO of NetSuite) took the stage and announced that in the past year the company has achieved their biggest ever win: ERP-giant SAP has become NetSuite's customer. The audience was shocked, and then Zach explained.
As you know, recently SAP acquired SuccessFactors, and this company was using NetSuite. Thus, SAP has become the user of NetSuite. And though after the purchase SuccessFactors has been transfered to SAP's own ERP system, but the NetSuite subscription was still extended and formally NetSuite is still a ERP-provider for SAP.
NetSuite always had a reason to make fun of SAP because of its project SAP Business ByDesign. It's a SaaS ERP for small-medium businesses, which was supposed to become a rival for NetSuite. But first it couldn't launch for 3 years, and now, 2 years after launch - its going to be closed. The new head of Cloud strategy at SAP (former SuccessFactors CEO) Lars Dalgaard yesterday announced that Business ByDesign will be converted into a package of simple and specialized applications: HRM, CRM, SCM and financial system.
SAP explains the failure by the reluctance of companies to transfer their entire IT system to the cloud. They say businesses now prefer to move to the cloud separate applications, such as human resources management. However, NetSuite's example shows that this is not the case. More likely that SAP, that was always working with large companies, could not find a proper way to SMB market.
See also: Top 10 Online ERP software
