Business Software

Cloud-based business software provider NetSuite (News - Alert) has announced the nominees for its first annual Hairball Awards – a new awards program that recognizes businesses that have reduced system complexity, lowered operational costs and boosted employee productivity by replacing their on-premises systems with NetSuite’s cloud-based buiness software.

In other words, the 'Hairballs' honor companies that have eliminated 'the hairball of applications and middleware that hinders productivity and drives up costs due to brittle integration, incompatible processes, low productivity and high maintenance costs.'

Thirty companies have been nominated in 10 categories. Winners will be announced at SuiteCloud 2010 in San Francisco on April 15.

'The Hairball Awards are a light-hearted approach to a very serious problem facing businesses of all sizes today — the fact that literally thousands of organizations are painfully gagging on their inefficient, tangled mass of complex, expensive enterprise software systems,' said Zach Nelson (News - Alert), CEO of NetSuite, in a release. 'We recognize those who have coughed up their biggest on-premise software hairballs and are now reaping the benefits of cloud computing business management suites.'

NetSuite Hairball Award nominees have been named to the following categories:

--Most Applications Replaced: MYCOM, Nobel (News - Alert) Learning Communities, Valiant Solutions
--Most Improved Productivity: KANA, Nomis Solutions, One Call Now
--Greatest Cost Reduction: Asahi Kasei Spandex America, Cartridge World, Fresh Produce Group
--Most Global Solution: ABS-CBN, Jollibee, SolarWinds (News - Alert)
--Best Enterprise Deployment: Campus Living Villages, Wireless Matrix
--Best Ecommerce Solution: Afloral.com, InkjetSuperstore.com, Virtual Inventories
--Best Manufacturing Company Solution: Mountz, RedBuilt, Schaeffer Manufacturing Co.
--Best Services Company Solution: AbilityNet, POSitive Technology, TradingScreen
--Best Software Company Solution: ForeScout, PeopleNet, TradeCard
--Best Wholesaler/Distributor Solution: CB Engineering, Distribution Video & Audio, Ira Wood & Sons

NetSuite made news two weeks ago when it issued a response to Microsoft’s (News - Alert) new incentive program to get businesses to switch from NetSuite’s cloud-based business software to Microsoft Dynamics ERP. Taking a play straight out of NetSuite’s strategy to lure over customers from Sage and SAP, Microsoft is offering companies in the U.S. a credit of up to $850 for switching from NetSuite to Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV or Microsoft Dynamics SL. The promotion runs until June 25, 2010.

“Clearly Microsoft is extremely concerned about the sheer number of customers switching from Great Plains to NetSuite- otherwise they wouldn’t have made this announcement,” NetSuite officials said in a statement. “They’re feeling the pressure, because mid-sized companies in just about every industry are leaving Microsoft  Great Plains antiquated architecture and bloated cost structure behind. Today's businesses want more -- they're moving to the modern, integrated, web-native and cloud-based simplicity of NetSuite. In fact, with the announcement of the NetSuite SP100 program last week, Microsoft resellers are now making the move to NetSuite -- because they’re recognizing that their customers want cloud solutions not on-premise.”