NetSuite's Unlimited ambitions

When he worked for Oracle back in the 1990s, NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson was handed the poison chalice of having to organise the annual user conference. It was an experience that was enough to put him off the idea of user conferences for life, he's always said.

So it was something of a development to find Nelson on stage in San Francisco this week fronting up the first major NetSuite user conference, SuiteWorld. (“Well, here we are,” he noted ironically.)

The principal announcement to be made on day one of the conference concerned NetSuite Unlimited, a product bundle that's unashamedly pitched into the enterprise and can accommodate unlimited amounts of users, storage space, apps, modules and subsidiaries. Nelson explained:

“We've done our best to give you the power of the big boys, and give the big boys agility.”

Another component of NetSuite Unlimited is a new partnership with services firm Accenture, which has created an ERP (enterprise resource planning) practice around NetSuite's software.

Accenture is doing the installation for one new NetSuite customers, Qualcomm, which is consolidating its mid-tier ERP on NetSuite OneWorld. Peter Rubenacker, vice president of information technology, Qualcomm, noted:

“Qualcomm's operations span about 140 locations worldwide with various local software systems. OneWorld presents us with an opportunity to begin centralising some parts of our e-commerce systems and further streamlining the management process. We're looking forward to implementing the service."

NetSuite Unlimited will set customers back around $1 million, which is way above the usual NetSuite price ticket but which Nelson said was “more than worth it” for global businesses that need it. And that phrase 'need it' is important. Nelson noted:

“We know NetSuite Unlimited is not for everyone, but think about global companies, If you don’t ever have to outgrow your software, what is that worth to you?”

Following along in the wake of Salesforce.com's Chatter push and RightNow's social media focus, NetSuite's building in support for the Yammer social networking offering. Yammer is developing technology called Yammer Technology Streams that will form the foundation of the alliance with NetSuite. The core technology will be available in the second quarter with the "Yammer Activity Stories” API available for third-party developers in the third quarter.

This is an obvious move, argued Nelson, as customers want and need increasingly to collaborate on editing and sharing information on their NetSuite deployments and records:

“You take a look at all of the action that is happening on this record, there is not other thing to call it but social.”

NetSuite is also putting on view closer ties to Oracle, whose CEO Larry Ellison owns the majority of its shares. NetSuite has purchased one of Oracle's Exadata computer servers, which will let it run the Oracle databases that underpin its online software faster and more efficiently in its own data centre. Mark Hurd, president of Oracle, made a guest appearance at the NetSuite event and declared:

“When you're a customer of NetSuite, you're also a customer of Oracle and you are very important to us.”

Hurd's appearance was perhaps another interesting development. Over the past few years NetSuite has not played up its links with Ellison and while his stake is a personal one – ie not an Oracle corporate stake – the Oracle association by implication has sometimes seemed to be a double edged sword for NetSuite, an easy stick for its rivals to beat it with. But this week Oracle associations were as out and proud on view as those with Accenture, a sign of enterprise maturity for Netsuite. Nelson remarked:

“We couldn't do what we do without Oracle. They're an unbelievable partner.”