NetSuite Channel Chief Leaves

Brown served as vice president of alliances and channel sales. Craig West, director of channels, is taking over her duties for now, NetSuite confirmed. West has been with the company for five years. Before that, he was at ACCPAC.

Brown came in when Adam Ross, another ACCPAC veteran, departed in March 2005. Ross, in turn, replaced Susan Gallagher earlier that year.

One partner hearing the news said that NetSuite partners need to have an advocate at company headquarters in San Mateo, Calif. Up until now, West has been based on the East Coast, with an additional office in Phoenix. Brown, on the other hand, was in San Mateo.

"At least she was in front of the top guys there," said the partner, who requested anonymity.

Once known as NetLedger, NetSuite made partner pals early by promising 30 percent margins on the upfront sale of the service and every year thereafter as long as the contract was active. That contrasted with hosted CRM vendor Salesforce.com, which offered partners a one-time referral fee on new sales.

But NetSuite has had some channel growing pains of late.

Several NetSuite partners have said the vendor recently changed its channel program, lessening margins paid to all but its biggest partners. NetSuite executives maintain they have not changed terms for several years but that some long-standing partners that had been grandfathered in under older contracts may now be brought into line with the current terms and conditions.

NetSuite has said it is continuing to work on an initial public offering.