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NetSuite and Microsoft link up in the cloud

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5th May 2015
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Cloud business software company NetSuite has formed a strategic alliance with long-time rival Microsoft that will tie its products closely to both Office 365 and Azure.

NetSuite chief executive Zach Nelson revealed the new integration at the SuiteWorld conference in San Jose, California.

“We are moving Microsoft out of the competitor file into our partner ecosystem now,” Nelson said. “The integration and the work that we are doing with Microsoft now is just the beginning. We will continue to work with the company on big data, ecommerce and other technology areas where we can continue to help small companies act big.”

Nelson said that when Satya Nadella became chief executive at Microsoft, he saw a “sea change” in the company and in its willingness to partner.

Nadella said the integration between NetSuite, Office 365 and Azure would help firms “thrive in a mobile first, cloud first world”.

The new alliance will allow users access to both products from within a single interface, linking NetSuite’s cloud-based ERP software to Microsoft’s cloud-based office suite Office 365.

NetSuite customers will be able to connect company data to Excel and Power BI for Office 365, allowing finance teams using NetSuite’s planning tools to visualise data more easily.

The move to align with Microsoft also extends beyond NetSuite customers to NetSuite itself as it plans to migrate its entire employee base to Office 365.

Azure will also become NetSuite’s 'preferred' cloud platform for building custom software enhancements to NetSuite.

When NetSuite customers want to build their own custom enhancements to NetSuite, although not on an exclusive arrangement, Azure will be the platform they will be directed to for development and test work.

By the end of the year NetSuite will have fully migrated from Amazon Web Services and on-premise deployments to Azure.

The company said it will take full advantage of the capabilities of Azure for testing and for developers, independent software vendors and customers to build new software applications and integrations that leverage NetSuite’s cloud business management suite.

In his speech Nelson also spoke about the “hairball” effect, created by disparate disconnected clouds and ERP systems, and that he viewed this kind of unification between NetSuite and Microsoft as a route to getting rid of hairballs.

Aside from the Microsoft partner announcement, NetSuite is this week rolling out an addition to its ecommerce platform SuiteCommerce.

The update offers a unified view of orders, product returns and inventory information across both online and in-store sales channels.

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