NetSuite ERP has been exploding in all kinds of young and up-and-coming businesses using manufacturing. We pioneered some use in pharmaceutical manufacturing; we've seen it in general business. A lot of our e-commerce companies are using the NetSuite platform — a lot of startups. Five of every eight companies that went out for IPO two years ago were NetSuite customers. It's very big in the startup community in California. A lot of newer tech companies are using it, but a lot of standard older traditional companies have begun using it, too. Over the last year, we've done some furniture distributors, we've done nutraceutical manufacturing, we've done companies that import and build electric scooters and leisure products like bicycles, etc. We've seen it in financial groups, as well.
In short, it carries a broad range of applications, specifically in the field services area. We've seen some construction companies move into it. We've got a group that does large AV installations. They will do a theater or an auditorium or a stadium; they handle all of the server-based audio-visual signal processing and large screens and large speaker systems for public consumption, etc. They'll have these million-dollar projects that they put together in their facilities, in a manufacturing type environment test, and then do all of the engineering there, and then they will send crews all over the world to implement these. That's kind of the field service part.
I worked with some of the largest NetSuite resellers in the world — they're partners of mine. We're affiliated and we use each other's services, but we're not financially tied. We see everything, including startups, that maybe pre-revenue, started to use NetSuite. They know when they go out to raise funds that the investors look at that and say, "Hey, these guys have really got their financial house in order. We feel good trusting you guys". What Oracle does, is they say that, from zero to $250 million a year, we approach them with NetSuite over $250 million a year. We'd like them to be looking at Oracle fusion.
However, with our partners, we go into $500 million and $700 million companies. We put in NetSuite plus. We may be doing a variety of products in that type of setting, but NetSuite is the core product there, and they're very successful with it. The thing about made-for-cloud software is that NetSuite was released in 1992, and a lot of the development took place in the '92 to '96 era. We were beginning to change the way we did software. This is when iPhone started coming out, etc. The name NetSuite refers to the fact that you have a network suite of products that you can use. There are apps in the NetSuite Suite cloud app store that companies can buy. This is very difficult to explain to new users because using multiple pieces of software has always been a nightmare.
It's been problematic. You have different products giving you different versions of the truth. You've got problems keeping them tied in together and integrated. You've got different release schedules, you've got customization. It's just been a nightmare and everybody has a bad view of that. What I tell my clients is, "How many of you guys have a phone in your pocket?" I'll say, "Do you like the customizations on your phone?" They'll reply, "What are you talking about? There's no customization on my phone". I'll respond, "Every one of those apps is a customization". They'll fire back, "No, it's not, it's on the phone". That's exactly how NetSuite approaches the suites of products. They open their technology app, they allow outside developers to develop functionality. They test, approve, and do quality control before release. When you buy one of these apps and there's an app for field services that fits in, plus services, it's so different. It's really hard for any product to fit everything in.
You look at this particular app and if it fits, you licensed the app, and it's just another tab inside your NetSuite system. You can't tell that you're in another product. The screens look the same, the integration is already taken care of on the backend. You don't have to deal with any of that. One time, Adaptive Insights was sold as a NetSuite advanced financials package. People did not know it was not NetSuite advanced financials. All they knew was, that their FPNA reports were on one tab, and their regular basic reports are in another reporting area. That being the case, we have gone into situations where people were (this was before the merger) paying $1,000,000 a year in maintenance charges to a tier-one software group. We were able to duplicate the functionality and improve it in several areas.
I'm not saying it was as good and in every area, but in several areas, key areas, it worked much better. We were able to implement NetSuite and the apps and the integrations for under $500,000 for the entire new system. That was a net savings of $500,000 a year. It was more modern technology, it was working better for them. Plus, they didn't need a team of three, tier-one experts on staff to manage the system. There were some huge losses there for a large organization. What I'm talking about is one of the more difficult concepts for today's IT groups to understand, because frankly, they've been through nightmares of software modification and customization. It's been a bad idea and it hasn't worked out well, but those were products that were created back in the '80s and the early '90s.
Those are pre-internet era technologies that were proprietary. ERP vendors used to want to be proprietary because that way, nobody could copy their software. It was considered a security measure against somebody duplicating the discs and reselling them. Today, the Internet is the integration tool that you're using — what could be more open than that? Now, the idea is, let's open this up to everybody. Let's let everybody develop on it. That's, what's made Salesforce so strong, and that's what has made NetSuite so strong.
Through all of this, you have to remember that there were no cloud-based ERP systems. Everybody was terrified to put their financial data into this cloud thing everybody was talking about until NetSuite came along. Now, NetSuite has roughly 22,000 companies using it. Every single ERP vendor in the world now has a cloud version to try and compete with NetSuite. The problem is, if I call Salesforce today or NetSuite tomorrow and say, "Hey, I want to license this, here's my credit card". In 20 minutes, if there's a system provision for me ready to use, I'm ready to go.