Sir Quark,
My hair is always on and firmly cemented to my head using the proper amount of toupee adhesive.
This is what I actually stated:
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I think it would be be virtually impossible for Oracle to know for certain which version of E1 their customer is running, considering their support policy.
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Where do you derive that I must feel the list is 100% accurate? I didn't hear this from Oracle - I read it on JDEList.
...and finally:
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All things considered, Oracle can certainly come close to a reasonable number (possibly within a margin of error of +/- 10%) based on the combination of support calls, ESU downloads (which are tied to the specific release) and courtesy calls paid by the sales and/or services rep. I would say they have more direct evidence of this than any number of independent consultants would have, based on the estimated >5000 paying support customers (a figure I heard in early 2004.)
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So, a +/- 10% margin of error is what I stated, not 100% accuracy. I was being liberal with my guesstimation of 10%, it may be closer to 5 or 6. If each percentage were off, and by 5% each, this would bring us to no more than 70% accuracy, no? I'm no math major, but seems reasonable to me.
My opinion is that these numbers would be customers who are on maintenance. If a customer chooses to drop maintenance, they aren't really a customer any more, are they? They contribute nothing to Oracle's bottom line. Oracle would be unlikely to pursue those customers as a reference point for other paying customers, but more likely to pursue them for lost maintenance dollars. It is a capitalist system, after all.