NetSuite, as with any good Enterprise Resource Planning system, has your company's financials sorted — the traditional general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, fixed assets, purchase orders and the like — along with inventory, logistics and other core modules.

Yet, customers looking for more industry-specific modules would do better looking to NetSuite's channel partners for help.

Zach Nelson, NetSuite chief executive, said NetSuite had deep domain knowledge of its own platform, but logically, cannot have that same depth of knowledge in how to run every type of company in the world, making a reference to his earlier claim that NetSuite is in use by every type of company.

He said NetSuite was investing in verticals but it was difficult to find a person with domain knowledge who could translate it to software. Ultimately, he said, partners were in the best position to fulfil this customer need.

NetSuite pays its channel partners a minimum of 30% of recurring revenue from customers for the life of that customer so partners have the incentive to build industry-specific platforms. Additionally, Nelson said, NetSuite's cloud model, differing from on-premises providers like SAP, meant partners could change their focus from screwing in servers to building reusable IP.

Evan Goldberg, founder and chief technical officer of NetSuite, said: "We are transparent with our partners where we are going and they can fill in the white space."

He said NetSuite's horizontal architecture provided a strong platform for partners to build vertical applications.