NetSuite was the first truly cloud-based ERP out there and I credit them for that. But here are six specific reasons that I think is just better.
1) Unlimited Users vs Per User Licenses
Some ERP software vendors have almost become like phone companies. The base fee is affordable but then there are all these little add-ons here and there that surprise you.
With almost every ERP system you get charged a lot in per-user license fees. Acumatica does not charge per user. You can have unlimited users. They charge based on the “resources” you use. It’s kind of like your house, your electricity company doesn't charge by the amount of people that live there but rather by how much electricity you use. That is the approach Acumatica takes in its pricing model.
Companies who have a high number of users really start to see a dramatic cost savings when comparing Acumatica with other similar ERP systems, like NetSuite.
But in addition to the cost savings, this model really allows a company to rethink how ERP is used internally by the company. Now that you don’t have to buy a license for each person, you can give access to more people. This gives everyone a better view of what is going on within the company.
2) Encouraging Change vs Penalizing Change
It is no secret that NetSuite is very aggressive on discounting their pricing in the first year to attract new customers. But as soon as you make any changes to your contract everything goes back to retail price. If you didn’t choose everything right when you signed up, or didn’t anticipate changes in your business, you are in trouble.
I've seen a lot of companies leave NetSuite and come to Acumatica because this and the fact that it left a bad taste in their mouth although it isn’t illegal.
As your company grows and you need to make changes such as add functionality or change named users or you need to split a company for example, you are penalized financially by NetSuite.
This is completely opposite with the Acumatica model because it encourages change by making it easy and cost effective.
If you split off a division and sell it, you're in a lot of trouble when you're with NetSuite because of the way that it is designed.
With Acumatica, it is a breeze.
3) Choose to Move Up vs Forced to Move Up
Acumatica is first priced based on “Resource Level”. This can be Small, Medium or Large business (you can also add additional functionality levels too). Although you can have unlimited employees, usually the resource level can be gauged by the amount of employees that are going to have access. So if you have 45 people on the system and they are all doing a bunch transactions that gives us a good idea of your transactional volume. That is not a rule, it just helps for measuring. Our team can easily take a look at your current system and tell you how many transactions you are doing and suggest the correct resource level.
If you start doing a lot more transactions, your Acumatica system will start to run slow. That is the sign you need to increase your resource level. But Acumatica gives you a chance to figure out why you have the issues, then if you need to they give you the time to do it.
However, with NetSuite if you have a higher transaction volume and start using more bandwidth they will tell you that you have to move up to another Tier and pay more money. You don’t have a choice.
4) Adapt Seasonally vs Adapt Annually
There is a great feature in Acumatica that a lot of people don't know about. If you have busy seasons, for example around the holidays, you can increase your resource level for a limited amount of time then switch back to the smaller resource when that period has ended.
Netsuite will allow you to add user licenses anytime. But you can only decrease them when you renew your annual contract.
5) Open System vs Proprietary System
Acumatica is built on a very open XRP platform. It is flexible and able to communicate with other programs. This makes moving your data into Acumatica very easy. And if you decide to leave Acumatica, your data is in a form that is easy to use.
When you terminate a contract, getting your data out in a form that you can easily manipulate can be a challenge.
6) Cloud Choice vs Cloud Only
I just moved to Texas from Southern California and in Southern California it seemed like an overwhelming of majority of companies were just interested in the SaaS model. They did not want to have to deal with the IT internal resources, having people to service their servers and keep the software up to date. They just wanted to sign up and log on. But now that I'm in the central area, there's a lot of more rural regions, and internet access isn't always the most reliable. So a lot of companies out here prefer to have the software on site on their own server.
With Acumatica a company always has the choice between SaaS (subscription), Hosted/Private Cloud or On Premises deployment. And you can change your deployment method based on the stage of your company.
With Netsuite, your only choice is Cloud.
Acumatica vs Netsuite
If you are comparing ERP system Clients First Business Solutions can help. Contact us at sales@clientsfirst-tx.com
By Bob Turner, Clients First Business Solutions,
