Moving more aggressively to target larger enterprise customers, NetSuite Inc. today unveiled a packaged integration between its software-as-a-service (SaaS) ERP suite and SAP AG’s enterprise applications.
The product, NetSuite OneWorld for SAP, is aimed at SAP enterprise customers that want to automate and integrate remote plants and offices but do not want to incur the cost of implementing an expensive, on-premise ERP system in such far-flung divisions.
“We’re targeting companies with multiple subsidiaries and international locations, where getting full SAP applications up and running would take a long time and where doing so would be overkill for what they need,” said Mini Peiris, vice president for product marketing at NetSuite in an interview with Managing Automation.
“We see a need for more on-demand ERP solutions in the enterprise,” Peiris added. “We are seeing more and more CIOs who represent large companies who see us as a viable part of their plans.”
The NetSuite OneWorld for SAP offering includes an integration component, called SuiteCloud Connect for SAP, which allows NetSuite’s SaaS ERP application to share data with SAP’s R/3, All-in-One, and Business One applications. NetSuite and SAP applications will be able to share a wide range of information, from journal entries to order transactions, inventory data, and customer master data, Peiris said.
NetSuite’s move comes after SAP decelerated the rollout of its own SaaS ERP offering, Business ByDesign. In April 2008, SAP said it would slow the Business ByDesign rollout in order to better understand the SaaS cost model and how to sell the product through its indirect channel. When it originally introduced Business ByDesign 18 months ago, the enterprise apps leader said its goal was to have 1,000 customers for the product by the end of 2008 and €1 billion in Business ByDesign revenue by the end of 2010. Last April, however, SAP said achieving that revenue goal would likely take 12 to 18 months longer than expected as the company moved to cut back its Business ByDesign investment and limit distribution of the product to Germany, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and China.
SAP continues to sell existing products — including its mainstream ERP suite and its All-in-One and Business One suites for small and medium-sized businesses — to existing customers seeking to automate remote plants and offices. So far, SAP has preferred to target ByDesign at new customers and emerging companies.
SAP has targeted Business One, in particular, at the small and medium-sized business niche, working with reseller partners, such as SoftBrands Inc., whose FourthShift Edition for SAP Business One targets divisions of large SAP customers.
SAP doesn’t offer SaaS versions of Business One or All-in-One, although some of its reseller partners sell hosted versions of the applications.
SAP officials today called NetSuite’s OneWorld for SAP offering a one-dimensional approach that fails to deliver what most enterprise subsidiaries and divisions want. While some business units may have an interest in enterprise software delivered as a service, Bill Wohl, SAP vice president of global field communications, told Managing Automation, most are more concerned with issues such as the software’s ability to address their specific business requirements and whether the vendor will be around in 10 years, he said.