Fast Four and E-Litt, two of NetSuite’s largest channel partners in the Netherlands, have announced a merger. Combined, the two companies will have more than 20 staff focused on NetSuite. The combined organisations will support more than 50 NetSuite and has over 300 customers using SuiteApps.
Enterprise Times talked to Anna Lipiec, founder of E-Litt and now Managing Director, Fast Four B.V. Hylke Sluis, co-founder of Fast Four B.V will take up the role of Services Director.
Lipiec explained the reasons behind this saying: “One of the things we want to achieve with this merger is the ability for everyone to give more focus to their role. Anna will therefore be the new outwards facing person in the company looking after strategic partnerships, while Hylke will be able to fully focus internally. As Services Director, he will be making sure that all our customers get the absolute best experience for their implementation project.”
As Fast Four are likely to work on ever larger implementations going forward this makes sense. The App market for NetSuite is large and growing. Companies often want extend their solution with other apps and Lipiec can now form proper strategic relationships with some of these.
Hylke added : “Because of the success of our NetSuite business in the past years we were looking for ways to expand our ability to service existing and new customers. Fast Four and E-Litt share a common vision and this collaboration gives an ideal basis to further build and invest in all areas of the business. For us it is the logical step to ensure further growth for NetSuite in the Benelux.”
Stronger together
This merger makes sense. Both E-Litt and Fast Four were important partners for Oracle NetSuite in Netherlands. They are Oracle 5 star partners and last year Fast Four was international SuiteCloud partner of the year. The combined unit will have an even louder voice within Oracle NetSuite. This is important as it expands and looks to bring on both the global SI’s. It already has some marque customers, Secrid being a major success story for Oracle Netsuite.
We asked Lipiec for three benefits that the combined unit would gain.
- “We will now be able to offer better quality to both – our existing and new customers. Together we have a bigger, more experienced team then we had as individual companies.”
- “With our combined expertise, we want to be the clear choice for companies looking for an experienced NetSuite partner to handle their implementation. “
- “We want to spread the gospel of NetSuite to any company that is looking for an ERP system, but did not yet consider NetSuite. No Shortlist without NetSuite is one of our missions in the next year. “
That growth is not just in the Netherlands. Fast Four also offers three Suite Apps and has customers in Australia and the US. No doubt Lipiec will look to promote these to other partners abroad. The three SuiteApps are:
- Fast Four DPD shipping integration.
- Fast Four Credit Card Statement Import
- Fast Four Bank Reconciliation
Enabling future growth
This year the combined unit will reach €2 million and will look to nearly double that revenue in 2019. Lipiec is targeting €3.5 million so how is she intending to achieve that?
“Our focus for now is to be the Best NetSuite partner in The Netherlands. We believe there is still a very big market in our home country, with many companies looking to make the jump to the cloud. We also believe that we have a great understanding of the challenges and requirements that are needed for the Dutch Market. We do notice that many of our ERP customers in The Netherland already have an international presence in other countries, so in a way our “reach” already extends beyond the Benelux.”
Lipiec sees three key markets for Fast Four, these align with the NetSuite strategic intent. They are:
- Trade, specializing in fashion & apparel and medical devices
- Production – metal and machine production
- Software
Lipiec believes that the opportunity is huge. Dutch companies are now looking to move from their legacy on-premises systems to a modern cloud-based one like Oracle Netsuite. Surprisingly Lipiec named Excel as one of her main competitors saying:
“Interestingly enough Excel is also a big competitor of ours. We run into many companies that are tying together a bunch of spreadsheets, an accounting system and several other software tools to run their business. This can work for a while, but when the business starts growing things fall apart. A lot of our current customer switched to NetSuite from a similar setup. “
What does this mean
This is a sensible move. Both companies have been able to punch above their size with Oracle Netsuite. However, after NetSuite was acquired by Oracle there was a risk that they would individually lose attention from Oracle due to their size. By combining together they become the significant channel partners in Netherlands as Oracle NetSuite itself grows and brings on board larger Oracle partners. It will be interesting to see if other small partners in other countries take the same route.
Lipiec has a clear objective for the immediate future and we asked her what success looks like in a years time. She replied: “We want to be as we currently are, only bigger and stronger. This merger is to strengthen who we are and to form a solid soil for further growth. We will not do different things, we will just be better at what we do and we’ll implement NetSuite at more customers.”
“In simple words, if in two years’ time we managed to have an even larger pool of happy customers and our consultants are still proud and happy to contribute to this, I will consider it the biggest success we can get. “
Both companies have a good track record with implementations and together they will become a force to be reckoned with in the Benelux market.
