The EMEA region continues to be a growing and thriving part of NetSuite’s channel ecosystem and a recent Partner Day event at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Marlow, Buckinghamshire demonstrated the level of excitement and innovation for Cloud-based solutions in the region.
We invited our EMEA partners to join us at the NetSuite Partner Day for updates on 2012 business results, future product plans, and new marketing campaigns. The event was also a great opportunity for partners to share their experiences and priorities with our management team. Over fifty partners attended and contributed tremendous ideas for increasing NetSuite adoption in their markets. The insights and direction NetSuite gained will guide our channel-building efforts for the rest of the year and beyond.
NetSuite recognises the growth and development of a healthy channel is vital in addressing the strong market demand throughout all regions. Industry analyst studies inform us that almost two-thirds of all channel partners say they offer some form of cloud solution. However, these same studies go on to say many solution providers simply “rebadge existing products as cloud, which is not helpful as many potential customers are suspicious of attempts at cloudwashing.” Our NetSuite solution provider partners understand this distinction and are delivering today the benefits of a Cloud based business management solution and are not handcuffing themselves to "fake cloud" applications – re-hosted versions of dead-end on-premise software.
On the following day, NetSuite hosted a full room of prospective partners for a seminar on "The ROI of Cloud Computing for VARs". These companies were made up of Sage and Microsoft Dynamics VAR/channel partners seeking to add a Cloud ERP practice based on NetSuite given their current vendors’ product roadmaps do not address the client demand across the UK for SaaS/Cloud based business applications.
Coincidentally, or perhaps not, our NetSuite channel seminar was held on the same day Sage announced it was selling off a number of business units, including ACT! and SalesLogix. Our event was abuzz with this news as it reinforced the transformation taking place in the mid-market business applications market. Hearing firsthand how much the European channel is suffering through Sage's stagnation just further helped us convince these prospective partners as to the growth and opportunity with NetSuite.
We are constantly reminded that the global marketplace is more integrated than ever, but local economies are not all the same. Recovery hasn't come to every market in the EMEA region and some countries are still enduring what could legitimately be considered a depression.
But NetSuite has high expectations for the EMEA channel moving forward. These EMEA channel-focused events helped us understand what we can do to adjust our strategies in markets where economic conditions present a challenge and in others where growth is paramount. We are committed to ensuring our business partners and customers all have the tools they need to succeed.
-Amede Hungerford – Vice President of Marketing
chadtester 