PeopleSoft upsets merged customers
Published: 29 Jul 2004 11:05 BST
Several have criticised the company for failing to capitalise on its acquisition of J.D Edwards -- a deal that faces growing scrutiny as pressure from the Oracle buyout intensifies.
"Every single glitch makes it easier for Oracle to take over," said Joshua Greenbaum, a technology analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting.
Any gaffes PeopleSoft makes with J.D. Edwards customers could also play into the hands of other rivals, such as Germany's SAP. SAP, the largest supplier in the $20bn-a-year business applications market, appears to have come out on top of the merger mania by going it alone and offering a haven to uncertain software buyers.
Chief executive Craig Conway defended PeopleSoft's handling of the J.D. Edwards merger during an earnings teleconference on Tuesday. He noted that company met or exceeded earnings expectations in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this one, as the merger went better than planned. The company has also invested in further development of J.D. Edwards' products and has released new versions, proving its commitment to those customers, Conway said. Analyst scepticism about the progress of the merger is based on pure speculation, he added.
"I'm quite confident that the overwhelming feedback from J.D. Edwards customers -- and I meet with them 50 percent of the time that I meet with customers -- is that they are extremely gratified that PeopleSoft took over J.D. Edwards," Conway told ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com.
Ram Gupta, the PeopleSoft executive who has overseen the integration of the two companies' product sets, insisted that the J.D. Edwards merger is on track. "It's exactly how I'd have liked to see it go," he said.
Gupta says he's particularly encouraged by how quickly PeopleSoft has introduced updates to J.D. Edwards' products, such as PeopleSoft World, a revamp to J.D. Edwards' business applications for accounting and manufacturing. The new features are designed to please current users and help the company sell the software to its core PeopleSoft user base. Between 10 percent and 15 percent of the company's software revenue in the first half of this year came from such "cross-selling" activity, PeopleSoft said.
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