NetSuite touts 'Green' credentials

James Riley
Friday, 17 July 2009 05:34

IT Industry - Development

Software as a service and cloud computing specialist NetSuite is pushing its ‘green’ credentials, extending an offer to Australian customers of a one-year, half price discount for companies belonging to green organisations like the Green Building Council of Australia.

NetSuite, which sells an enterprise resource planning, CRM and eCommerce platform based on a SaaS architecture has been pushing both the green benefits and cost savings potential of cloud computing platforms.

The company is offering Australian customers a 50 per cent discount for organisations that can show proof of membership to associations like the Australian Wind Energt Association, the Australian Green Development Forum, the Alternative Technology Forum, and the Green Building Council.

NetSuite said the offer remains open until the end of the year, and price rises for companies using the promotion would be capped at 10 per cent for subsequent years.

NetSuite has enjoyed comparatively strong growth through the economic downturn, as companies have sought to reduce costs by moving to SaaS platforms. A newcomer to the Australian market – it had previously been sold through a reseller, NetReturn – the green offer marks an aggressive push into the local market.

The company’s product marketing vice-president Craig Sullivan told iTWire the energy-savings benefit of SaaS was an increasingly important sales differential for cloud offerings.

NetSuite this week released the findings of an independent sustainability impact study of its software and claims the average NetSuite can cut electricity bills alone by about $10,000 annually.

When added to the overall costs of hardware, software licenses, maintenance, personnel and occupancy, NetSuite calculates the cost reductions can exceed US$100,000 per year, per customer.

“We’ve known there is a major cost saving in using SaaS, but now that we have a third-party, independent researcher come up with these numbers … it is obviously a great boost for NetSuite, and for SaaS and the cloud computing model generally,” Sullivan told iTWire.

“This (NetSuite) solution is a proven ‘green’ offering,” he said.