NetSuite announces raft of new customers

CRM on-demand vendor NetSuite has further demonstrated the momentum behind the software-as-a-service model with the announcement of a raft of new customer wins in the UK.

The announcement consists of four new customer acquisitions, including sports data specialist Opta, best known for providing statistical analysis on English Premiership football.

Also signed up is Level 3 reseller Qube. Both companies said the ability to tightly integrate processes such as accounts, sales and CRM were a major factor in switching to NetSuite.

Patrick Murray, CFO of Opta, said: "We had been looking to integrate our sales process more closely with our customer care, and NetSuite offered the best way to do that."

Polly Arrowsmith, MD at Qube, said: "We were attracted to NetSuite because the CRM and accounting are so tightly integrated." Arrowsmith said she also looked at Salesforce.com and Siebel products.

The other customers announced today were London-based telecoms service provider Optimity and Bristol-based security consultant Barantas.

Anthony Impey, MD of Optimity, said the scalability afforded by the on-demand model meant his company was able to punch above its weight.

"Since the system was hosted off-site, it could run the kind of system usually only available to massive corporations but without the capital expenditure and overhead," he said.

That flexibility and the potential of the on-demand model are factors which unite the CRM upstarts NetSuite, RightNow and Salesforce.com. The other thing the three firms, all founded in 1998, manage to agree on are the prospects for their larger, slower-moving rivals.

However, questions were raised earlier this year when NetSuite's major backer, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, made a £5.8bn gamble on CRM veteran Siebel, branded a dinosaur by the class of '98.

Speaking to silicon.com earlier this year, Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite, said: "NetSuite, RightNow, Salesforce.com - that's where all the new contract growth is. Siebel's growth is just maintenance."

However, the company has subsequently remained tight-lipped on its thoughts about Oracle's purchase of Siebel.