Netsuite Feedback

[rockymike]

I am in the midst of launching an ecommerce venture and am looking for feedback on Netsuite. I have looked at Everest and Quickbooks, but am leaning toward Netsuite.

Summary of my Netsuite analysis:
Pros - 1. Integration of ecommerce, CRM and accounting functions eliminates the need to integrate data from disparate systems and possibility of data entry duplication (and errors). 2. Hosting model eliminates the need for IT expertise (backups, database administration, etc.) in my company and makes upgrades simple. 3. Ecommerce/CRM functionality is more than robust enough to accomplish my business requirements. 4. Pricing fits my budget.

Cons - 1. Since Netsuite requires use of their shopping cart, users are limited to some extent with what they can do with their website (my analysis is that Netsuite's built in functionality will meet my requirements, but I'm curious if any Netsuite users have encountered this limitation). 2. Although the short term cost/benefit analysis favors Netsuite, it seems as though in the 3 - 5 year window, the cost/benefit analysis may swing the other way.

Question marks - 1. I have seen a few grumblings about Netsuite's speed - does anyone have any experience, good or bad, in that regard? 2. Netsuite claims that it is easy to migrate from it to another platform - has anyone had any bad experiences migrating FROM Netsuite? 3. I have been quoted retail pricing for the software - has anyone successfully negotiated a discount on the software (other than in exchange for payment up front on extended terms)?

I am expecting to make a decision on this in the next 1 - 2 weeks. Any comments on the above would be greatly appreciated.

[rowen]

I generally agree with your summary. I have these comments & questions:

1. I reviewed Netsuite thoroughly 2 years ago and decided to buy Everest at the time. Netsuite speed (or lack of) was a big issue for me. I am now considering Netsuite again and my trial account is much, much quicker than before. In fact, I have no problem with the speed currently. It seems about as fast as any sizeable Access or Foxpro database over a network.

2. eCommerce flexibility in Netsuite is much greater in what they call a Level II or Level III option. Both offer different levels of flexibility that will cover anything you could want to do. Unless you want a radically custom website, Level II would cover most issues you could have. BTW, it does cost more.

3. Regarding negotiation: if you're serious, about-to-sign, and it's the end of the month, Netsuite will offer an incentive. I'm not sure yet whether they'll "lock-in" that incentive discount for future years.

4. I have a question for any current Netsuite users: Share your experience regarding cost after the first year. What are your views regarding value vs. cost, particularly in the 3rd, 4th and 5th year. And, after adding several employees.

5. I've described my Everest experience under previous posts. Several 3rd party integrators have offered to help at far less cost than Everest will charge. But I'm still put-off by several things and am not sure I want to waste any more time or money in that direction.

6. Quickbooks doesn't come close to the functionality of Netsuite or Everest. It simply won't meet our needs, even with $10,000 worth of add-on software. We'd like to be using Interprise Suite but it won't be available until 1st quarter '06. And then, who knows how solid it will be in its first year? It is much, much less expensive than Netsuite though.

Bottom line for us is that Netsuite would probably work great for us in almost every conceivable way. I just have a hard time commiting to an annual cost of $15K to $25K from now on. (I also like the Interprise Suite screens a little better - they seem easier to "get", but that's only a secondary issue).

If you sign with Netsuite, share your experience here.

[Gary Harrison]

Hi,

Rowen, thank you for the positive comments on Interprise Suite. It is really appreciated. While I understand your caution of going with a "Version 1" product just imagine what our "version 2" will be like.

Although our company is the "competition" there are a few comments I hear quite often from the Netsuite users and resellers that I talk to.

The first is the issue of the ever increasing price. Since there is no option to "own" your software you are pretty much locked into whatever they charge you once you sign up. There is a good article that mentions these prices increases at...

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20050201/larrys-kids.html

The second is data entry speed. Not the speed that the program runs at - but the speed in which you can enter transactions. Since the browser is not the best application for data entry, I have heard of "high order volume" companies that had to increase their order entry staff to enter the same number of orders. If you do not process a lot of transactions then this should not affect you too much.

The third is connection issues. If your Internet goes down, your company goes down. We are adding offline capabilities into Interprise Suite so that you can continue to enter transactions and it will queue them until the Internet is back up.

Of course i have a problem with giving another company my data, but that is a personal decision.

I should add that i have not personally used Netsuite so I'm baseing this off other peoples comments which may or may not be completely accurate.

As a FYI we are teaming up with AspDotNetStorefront to add ebusiness features to Interprise Suite. You can see the marketing release at http://www.interprisesuite.com/Globa...tPartners.aspx

Sincerely,

Gary Harrison
Interprise Solutions

[pizzaovens]

Just wanted to share my experince with Interprise Solution [IS] as thier conduct has put serious doubt about the support and functionlaity of this software as a complete package.
I contacted ASPDOTNET on 05/12; as I was looking for a single e-commerce, CRM solution, THEY REFERED ME to JOHN GRANDE @ IS. John in turn put me in touch with Susan [thier sales manager for east of US] who referred me to Zak Ali who is one of thier progammer solution provider. While communicating with Zak Ali, a sales person named Jameson sent me a copy of the software minus the front end shopping cart. I played around with this and was very impressed so I asked Zak to send me a copy that included the e-commerce module or give me trial period if I purchased the complete package. In the mean time FOLKS FROM ASPDOTNET continued to call me. Zak talked to Susan and Susan refused to offer a trial or send a demo copy that would include the e-commerce module. So Zak wrote to me on 5/19 that this Is not do-able and that was left at that. I thought this is not good, why would they not offer a COMPLETE package if they are comfortable with thier product to at leat offer a 30 days trial period. I decided to look eleswhere.
The following day [5/20] I got a call from someone in Philippines following up; I simply explained to them I was ready to buy and the reason I did not was because I could not get a complete copy of the software. Next thing I know I get this RUDE e-mail from Susan saying that I have been trying to go round folks to get a better deal and I should not contact IS again.

I was so pissed off, I contacted Jameson back looking for the CEOs e-mail to write to him and complain about Susan’s e-mail. I told them I had no interest in the software anymore and in fact am considering adding to the negative feed backs that are already online:

http://www.ecommerce-reviewed.com/fi...f529b96-0.html

Michael the vice president of IS contacted me, not to assist but to be more insulting. Just though I add this to let you folks know how disgusting Interprise Solutions' customer support is. If they treat potential customers like this, God help folks who have paid for the software and are looking for tech support. I was ready to buy; all I asked for was a COMPLETE working version of the demo and what I got back is abuse.

[Gary Harrison]

Pizzaoven,

I apologize for the “run around”. Interprise Solutions was acquired by the Taylor Corporation during your sales cycle so a few of our internal processes changed along the way. I apologize for the inconvenience that this caused you. The good news is that as part of a multi-billion dollar corporation we have significantly more resources to improve our product and services moving forward.

Interprise Suite is written on top of a flexible platform we call the Connected Business platform. The platform is revolutionary in its openness allowing other software companies to connect their “best of breed” applications to Interprise Suite. AspDotNetStorefront, one of the leading eCommerce providers around, created an eCommerce module that is fully integrated in Interprise Suite allowing for real time, fully integrated eCommerce.

Although we were happy to give you a trial version of Interprise Suite we unable to give you a trial version of AspDotNetStorefront as that is not our product. With that said I understand the need to have a trial of their solution as well and will discuss with them ways we can make a trial version available.

Regarding the eCommerce reviewed site - the company was pretty clear on that site that they were satisfied with Interprise Suite until thier ISP accidently dropping the database and restored an old backup. It was later determined that the backup was corrupt and the database was missing many tables and views. Although the customer was using the “free version” of Interprise Suite and did not pay for support we spent a significant number of hours trying to help them repair their database at no charge. Once this was pointed out to the company they voluntarily took that website down as they agreed the problem was not caused by our software.

Sincerely,

[Pete334]

Sounds like a great platform top work off from.

[wedwsd]

Thanks .