NetSuite’s Acquisition of QuickArrow Creates Leading Marketshare for PSA

As I just wrote about in a recent post, according to the results of my TPSA 2009 Member Technology Survey, a surprisingly large percentage of members, 16%, have approved budget for professional services automation (PSA) software in 2009. As for what product they will buy with that budget, the PSA market took an interesting turn last week with the announcement that NetSuite, owner of popular PSA tool OpenAir, was acquiring PSA competitor QuickArrow.

This was especially interesting to me because I recently completed co-authored white paper with both PSA vendors, who are longtime partners and supporters of the TPSA. Here’s a link to the QuickArrow white paper: The Unique Challenges of Professional Services for Small and Medium Sized Businesses. (Sorry, registration required) The OpenAir white paper, “What Keeps PS Executives Up at Night? The Role of Professional Services Automation in Achieving Business Goals,” was just completed and has yet to be posted–stay tuned.

I had a quick call with the new combined team of OpenAir and QuickArrow folks today and asked about marketshare. According to my survey, the new combined entity has a 32% marketshare for TPSA members–a huge lead within high tech PS.  They confirmed this, saying that according to 2 outside sources they now have 20-25% marketshare for PSA in North America.

How did these two relatively new entrants into the PSA space achieve such marketshare so quickly, especially battling big brands like Oracle, SAP and Compuware?  I point to 3 primary reasons:

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Despite economy, strong spending planned for PSA

I just sent a research report to editing detailing the results of the TPSA 2009 Member Technology Survey, and thought I was share a couple of highlights here as a preview. I have written previously about the results of the SSPA survey, which showed several areas (especially Web collaboration) with strong planned spending.  The results from the TPSA survey are even more interesting: though 90% of survey respondents already have some sort of professional services automation (PSA) solution in place, a significant number have budget for additional PSA purchases in 2009 and 2010.

A whopping 16% of respondents said they had approved budget for a PSA purchase in 2009; an additional percentage have budget for a 2010 purchase.  If the economy hadn’t tanked, the numbers would be higher:  an additional 19% said they had planned to invest but their budget was now at risk.

As you can see in this chart, PSA is no longer just a ‘big company’ product, with companies of all sizes planning investments.  It is great to see more solutions targeting smaller firms, such as QuickArrow’s recently launched Small Business Edition.

Members with PSA Budget in 2009 by Company Size