NetSuite Calls Microsoft 'ERP Dinosaur'
NetSuite's retort comes on the heels of the company's effort to expand its channel partner ranks by offering resellers 100 percent margins on first-year subscription revenue. That offer particularly targets solution providers who resell software from Microsoft, Sage and SAP, among others.
In an effort to get midsize businesses to switch to its Dynamics ERP applications, Microsoft on Thursday offered a credit of up to $850 for every NetSuite user that switches to Dynamics GP, Dynamics NAV or Dynamics SL " three of Microsoft's ERP packages. The promotion is available until June 25.
"To assume that a single deployment model for ERP will work for every business is unrealistic," said Crispin Read, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics ERP, in a statement about the offer. Under the "Software Plus Services" banner, Microsoft has promoted a hybrid application deployment model that combines on-premise software with subscription-based hosted applications.
While Microsoft does not offer Software-as-a-Service versions of its Dynamics ERP applications, more than 150 partners provide the applications on a hosted basis.
Microsoft also promoted the new credit as an opportunity for the 10,000 solution providers who work with Dynamics applications. "This new offer enables our partners to provide customers with more options and is one of many investments we make in sales support," said Doug Kennedy, vice president of Microsoft Dynamics Partners, in a statement. "To deliver a choice of options, Microsoft Dynamics ERP partners who offer on-premise deployments can partner with hosting providers to provide the best level of technical expertise and skills for their customers and prospects."
But NetSuite doesn't appear to be worried about Microsoft's offensive. "Clearly, this is the last gasp of a dinosaur trying to protect its Stone Age software products," wrote Nelson in an internal memo sent to NetSuite employees Friday and obtained by ChannelWeb.com.
The memo, with the subject line "The Netsuite comet officially hits the Microsoft ERP dinosaur," calls Microsoft's announcement "an obvious act of desperation as Microsoft's customers and partners defect en masse for NetSuite and the cloud."
Microsoft's bid, Nelson wrote, "tries to convince NetSuite customers to move backwards 20 years to try Great Plains, Navision or Solomon"-- the names of Dynamics GP, NAV and SL before Microsoft acquired them.
"Microsoft has no cloud-based ERP answer to NetSuite, and Microsoft's statement that 'hosting' Great Plains is their response to the cloud is so absurd as to be laughable," Nelson said in his memo. "This is the old 'ASP' approach of hosting client/server products that failed as a delivery mechanism even before we entered the Year 2000."