Reseller reaction: Seeing software situation from both sides

Aussie SaaS player JCurve has an ideal perspective when comparing traditional software with its as-a-service counterpart. Until recently, the listed company operated as Stratatel, a supplier of telecommunications expense management solutions. 

Last September, it merged with cloud provider JCurve, which held an exclusive deal to supply a pared-back version of NetSuite aimed at the Australian SME market.

The deal was put together by Graham Baillie, who was both a non-executive director of Stratatel and executive chairman of JCurve. Baillie became managing director of the merged entity. 

Baillie has a perspective on both native software and SaaS. 

“Over the years our company has played in both areas. After an intensive review of our strategy, a decision was made to dispose of business units that were still using legacy platforms to allow us to capitalise on the growing adoption of cloud computing.“

He says that where there used to be “a natural resistance to cloud computing”, this resistance has ebbed away. “In fact, given the mobility, access and cost benefits, we consider it a disadvantage for businesses not to be in the cloud. With cloud computing, you work with comfort that you have access to live, up-to-date data and are always working on the most current version of the software.”

Clients are following suit, he says. “Not surprisingly, adoption of the cloud was slow at first for some of our larger, more conservative clients. However, as security concerns around hosting data in the cloud have been addressed, the majority of customers are very keen to work with suppliers that offer a SaaS solution. Driving their decision is the need to keep a lid on their IT infrastructure and support bills, and help reduce operating costs.”

As well as a cloud reseller, Baillie sees the company as a SaaS developer. “We are both. Gone are the days out-of-the-box vanilla software was able to satisfy everybody. So while we are resellers of the NetSuite small business product, JCurve, cloud computing enables us to develop features and functionality around the core software itself... ‘tailor making’ it to suit individual needs.”

The NetSuite licence was central to the merger. The light version goes head to head with MYOB and Xero; Baillie says its advantage is that it offers a better upgrade path than the rival packages, calling JCurve a “small business ERP”, not just an accounting tool.

“We have our flagship telecom expense management solution (JTel) that has been built in-house from the ground up. JCurve, our small business accounting and ERP software, has been built on the acknowledged leading global ERP platform NetSuite.  

“Our relationship with NetSuite allows us to deliver world-class technology locally. This solution has been developed to meet the specific needs of Australian and New Zealand small businesses. JCurve customers can take comfort in the fact that their software is developed, supported and safeguarded by the pioneers of cloud business software. A fully integrated, all-in-one business solution, NetSuite is the last software a business will ever need,” says Baillie.

One of the downsides – anecdotally at least – of SaaS is that with much lower price tags involved, the potential margin is also reduced. Baillie says that this shows the wrong priorities. “Typically, resellers are businesses whose core activity is the services and integration of software and the reseller margin is purely ‘cream on the strawberries’. Our approach is fully focused on delivering value to our customers as end users and as such, the quality, functionality and simplicity of our software coupled with integration, support and development services are paramount.”