Sydney resellers merge, hope to trounce MYOB and Xero

Sydney-based JCurve Solutions is on the cusp of launching a beefed-up version of its small business edition of NetSuite.

The launch will follow last week's completion of the merger between JCurve and publicly listed reseller Stratatel.

The M&A move was orchestrated by Graham Baillie, who was formerly a non-executive director of Stratatel and executive chairman of JCurve.

Following last week's shareholder vote, Baillie has been appointed managing director of the merged entity, which will take the JCurve name and hold the exclusive licence for a pared-back version of NetSuite's cloud-based ERP software.

The licence was central to the merger. Baillie said that this light version of NetSuite is aimed at small business and offers a competitive advantage over market leaders MYOB and Xero.

[Get news first. Sign up for free news bulletins]

Baillie told CRN that the current accounting packages on the market were too limited and didn’t offer customers an upgrade path.

He said that JCurve was a "small business ERP", not just an accounting tool.

The product has been on the market since 2009, but Baillie admitted they hadn't got it right first time: he said the original edition of JCurve was too complex and lacked certain benefits offered by MYOB and Xero, such as an easy install Wizard interface and a free trial.

This functionality will be present in the new edition of JCurve, set to be launched within the fortnight.

"I respect our competition but I want to do something different. I don’t wake up in the morning wanting to design something the same as Xero," said Baillie.

NetSuite Australia chief executive Mark Troselj told CRN that JCurve's cloud structure offered another benefit over on-premise accounting software. "JCurve will mitigate a lot of risk. Small businesses don't do disaster recovery; they don’t upgrade infrastructure. Cloud computing takes all that risk away."

JCurve Solutions chairman Nihal Gupta added: "Look at all those poor small businesses that have lost everything in a flood or bushfire. They have lost their business. JCurve lets you switch the business back on. Cloud had previously been the domain of just the enterprise."

Upgrade path

Baillie said that Australian companies tend to keep running small business software even after they have outgrown it. "The midmarket holds onto it for too long."

Baillie said he had first-hand experience of this when running a small business on MYOB. "My lesson is that I wished I had moved from an accounting-only tool to a midmarket ERP much sooner."

JCurve's advantage, said Baillie, is that it offers a clear upgrade path. Modules for tax, banking, budgets, inventory, sales & marketing and more can be switched on when required, and it also offers a clear progression all the way to the fully fledged NetSuite ERP.

Once the new-look JCurve is launched, Baillie said he would start ramping up the reseller network.

It is expected that channel partners would be announced by the first quarter of 2014, adding that it would likely include existing Stratatel resellers.

He was hesitant to follow the same path as Xero and MYOB, which leverage accountants as the core channel. Baillie said there was an inherent conflict of interest as JCurve would ultimately replace many of the services offered by an accountant.

[Related: NetSuite to poach SAP customers]