In a recent interview, NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson pointed out a basic truth that nonetheless was sure to draw at least mild alarm from any manager in China using SaaS systems like NetSuite. Namely:
“Social, mobile, and cloud are table stakes now,” Nelson said. “If you have just one of them, you’re not going to be very successful.”
He was referring to how all of these areas are starting to blend together into one system for different vendors, and that any vendor who didn’t do this was setting themselves up for disappointment as they began to lose traction to those who were.
As stated above, this is true!
Trigger has seen more and more of this happening both inside and outside of NetSuite for some time now, and some partners who even center their core offering around this.
However, for the China market, it’s a non-issue at best, and a dangerous development at the least.
One of the issues with SquareSpace (a SaaS Website Vendor) in China, and its frequent blockages or slow traffic issues relates to how easy it is to integrate social media into the site.
NetSuite has never done this, and while they have allowed partners to do it, one has to be concerned if they begin to change some of their core offering to include this.
One should hope the international edition will not, unless instead of Twitter, it has Weibo, and instead of Facebook it has Kai Xin Wang, or Ren Ren Wang.
NetSuite was born on the cloud but has been adding mobile and social features around what happens when someone places an order, because their core product is the order and order
- NetSuite (ERP/CRM): Order management
- Box (File Server): Documents
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Workday (
HR System): Employee record
Nelson believes the phone will continue to be a primary element in handling transactions – Trigger agrees. However, if they only have American/Western-based social media platforms, it will be ineffective in China at the very least, and could be dangerous to their profits.
