Now is a great time to be a NetSuite partner. And for those who are not NetSuite partners, now is a good time to add NetSuite to the portfolio. Why? There is a huge opportunity waiting, courtesy of Microsoft.
Microsoft, through changes in its application product strategy and roadmap, is sending a signal that customers should migrate from Dynamics GP, SL, NAV, AX or Business Edition to Dynamics 365 within the next several years. This means that up to 300,000 Dynamics customers are at a cross-roads(opens in new tab) and need to evaluate whether to upgrade to Dynamics 365 or possibly switch to a new platform.
Why are 300,000 customers up for grabs? Although Microsoft pitches migration between Dynamics versions as a simple upgrade, it is actually a 12-step process (according to Microsoft(opens in new tab)) requiring significant IT resources to execute. In fact, it is more difficult to migrate to Dynamics 365 in many cases, taking up to 24 weeks, than it is to implement NetSuite (typically 100 days or less(opens in new tab)).
What makes upgrading Dynamics complicated is inherent in its architecture. First, Dynamics SL, GP, AX and NAV, were all developed independently by different companies - Solomon Software, Great Plains, IBM/Damgaard Data and Navision, respectively. Microsoft acquired these companies and put their products into the Dynamics portfolio, but they continued to be developed in their own silos, as independent solutions.
Now Microsoft is attempting to simplify from four separate platforms down to two with Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations and 365 Business Central. With both of these incompatible platforms, the underlying complexity hasn’t been addressed, only masked. Dynamics 365 continues as a combination of different applications, written on different code bases, with different upgrade cycles, all using different databases stitched together through a common datastore and middleware layer. Moving from a legacy Dynamics solution to either of the Dynamics 365 platforms is complicated because every application, the integrations between every application and every customization built on the applications needs to addressed in some manner through either data conversion, rewriting code, rebuilding reporting, etc.
As a partner, now is the time to get in front of Dynamics customers. Contrast Dynamics’ overly complex collection of individual applications with NetSuite, a born-in-the-cloud, truly modern ERP platform. Unlike Dynamics, NetSuite is designed from the ground up to address an entire business, integrating ERP, CRM, supply chain management, manufacturing, ecommerce and more into a single platform with a unified data source. With NetSuite, not only is complexity significantly reduced but functionality is increased, allowing customers to manage and analyze their entire business from end to end in real-time. Plus, the more than 40,000 organizations using NetSuite are on the same version, receiving twice-per-year simple, automatic upgrades -- keeping them in sync with the latest government regulations and functionality.
Partners see direct benefit from selling NetSuite. As a partner, by implementing NetSuite in place Dynamics or other similar solutions, you reduce IT complexity and evolve from IT problem solver to trusted business advisor to your customers.
What if you’re a partner selling Microsoft today? You may be wondering what happens to all your service revenue. You get paid to tie all those applications together and keep them working. With NetSuite, your customers shift their budget and look to you to implement projects that add more value to their business. Your engagement with customers will shift from break/fix to projects that increase revenue and reduce costs for their organization. This makes you more valuable to them and more profitable as a business, while also making your customers more profitable.
Want to learn more?
Current NetSuite partners can watch this recent webinar to find out more about positioning NetSuite vs. Microsoft Dynamics(opens in new tab) and prospective NetSuite partners can learn about the benefits of joining NetSuite(opens in new tab).