Last week I received 4 different touches about NetSuite's planned partnership with CompUSA, wherein CompUSA will resell NetSuite and hold training classes at its locations. First, my wife showed me an article in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. On Wednesday I received a memo from Craig West, the VP of NetSuite's channel. Then a group of enterprise bloggers with whom I associate asked me for comment via Zoli Erdos, a guest blogger here. Finally, I received a request for quote from Vinnie Mirchandani, the Deal Architect and also one of our guest bloggers (see right). Whew! I haven't been this popular in quite a while. But it stands to reason that I ought to have something to say about all this. Now that the hoopla surrounding the American 4th of July holiday is over let's get on with it. First, I have to say that the idea of selling Software as a Service in a retail store did not strike me as a weird or bad one, like some observers thought. My first impression in our economy is normally why not? Just look around for gosh sake, the American economy is an absolute laboratory of not just new products but new delivery methods. You can buy a tool online, at a retail store or from a truck that pulls right up to the door of your business and sells tools (Mac) like sandwiches. (Yes, in America we sell sandwiches from a truck.) And then when you start to look at the deal it really makes some sense. 600 or so locations and each one with a classroom. That's cool. I have written before that Microsoft achieved such huge success because of the economy that they created around their products. They have bloated all of their products with functionality, and as a result they have a huge number of training partners who further validate MS's products. This economy may not be as important as it once was, but there was a time not that long ago when MS was trying to cross the chasm into the enterprise and the fact that they had an army of training partners was extremely important. So NetSuite starts to hold classes at CompUSA and SME (small and medium enterprise) owners have an opportunity to attend a local class. Awesome. Most of the SMEs who have implemented by themselves or on some skinny plan offered by NetSuite will probably be the first to sign up. I talk to these folks every day and they need help using the product, understanding the product, understanding the business process, both by itself and in the product. SMEs need a competent partner to help them succeed with NetSuite. A simple inventory, ok, here's how you set it up, pretty straightforward. But you can now create inventory with landed costs in NetSuite. This requires first that the Customer understand landed costs and how they can help them, and then how they work in NetSuite. During my Oracle career the large clients we worked with were adamant about how they did business. They told you how it was going to be, and only after several months did both sides step back and start to see the legitimacy of different approaches. But with the SME, they are usually implementing new software and new business processes simultaneously, and without a partner they stumble under the weight. The other part of the deal is that CompUSA will reach out to local firms like ours for help in implementation, at least that's what they are saying now. We welcome the additional business and the chance to work with a national partner. But more importantly we see the CompUSA deal as an opportunity. First it validates the SaaS model for business management software. Sure we offer training, but during the sales process when the customer knows that they can also receive further training at CompUSA, it's an added comfort, a plus. They may or may not ever avail themselves of that training, but just knowing that it's there makes them less nervous. Second, it will introduce new efficiencies into the NetSuite implementation market. Vinnie Mirchandani has written often about trying to wring some efficiencies out of the bloated software implementation process. I couldn't agree more. I see firms paying an a huge premium to have their software implemented. This is unfortunate. At the end of the day NetSuite customers need help and guidance, not fussy, time consuming implementations. I think that the CompUSA deal will drive down the price of implementation to the average SME. The firms that are charging a premium will be forced to come back to reality and firms like ours, where we try to keep implementation costs between 50% and 75% of license, will win. | 
