Cloud ERP provider NetSuite announced a record-breaking third-quarter 2011, including $61 million in revenue — 23 percent year-over-year growth. According to the company, it set new high bars in “eight key metrics,” but the most interesting part is NetSuite’s apparent reluctance to credit this growth to any one business strategy or market.
Here’s NetSuite’s own list of key third-quarter financial statistics from the press release:
- Record Q3 revenue of $61 million, a 23 percent year-over-year increase
- Recurring revenue grew 23 percent year-over-year to $51.3 million
- Non-GAAP net income grew 50 percent year-over-year
- Calculated billings grew 33 percent year-over-year
- Record quarterly operating cash flow of $9.4 million
For deeper insight into the financial nitty-gritty, I suggest taking a look at the earnings statement.
NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson’s prepared statement is deceptively simple:
“NetSuite’s Q3 results are among the best we have ever reported as we delivered record high numbers for revenue, deferred revenue, non-GAAP EPS, operating cash flow and average selling price. NetSuite’s momentum and our success in driving cloud-based ERP suites into large global enterprises bode well for the remainder of this fiscal year and into 2012.”
But here’s what he’s not saying, reading between the lines: NetSuite rose this quickly to this level of revenue not with new product launches or sales initiatives. All NetSuite had to do was keep doing what it was doing — a point hammered home by Nelson’s unexpectedly blasé statement on record-setting revenues.
It’s a shot across the bow of NetSuite’s competition both in the cloud and on-premises. NetSuite is saying it’s increasingly the obvious cloud ERP choice for the modern enterprise, regardless of whether the competition likes it. Oh, and an interesting side note: CEO Nelson’s faith in the fiscal future of NetSuite is somewhat undermined by the fact that he keeps selling his shares in the company.
My one problem: NetSuite’s second-quarter earnings statement included healthy mention of the company’s cloud partner growth. But not this time, apparently.
The 
