Good Interview with Zach Nelson in Forbes
The questions were tough and right to the heart of NetSuite’s business and SaaS – software as a service, especially on security. On several occasions Nelson mentions that the target maket is th 5 million companies in the segment just below the Fortune 500. This might be a ‘bit’ of an exaggeration but we’ll give it to him. These are actually good size companies, most of them. They probably have over 200 employees and several locations, and many of them have of course an employee count in the 1000’s.
My one question for Nelson, which was not asked, is how NetSuite is going to help to create a SaaS ecosystem in its targeted customer base. For example, if a company is going to use a SaaS ERP and CRM system then you have to expect it is also going to use a SaaS HR System, and a SaaS Supply Chain, etc.. As I wrote recently, NetSuite suffers in my opinion from a lack of competition from other SaaS ERP systems in this market, and helping to create a SaaS ecosystem would be one way to crack this nut.
Of course, it’s a lot easier said than done, as anyone in business knows. There is a lot less collaboration between software firms that have synergistic, as opposed to competitive products, than one would expect. Alliances are difficult to start and often end up creating more problems than they solve. NetSuite has also used some of the proceeds from 2007’s IPO to purchase some products that gave it broader functionality – like OpenAir and QuickArrow, both in the Professional Services Automatoin space. Buy or ally – probably not a question NetSuite or others can answer at this time, and this also makes alliances more difficult.
At the very least, some of the key SaaS players in various software verticals should really think about creating a unified force. It would be great to see Saleforce.com, SuccessFactors, Taleo, Concur, NetSuite, HelpStream and several others together in a SaaS showplace.
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