HP To Sell NetSuite's Online Business Apps To SMBsHP To Sell NetSuite's Online Business Apps To SMBs

Hewlett Packard has agreed to offer small and medium-size business customers NetSuite's online applications for managing such operations as inventories, order fulfillment, customer relationships and e-commerce, the companies said Tuesday.

Under the agreement, HP's 15,000 value-added resellers in the United States will offer NetSuite services and earn commissions on deals that close. In addition, HP has agreed to offer deployment services and support for NetSuite applications, and NetSuite has launched support services for resellers, including a toll-free phone line and self-service portal where resellers can get sales tools and online training.

"SMB customers are looking for new ways to avoid up-front technology costs, and on-demand services are the ideal solution," Enrique Lores, senior VP in charge of HP resellers, said in a statement. "Our partnership with NetSuite offers the HP channel network an excellent method for participating in this growing SMB market opportunity."

NetSuite runs its software on HP servers and storage hardware. The company's market sweet spot are businesses with less than 1,000 employees. Its major competitors include Salesforce.com.

In an attempt to lure customers from its rival, NetSuite last month started offering to charge Salesforce.com customers half of what they are currently paying for applications to manage their sales forces online.

The offer is aimed at midmarket companies and divisions of large corporations looking to cut costs in the economic slowdown. Under the deal, Salesforce.com customers would swap their software-as-a-service vendor's sales force automation product for NetSuite's customer relationship management service called CRM+.

HP's decision to partner with NetSuite is understandable given the projected revenue growth from software-as-a-service offerings over the next few years. Market revenue this year is expected to top $6.4 billion, a 27% increase over last year, according to Gartner. In four years, revenue is expected to reach $14.8 billion.