TransACT switches Oracle ERP for Netsuite
The industry is at a turning point for cloud-based ERP, Netsuite's CEO Zach Nelson said as he announced one of the company's newest customers: Canberra-based internet service provider (ISP) TransACT.
TransACT had been running Oracle enterprise resource planning, but the contract had been coming to an end, and the company had to consider its options.
As it had a look at various vendors, cost and time were at the forefront of the telco's mind, according to Roze Frost, TransACT general manager of IT, and it was those savings that brought Netsuite over the line.
"It was the cloud solution which had the least cost and the quickest time," she said.
Time was an especially important factor, as TransACT had a "really short timeframe" to move off its existing Oracle ERP, the contract for which ran out on 1 July.
"We were nervous," Frost said. However, it all worked out, with TransACT now running Netsuite for core ERP functionality, such as project accounting, inventory management, payroll and HR.
However, Frost stressed that the company isn't using Netsuite for the network side of the business, as that would require putting customer data in the cloud, which, with government customers, isn't going to fly unless it is housed onshore.
"That's why we're limited to the business side," she said.
Netsuite's Nelson remained unmoved on the subject of having an Australian datacentre, saying that he didn't see the need, as there are obvious cost savings in only having limited facilities.
"Some people may want to wake up and hug the server in Sydney," he said. "If he or she wants to spend an extra 2 per cent of revenue to hug that server, sure."
IBRS analyst Kevin McIsaac disagreed, pointing out the various infrastructure as a service vendors, such as Telstra and Optus, which are coming online with new offers, and seeing increased demand.
"I think there is a very strong emotional component to that, and I think that puts a drag on your business model," he said.
Nelson said that if some companies can't get over that emotional component, their competitors would.
Netsuite has experienced 107 per cent market share growth in Australia in 2010 on the back of ERP, according to the company.
He said that cloud products are reaching a tipping point, as proven by the amount of interest in enterprise resource planning cloud services.
"That's going to be the last application that will tip," he said.
Another company that has jumped on-board with Netsuite's ERP has been Winemarket, which said that the product had allowed it to clear the two people it had been using for administration purposes for marketing and growing the business.
Other announcements that Netsuite made today were an agreement with Google to bring its cloud ERP to Google's Chromebooks, and a partnership with Australian firm SecurePay to make setting up a local payment gateway easy for those on Netsuite's business management suite.