NetSuite Verticalizes SaaS to Enable "Service as Software"
As the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market gains momentum, SaaS providers are trying to differentiate themselves in the increasingly competitive marketplace by repositioning themselves as ‘platform’ vendors rather than point-solution providers.
Salesforce.com has gained the most attention moving from a product to a platform position with the success of its AppExchange and the unveiling of its new Apex programming language.
This week, NetSuite responded by unveiling a new platform of its own, SuiteFlex, to expand its presence in the SaaS market. While Salesforce.com’s partners have primarily focused on expanded the array of horizontal applications that can be linked together on the AppExchange, NetSuite’s SuiteFlex initiative is aimed at delivering a new generation of vertical market applications.
The SuiteFlex platform is built upon NetSuite’s SuiteScript programming language, which was unveiled months before Salesforce.com’s Apex, but has generated little attention or support. NetSuite is enhancing the SuiteScript language with Suitelets, SuiteTalk, SuiteScript UI and SuiteBundler.
NetSuite is hoping its expanded portfolio of programming tools will attract a larger number of industry-specific partners to create a new ‘ecosystem’ of vertical market, industry-oriented solutions linked to NetSuite’s core products.
The first round of enlistees include Explore Consulting, IT-Ration Consulting, Epiphany, Kuspide, Marketworks, Onsite Technology, Skyytek Worldwide, Demand Solutions Group and Ncompass Business Solutions.
While this is a good start, NetSuite universe of partners is still just a fraction of the size of Salesforce.com’s AppExchange.
In order to match Salesforce.com’s success, NetSuite will have to intensify its marketing efforts. And instead of complicating the world with its new “Service as Software” campaign, NetSuite will have to clearly demonstrate that the SuiteFlex platform can generate real, tangible benefits for customers and partners.
(This is a lesson that IBM is still learning with the failure of its vain attempt to differentiate itself with its lame ‘Software as Service’ banner.)
