NetSuite versus SAP: Something’s weird

NetSuite, the on-demand applications provider, has released OneWorld, which pulls together ERP, CRM, e-commerce, and business intelligence into a hosted format. NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson took some shots at SAP during the product’s launch, telling the U.K.’s IT Week that OneWorld is “far more robust a system than you get when you pay $100m.”

As it turns out, though, there’s some tension between this statement and what NetSuite says in its 10-K: “Until NetSuite, we believe there was no provider of an on-demand, integrated suite of business management applications that addresses [sic] the needs of SMBs in the comprehensive manner that Oracle and SAP address the similar needs of large enterprises.”

So, in its 10-K, NetSuite admits that SAP and Oracle do indeed address enterprise needs in a “comprehensive manner,” an admission that is directly contradicted by the Nelson quote. After all, if SAP and Oracle are indeed comprehensive business applications suites, how can NetSuite be “far more robust” than them? Logically, it doesn’t make sense.

Hyperbole is common in the B2B software market, but it seems excessive when a company’s own 10-K contradicts the CEO.

Demir Barlas, Site Editor