NetSuite is a cloud ERP company offering applications for accounting, sales, customer relationships management and human resources management. Acquiring NetSuite will give Oracle an effective cloud strategy and enable it to expand its market presence.
Oracle and NetSuite’s partnership will have major ramifications, providing Oracle access to NetSuite’s expertise in subscription software development.
What will this mean for customers?
NetSuite has long been recognized as a leader in cloud-first ERP for small to midsized businesses (SMB). Now with this acquisition by Oracle, they will further broaden their selection of SaaS applications and meet more of their customer’s SaaS needs.
Oracle’s acquisition of NetSuite will give them access to an integrated ERP and CRM solution for retailers and wholesale distributors who seek an all-encompassing package to fulfill their online storefront requirements. This can attract small and midsize businesses looking for comprehensive ecommerce solutions.
Integrating NetSuite into Oracle will also make it easier for Oracle to cross-sell ERP and CRM features to existing NetSuite users, something which has proven successful with other ERP vendors.
Oracle must tread carefully when marketing their new ERP and CRM offerings to their existing clientele, especially as they expand them further into existing client accounts. They should work to clarify roadmaps and train sales reps on how best to utilize these combined products.
What will this mean for partners?
Netsuite is the go-to integrated cloud business software solution for enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM), offering accounting, inventory, ecommerce capabilities and much more all on one single platform.
Oracle is well known for its acquisition track record. Since 2004, they have paid $10.3 billion for PeopleSoft, $8.55 billion for BEA Systems in 2008, and $7.44 billion for Sun Microsystems in 2009.
Oracle Cloud ERP products have historically focused on serving midmarket organizations. But after its acquisition of NetSuite, this shift will put Oracle directly against products such as Intacct and Epicor.
Partner organizations currently providing NetSuite customers will face a unique set of challenges with this deal, from clarifying product roadmaps and training their sales teams, to informing all NetSuite customers of its impact.
What will this mean for employees?
Cloud computing has revolutionized the software business. Oracle, like other legacy players, has reinvented itself to focus on software-as-a-service offerings that allow customers to pay a subscription fee and access their data over the internet.
NetSuite is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that develops, sells, and provides support for e-commerce solutions for small to mid-tier companies. Their offerings cover accounting, inventory management, sales/marketing/CRM applications.
Human Resources: NetSuite’s SuitePeople module integrates human resource data such as payroll, benefits and compensation into NetSuite seamlessly, enabling managers to track promotions and changes to employee benefits as well as provide employees with self-service tools such as time off requests or viewing directories and organizational charts while conducting performance reviews for managers.
NetSuite also provides smaller companies with add-on modules to expand its core functionality, which are either sold individually or as packages. These modules help businesses automate various functions like accounting, inventory management and customer service.
What will this mean for the industry?
Customers, partners and employees will experience major transformation as Oracle and NetSuite merge. Both companies have seen exponential growth through acquisition, but now they will join forces as one more powerful cloud ERP player.
Through this partnership, Oracle can expand their enterprise cloud offerings while NetSuite expands their SMB presence – something which could allow both companies to capture new business that may otherwise go overlooked or may hesitate to transition into cloud environments like Oracle.
Oracle will also offer NetSuite access to its extensive partner network, making this an extremely valuable move. NetSuite currently handles around half of its implementations internally through teams run by itself – this deal frees up some resources so they can focus on furthering product innovation instead.
NetSuite can use these funds to develop their product further and add features, while still remaining financially sustainable to attract new users and expand its installation base. Furthermore, they will focus on expanding in areas where they have strong presence such as software design and development as well as retail/e-commerce.