NetSuite Offers Money-Back, 99.5 Percent Uptime Guarantee

Software-as-service company NetSuite has taken the reassuring step of issuing a 99.5 percent uptime guarantee, or customers get their money back for the affected month.

The guarantee, announced last week, applies to the company's entire application family, which includes NetSuite, NetERP, NetCRM and Oracle Small Business Suite.

Zach Nelson, president and CEO of the San Mateo, Calif., company, said customers will receive credit for a full month's service if a NetSuite application should fail anytime, Monday through Friday and most weekends. "But we reserve six hours on the second and third weekend of every month for any maintenance we might have to do," said Nelson. "This guarantee is measured by customer--it's not a blended rate of our data center. That really sets us apart from any outsourcer."

According to Nelson, all NetSuite customers will see this guarantee spelled out in their service-level agreements. "We think this is important for partners because it's their reputation that's on the line, too. And I think it gives us a leg up in attracting partners who might be reticent about representing an ASP type of product."

NetSuite currently has about 220 channel partners. Nelson said the company wants to add more large resellers to its channel mix.