Comparing Intacct and NetSuite Cloud ERP by the Numbers – Caveat Emptor!

What are the pros and cons of the Cloud ERP comparisons you can find on the Web? The biggest pro is that there are boatloads of information available so you can easily educate yourself before contacting a software provider. The biggest con is that some of the information can be misleading. That’s why we say “caveat emptor” which is Latin for “Let the buyer beware.” Because while we often think of statistics as factual, statistics can lie.

One famous example is a sports competition that was held many years ago in Russia. The post-event headline in the U.S. newspapers read “U.S. Takes First Place against Russia!” The headline in the Russian newspapers read “Russia Places Second; U.S. Comes in Second to Last!” Both headlines were absolutely true. How is that possible? The key is that there were only two competitors, which means that while the U.S. did win, saying that the U.S. came in second to last is highly misleading and yet true!!

So you get the point.

Now let’s look at some information found on the Internet comparing Intacct and NetSuite Cloud ERP.

Source: www.g2crowd.com

A few commentaries on the above statistics. To state the obvious, Intacct scored higher in every category. But, and here’s the caveat emptor part, the statistics were in all cases based on significantly fewer NetSuite reviewers. It’s admirable, however, that G2 Crowd does provide that information. Still, it’s hard to predict how the statistics might have been different if the number of reviewers were equal or close to it. Regarding the Overall Rating, comparing 163 ratings for Intacct to 29 ratings for NetSuite is tantamount to comparing apples and oranges. Lastly, it should also be noted that all of the reviewers were from midmarket companies, i.e. companies with 51-1000 employees.

G2 Crowd also provides direct quotes from reviewers, both positive and negative.

Here’s an example of what they call the most helpful favorable review of Intacct:

“Dashboards and configurability - dimensions are great to expand reporting capabilities. I liked the controls and close functionality. Upgrades were as easy as can be - We integrated with our operating system which went relatively easy compared to other systems I have implemented.” Read full review...

And here’s an example of what G2 Crowd deemed as the most helpful favorable review of NetSuite:

“Was pleasantly surprised at how feature rich the application is. Netsuite [sic] was very easy to learn to use. Coming from an on-site batched based solution, the learning curve was effortless.” Read full review...

Conclusion

When you’re performing research on the Web, validate the source and read the fine print.  The sample size in any survey is extremely important. Looking at the table above, a sample size of 17, which occurs twice in the NetSuite column, is almost certainly not statistically significant. Remember this rule of thumb: As the sample size increases the margin of error decreases.

Notwithstanding all of the caveats, G2 Crowd provides easy access to a long list of product comparisons. You just click the products you want to compare and the statistics and reviews pop right up. It’s a good place to start your research, but it should not be your sole source. You can also read scores of Intacct blog posts and NetSuite blog posts right here on the ERP Cloud Blog.

See also BREAKING NEWS: Oracle Acquires NetSuite

By ERP Cloud Blog Editors, Find a Netsuite and Intacct Partner