NETSUITE TARGETS END-OF-LIFE SAP R/3 USERS WITH NEW CROSSROADS INITIATIVE
Nearly 70% of SAP R/3 Users Face Painful, Forced Migration NetSuite and Key Integration Partners Offer Cloud Computing Alternative for Thousands of SAP R/3 Customers Facing Forced Upgrade
SAN MATEO, Calif. (September 17, 2009) – NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), a leading vendor of cloud computing business management software suites, today announced the NetSuite Crossroads Initiative. The new program is designed to help SAP (NYSE: SAP) customers facing end-of-life scenarios with SAP R/3 software reduce their SAP footprint by migrating to the industry’s leading cloud computing business suite. The NetSuite Crossroads Initiative, supported by integration partners CastIron, Pervasive and Boomi, includes NetSuite products, partner services and a special sales promotion to enable mid-size companies and divisions of larger companies to transition from aging SAP software to NetSuite OneWorld for SAP, NetSuite’s cloud-based business management suite designed for SAP customers.
For more information on the NetSuite Crossroads Initiative, visit: http://www.netsuite.com/SAPcrossroads. NetSuite will also host a Webinar, titled “Strategy Session for SAP R/3 Customers: Upgrade, Maintain or Replace?” For details, please visit www.netsuite.com/webinar.
SAP has announced that maintenance for R/3 V4.6 will end as of March 2010; and maintenance for SAP R/3 4.7 will be extended, but at a higher cost. According to Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research, these changes will affect approximately 70 percent of SAP users who now face difficult decisions: whether to pay increased costs for maintenance or upgrade to SAP ERP 6.0.
“Amazingly, the forced migration of SAP R/3 users merely brings SAP customers to SAP ERP 6.0, yet another Stone Age, on-premise product. The migration to NetSuite is not only easier than migrating to the SAP product, but less expensive and most importantly brings customers to the Internet Age,” said Zach Nelson, NetSuite CEO.
In a study by Forrester Research*, nearly 70 percent of SAP customers who were not planning an upgrade in 2008 gave their reasons as “too disruptive to the business” or “too expensive to justify.”
“These SAP users are clearly at a crossroads,” said Rebecca Wettemann, Vice President, Nucleus Research. “In many cases, their decisions will weigh heavily on the success of their organizations. Extended maintenance is a significant ongoing cost, and at best it will likely only buy them a few years. Upgrading to the next SAP ERP release is expensive, disruptive, and time consuming.”
Source: NetSuite
