NetSuite Cloud ERP vs Microsoft Dynamics: Reality Check

When NetSuite (NYSE: N) announced financial results today, the cloud-based ERP provider said customers were abandoning Microsoft Dynamics in favor of NetSuite. If you listen to NetSuite regularly, you’d begin to believe the Microsoft (NYSE: MSFT) Dynamics business is in shambles. But what’s the reality? Here are some timely clues from The VAR Guy.

NetSuite attacked Microsoft Dynamics in two separate announcements today.

• In an earnings release, NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson says the migration from Microsoft Dynamics GP, SAG and SAP to NetSuite “continues unabated.”
• In a partner program release,  NetSuite said mid-market VARs like BCG Systems, NEO3, MIG & Co and TAG had history with Microsoft Dynamics GP and SAGE, but are now riding the cloud wave with NetSuite.

If you read those two points in a vacuum, you’d assume the Microsoft Dynamics business is collapsing.

But here’s the twist: In Microsoft’s Q3 2012 results, announced April 19, the company said Dynamics revenues grew 11 percent during the quarter, and Dynamics CRM revenues grew more than 30 percent.

Huh? How can Dynamics revenues be rising while NetSuite every quarter claims to be stealing more Dynamics customers? Hmmm…

Perhaps the answer resides in the various Dynamics product lines — Dynamics GP, Dynamics AX,  Dynamics NAV and Dynamics CRM. It sounds like NetSuite is most aggressively attacking the Dynamics GP business, while Microsoft most frequently crows about Dynamics CRM growth…

The battle between NetSuite and Microsoft rages on. Just be sure you check NetSuite’s victory claims against Microsoft’s growth claims. Both companies can’t be winning… or can they?