Cloud-based business applications vendor Netsuite has launched a withering attack on larger rival Sage as it woos its resellers with a 50 per cent discount offer.

Netsuite has created a package of discounts and training incentives tailored to a Sage reseller community it claims is “wracked with fear, uncertainty and doubt” over the future of on-premise applications.

According to the US-based vendor, Sage lacks a viable software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering and is unable to lead its partners into the cloud computing world.

Netsuite is also seeking to exploit any disquiet around recent Sage redundancies and the collapse of some of its rival’s largest partners, including MIS in the US and BDE in the UK.

The programme is aimed at midmarket-focused Sage resellers that want to offer a “coherent and integrated” cloud solution encompassing ERP, CRM and e-commerce.

Martin Painter, EMEA channel director at NetSuite, said: “There is a groundswell of feeling among partners that Sage has spent too long milking the cash cow, and although it has acquired various solutions, none of them fit together.”

For the first 12 months converts will net a 50 per cent discount. That is equal to the discount top partners enjoy from Netsuite’s partner programme and 20 points higher than the entry-level discount, which is 30 per cent. They will also receive dedicated training that has been customised for Sage implementation experts.

NetSuite’s EMEA managing director Steve Sydes stressed that NetSuite grew 41 per cent last year and has been profitable for the past two quarters.

According to Gartner, the SaaS market is poised to rocket 19.4 per cent annually until 2013, while the on-premise software market will grow just 5.2 per cent.

“In a SaaS market that is growing very quickly we are well positioned to go forward,” said Sydes.

Netsuite has 25 UK partners, the largest of those being BT, although Painter admitted none of them are large Sage houses.

Steve Precious, managing director of Sage partner dcs, was unmoved by Netsuite’s charm offensive.

“I am not sitting here in a fearful state,” he said. “Cloud computing is being talked up, but like a lot of new technologies the reality is a long way behind the talk. The interest level among our customer base is very low.”