NetSuite set a date for their Initial Public Offering, December 21, 2007, and I feel compelled to comment. Frankly, I have left this subject untouched because I don't think there is too much of interest here. We have seen this a million times before and it seems to me that NetSuite has followed a pretty well known path. Or has it? One of the commentators on the pending IPO remarked sarcastically that NetSuite has been around for 9 years, true, and their IPO took too long to come to fruition. When I stopped to think about it I realized that he has a point. Most tech IPOs happen, it seems, when the company is about 3 years old, tops. Some IPO after 6 months of losses. But NetSuite has taken 9 long years to come to the public markets, and is finally at a point where profitability is a quarter or two away. First, let me say congratulations to Evan Goldberg. I don't know this man, have never actually shaken his hand, though I heard his presentation at the most recent partner conference. But I appreciate people with real vision who are willing to take the journey and Evan did just that. NetSuite was his idea and his baby these last 9 years and I respect that enormously. He and his team built NetSuite from the ground up when Software as a Service was nothing more than a gleam in Evan's, and the world's, eye. What they have built is also astounding. A really sound business management system with an eye to detail and some great functionality. Mr Goldberg and I do have one thing in common, and that is our background as Oracle employees. It makes me smile sometimes when I see Evan's comments on the NetSuite user forums. I understand the experiences that have brought him to the point where he is now. Oracle's applications are incredibly complex, to the point where they take forever to install and implement and maintain. (So are SAP's, Peoplesoft's, Lawson's, and all the rest). It was not a conscious effort to make them this complex, but they started with the idea that they could create one code set that would serve the entire universe of business models. As a result, that added functionality upon functionality, and in the end it was more complex than people can manage. The experience was not lost on NetSuite's development team. They keep NetSuite's code lean and mean, and have also provided the means by which particular business models can add the functionality that they require, on top of the base application. This is a smart step forward for ERP/CRM systems, and I believe that this will continue for NetSuite and other players in the market. Vanilla software has no market, and software laden with every business model flavor overwhelms the people who implement, maintain, administer and use it. The best answer we have now is NetSuite, with a solid base application and the SuiteFlex tools for adding custom functionality. Partners like us have the ability to customize the software for various vertical markets with SuiteFlex. It's a great solution. Evan and his team have done an extraordinary job and they deserve the fruits of the IPO. After 9 long years they are rewarded. Well done! |
