For a reduced fee the online accounting vendor Netsuite is hoping to lure Sage users to their system (Observation: My hunch is if you said that you were a user of Great Plains, SAP, QuickBooks Enterprise or pencil and paper that you’d get the same deal).
This price chopping reflects perhaps on the lack of innovation confidence in the product.
Just as rock bands release “greatest hits” albums when they’ve got nothing new to offer – software companies roll out “50% off” bargains when they have nothing more attractive (new features) to offer.
Here’s some observations for those deciding whether to bite on a discount offer
They are a lot easier to get into – than out of
With one particular price chopping offer, there is a bundle of 100 hours to convert data. If it take 100 hours to get your data into a new system – just think of how much fun it will be to get it out should you decide to leave.
All support is not created equally
Have you ever gotten frustrated dealing with an overseas call center? If you’ve never had to deal with language (dialect/accent) issues – then get ready because in exchange for a relatively tiny up-front discount consider that you may have just signed up for a long distance support relationship.
If you don’t believe me on this one – just think about the accounting software you’re using now and why you are reviewing discounted software offers online. If you’re like most people your biggest mistake wasn’t the software — rather it was the PEOPLE who SOLD it to you. Select the wrong people to deal with and you’re doomed to failure.
The wrong people? These are easy to recognize because they’re quick to quote you a price on a new product sale. Yet they take forever to solve a problem.
A low initial purchase price is a sucker bet that only fools fall for
I see this all the time. Companies buy software based on some great discount that’s offered TODAY — not taking into account that the product may not work as well as the salesperson demoed it, the recurring annual maintenance (over which they have zero control) may not be as cheap in year two as in discounted year one.
Guess what happens when you stop paying maintenance on a hosted solution? The lights go out – just like when you stop paying your electric bill.
I’ve saved what I think is the most compelling argument against a drastic move to a discounted online offer for last.
Guess what happens if you decide you don’t want to pay any more software maintenance to a vendor who is hosting all of your data online?
Does your login to the hosted site continue to work?
Think about it – when you have a solution securely loaded on your network – you can generally continue to legally use that software even if you decide to stop paying maintenance (I’m not recommending this mind you – just pointing out a loophole that many users freely exploit).
Switch to Netsuite and try it for a year or two. Then stop paying maintenance. There won’t be any free 100 hour assistance to get your data out — and let me know if that login to YOUR DATA still continues to work.
