ERP Solutions/Enterprise Solution - analysis and my thoughts
To all SMB owners,
If you are a small and medium business owners and deciding which software to buy to run your ebusiness, here is my analysis and I hope this helps you in your decision making...
After working for past 7yrs in enterprise solution and speaking to several small and business owners, resellers and vendors, I would like to shed some light on this topic.
There is a huge change in enterprise space, Microsoft is collaborating all its software to enter in a big way, the leader QuickBooks is back to its drawing board to address the "All In One software" for SMB, netsuite is going great guns, new Competitors like Interprise are entering this space and others like Everest are trying to hold their ground..
NetSuite has advanced further with its package and is doing good in the market as of now, compared to other competitors, but has downside to its strategy, just think about it, if you are going to spend $100 per mth per user (all options) for one year and for every other year of usage and you still don't own nothing, what is your Total Cost of Ownership (TOC)?? But Pros Netsuite is backed by the leader in database, knows how to run their business and has very effective VAR program compared to other solution which is mentioned in this post.
Look at the following points if you are buying software from a vendor
1. Who are the founders of the company/current CEO, their track record their objectives for running this company just to make profits so the investor gets their bucks and eventually sell to big fish
2. What technology is used to build this software? Because that clearly shows how dependant the vendor is on other software giants like Microsoft, Oracle, Intuit etc... If somebody is using Delphi let's say how many people really use Delphi today even though it is powerful tool
3. What is their selling strategy? Direct or VARS, direct clearly says "I don’t want to give my piece of cake to others ..." so how can you expect to eat the cake, VAR channel they will put themselves to help you grow, and guide every step they believe in customer relationship and retention
4. Do they have Software Development Kit (SDK) Why is this required, if you want to grow big and if you want to add-on more functionality that is specific to your business/industry this is a must so that you are not totally dependant on the software vendor and spend huge amounts for customization, and VARS love SDK's it makes them feel FREE
5. Is this software built on Open source code which means that everybody is working to build this software but nobody to support or nobody owns ownership for support and boils down to your VAR/resellers ability
6. Price - the most important, nothing comes free and even if it is what's the catch read the small letter prints :). Use RFP and make a matrix of "who is who", which helps you to decide the winner.
What is the cost of implementation, cost of support, cost of learning/training your employees (Keep in mind employees quit all the time and the new ones you hire should be knowing the software already or you have to reinvest in training)
7. Web based is the "way to go", the new Interprise is on its way of promising note, because of being web based enterprise, it is developed using Microsoft technology, since it is new in this space I expect the prices would be lower as they have to gain market share.
But beware they are new that means they have to unearth few issues such as bugs in software, stability, customer satisfaction, support and stay in competition.
8. No harm, in trying this beta but if you are planning to go live then weigh the risks and options, whereas Netsuite has great name and is a great product, has VAR's, well established customer market share, kicking the thick client (client server applications like Everest) out of competition, but has to be hosted always, which kind of sucks coz of Total Cost of Ownership...
I'm not suggesting you to buy specific software but weighing all options out there in the market and this could allow you to make your decision easy.
Let me know if these thoughts really helped you in your decision.
Thanks
Great Review of Considerations
Hey InfoSourcing,
That was a great review of the factors to consider in adopting a business management platform. Two of the issues that you mentioned bear more consideration. They are total cost of ownership (TCO) and software ownership.
The hidden costs of self-hosting a complicated CRM/ERP package can be substantial. Hardware maintenance, network design and security and the endless stream of software patches require expertise that most growing businesses simply do not have and cannot afford. These issues do not arise at all with NetSuite.
Here is a recent article that NetSuite TCO was just less than half (50% lower) of a competing bundle from Best Software:
http://www.crm2day.com/news/crm/114696.php
Another related issue is support for customization which can again drive up TCO. Many applications do not support customization of record types, workflow, rpeorting and messaging. Consider whether you can add new types of information, in effect redesigning the database, to track information that is important to your business. Even if you can, will these changes survive an upgrade in the software? NetSuite's NetFlex platform allows truly unprecedented customization of a web-based application that is fully supported through the upgrade cycle.
The second issue is software ownership. Lets be clear about this. You never OWN software. At best, you obtain the perpetual right to use it under certain license terms. This distinction may not be relevant when the software is a video game. It is very important, however, when considering a BMS. Prior to the emergence of NetSuite and other hosted applications, the software industry was based on repeatedly selling customers upgrade packages. These came in two forms: new version purchases and maintenance contracts. In some cases, companies would discontinue existing products (Example: the recent iCode decision to drop the Everest Standard product) leaving an upgrade path that is often more expensive and usually technically complex. If your software stops working and is no longer supported, "owning" it is of very limited benefit. Even if this strategy is not adopted, maintenance rates generally run in the order of 20% of the original price, which means you are "rebuying" the software every four to five years. Finally, technical requirements for the software may require you to periodically upgrade your hardware, OS or other related software otherwise your software may no longer be supported.
By contrast, NetSuite is open about its business model. They offer, 'We will provide all the software you need to run your business and to keep it current, available and secure on state of the art hardware with upgrades and patches applied for a single monthly fee.'
Depending upon your size, number of locations, pace of growth and business model, NetSuite may be an attractive option with truly lower TCO.
Try this ERP CRM Accounting Ecommerce Time Manaement Project Management Planning ...
ok the software does too much. Maybe I won't mention it :)
Beta Program - No response
Hi Gary,
I applied for beta program maybe 2 months back and never heard from you guys infact I even referred couple of my other friends/reseller to apply and neither they have heard from you guys, not a good response from a company which wants to grow....
We will look fwd to hear from you guys from our previous submission to beta program.....
