Nearly 70% of SAP R/3 Users Face Painful, Forced Migration
NetSuite and Key Integration Partners Offer Cloud Computing Alternative for Thousands of SAP R/3 Customers Facing Forced Upgrade
SAN MATEO, Calif.—September 17, 2009—NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), a leading vendor of cloud computing business management software suites, today announced the NetSuite Crossroads Initiative. The new program is designed to help SAP (NYSE: SAP) customers facing end-of-life scenarios with SAP R/3 software reduce their SAP footprint by migrating to the industry's leading cloud computing business suite. The NetSuite Crossroads Initiative, supported by integration partners CastIron, Pervasive and Boomi, includes NetSuite products, partner services and a special sales promotion to enable mid-size companies and divisions of larger companies to transition from aging SAP software to NetSuite OneWorld for SAP, NetSuite's cloud-based business management suite designed for SAP customers.
For more information on the NetSuite Crossroads Initiative, visit: http://www.netsuite.com.au/SAPcrossroads. NetSuite will also host a Webinar, titled "Strategy Session for SAP R/3 Customers: Upgrade, Maintain or Replace?" For details, please visit www.netsuite.com.au/webinar.
SAP has announced that maintenance for R/3 V4.6 will end as of March 2010; and maintenance for SAP R/3 4.7 will be extended, but at a higher cost. According to Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research, these changes will affect approximately 70 percent of SAP users who now face difficult decisions: whether to pay increased costs for maintenance or upgrade to SAP ERP 6.0.
"Amazingly, the forced migration of SAP R/3 users merely brings SAP customers to SAP ERP 6.0, yet another Stone Age, on-premise product. The migration to NetSuite is not only easier than migrating to the SAP product, but less expensive and most importantly brings customers to the Internet Age," said Zach Nelson, NetSuite CEO.
In a study by Forrester Research*, nearly 70 percent of SAP customers who were not planning an upgrade in 2008 gave their reasons as "too disruptive to the business" or "too expensive to justify."
"These SAP users are clearly at a crossroads," said Rebecca Wettemann, Vice President, Nucleus Research. "In many cases, their decisions will weigh heavily on the success of their organisations. Extended maintenance is a significant ongoing cost, and at best it will likely only buy them a few years. Upgrading to the next SAP ERP release is expensive, disruptive, and time consuming."
NetSuite: Faster, Cheaper and Better
With NetSuite OneWorld for SAP delivered via the cloud, SAP customers transitioning off SAP receive several key benefits, including never again having to pay for maintenance or perform another SAP upgrade themselves, as well as gaining anytime, anywhere access to cutting-edge business management capabilities across international regions, divisions and subsidiaries using only an Internet connection and a Web browser.
One company that did just that is Kansas City-based COMMCO, a 120-employee distributor of home improvement products. COMMCO chose NetSuite as an alternative to an upgrade that would have taken over six months and cost over $1 million. Another company, Asahi Kasei Spandex America, saved $1 million in costs, and is also saving $20,000 per month, after switching from SAP R/3 to NetSuite.
The NetSuite Alternative
The NetSuite Crossroads Initiative offers an alternative to SAP customers: move to business software based on SaaS, or cloud computing, rather than the conventional license-and-maintenance model of SAP which requires extensive in-house IT resources. The cloud computing model greatly reduces the total cost of ownership and yields productivity gains throughout the organization. NetSuite's Crossroads initiative includes these components:
For more information about NetSuite Inc., please visit www.netsuite.com.au.
NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are registered service marks of NetSuite Inc.
* Source: Enhancement Packages Improve SAP Upgrade Value, Forrester Research, May 29 2008