Things we like about NetSuite:

• Good accounting system; NetSuite has been producing accounting software longer than CRM software and is much better known for their hosted accounting solution than there CRM product (hence there original company name was NetLedger and later changed to NetSuite)
• Excellent e-commerce module

Things we don't like about NetSuite:

• Because of the lack of functionality and flexibility, we believe the system is limited to small businesses; perhaps that describes NetSuite's seemingly very strong focus on acquiring QuickBooks and Intuit customers
• We don't care much for their CRM software; find it weak relative to the core CRM players
• NetSuite's choice to provide no redundant data center for service delivery and customer data is completely unacceptable. As first reported by Informationweek on July 12, 2007, in a story titled SaaS Vendor NetSuite Has No Separate Backup Center For Customer Data, NetSuite has no separate backup data center for customer data or any of its services. NetSuite acknowledged in its S-1 filing to the SEC that its single data center is located in a third-party facility in an area of California that's vulnerable to earthquakes. More disturbing, in the SEC filing dated July 2nd, NetSuite acknowledged using only one data center to deliver its services and further wrote "We do not currently operate or maintain a backup data center for any of our services or for any of our customers' data, which increases our vulnerability to interruptions or delays in our service," the company said. The SEC filing went on to say that it planned to add a second data center next year, but not for backup services, "We currently intend to add a second data center facility in 2008, the primary purpose of which is to add capacity," the company said.

We're expecting some price and hosted delivery changes from NetSuite. In a September 19, 2007 Wall Street Journal interview, CEO Zach Nelson commented “even with free trials, it takes two months and three to five product demonstrations to close a sale. He was further quoted as saying, “It isn’t easy to figure out how to acquire customers and keep them happy at a low enough cost that you still earn healthy margins.” A post on ZDNet suggested this may be just a method of explaining a high customer churn rate, however, we suspect the cost of sale referenced by Nelson is real and rising and may impose further price escalations in the near term.

For additional NetSuite reviews and readers posts, see:

• ERPblogger.com's NetSuite Post
• BusinessWeek Reader Comments
• ZDNet Netsuite Nightmares and NetSuite Nightmares: Part Deux