Peoplesoft...

Take a look at CNN.com or Peoplesoft.com. Peoplesoft is acquiring JDE stock for stock. JDE stockholders will own 25% of the combined company. When done, with this forum become the JDEpeople.lst?
 
Just saw this myself this morning. I hadn't seen or heard anything up to this point. What a surprise it was to see it!
 
The press releases on both sites are the same... everybody is waiting to hear what this means for World and OneWorld...
 
So what exactly does this mean for consultants ? Peoplesoft has a history of acquisitions (Red Pepper and Vantive) - and have a history of agressively integrating the product into their own. Of course, I don't know of a single deal of this size, where two ERP software companies merge.

My view is that this goes two ways - either PSFT swallows up JDE primarily for the customer base, and migrates customers from JDE software to PSFT software over a period of time with little change (which would be bad) - OR, PSFT attempts to take much of the patented code (ie OCM, Object Librarian, Toolset code technology) - and change Peoplesoft so that the technology is integrated.

The more I think about this deal, the more worried I get. Primarily, this is going to put a halt on any companies plans to upgrade. Secondly, this is going to affect any company planning on purchasing JDE software. We really didn't need to see more "hurry up and wait" just as the market was starting to turn around.

Of course, Application Consultants wouldn't be as affected in my opinion as Technical consultants - but they will be cheapened, since the number of "peoplesoft/jde" consultants will increase substantially - as opposed to JDE or PSFT consultants.

This is indeed a black day for JDE no matter what. It is the death of JD Edwards as a seperate company, and I would be surprised if "J.D. Edwards" as a name would even exist in a year or two.

A very sad day indeed.
 
I agree with you Jon, this does indeed spell the end of JD Edwards as we know it, but you have to admit that JD Edwards is a very arrogant organisation that does little to support or encourage consultants and 3rd party organisations, in fact they hinder. So I for one look forward to working with a new set of people and a different organisation that hopefully has a better attitude towards it partners and dare I say customers.
 
Unfortunately I have to agree. In our company we're not sure how this will change our relationship with J.D. Edwards, but as everyone in our office is saying, "it sure can't get any worse!". It has been very difficult to work with them.

I also have to agree, however, that this might make potential clients delay a bit more on installing upgrades. Since this is a big part of our business, it could be a bad thing if clients decide to "wait and see" if they should upgrade to the next version of OneWorld, or "upgrade" to whatever comes out of the merger....
 
Well one thing for sure JD Edwards is a World wide company and Peoplesoft
probably wants to capitalize on that fact. Obviously, Peoplesoft has the money
to take JD Edwards out of contention for this market. Peoplesoft wants a bigger
market in a market place that cannot support the current number of ERP type
companies.

Too bad JD Edwards is not the one buying another ERP company. It is always
better to be the company doing the buying. I am sure many people working at JD
Edwards will be displaced. The people that remain will be less likely to have
a upwardly mobile path; this is also a bad thing.

Indeed this is an end to an era but there are thousands of World and OneWorld
customers who will not be left hanging and Peoplesoft is not likely to disrupt
the existing client base from JD Edwards. Therefore, at least for the next
while not much will likely change. One door closes and another door opens that
is life and no one can change life. Good luck to everyone who works with JD
Edwards.

--
Scott B. Whipple
Independent Senior Technical Consultant
17611 E. Tennessee Pl.
Aurora, CO 80017
Work 303-337-1906
Cell 303-885-1405
Fax 303-306-1800
 
It will be interesting to see how this goes. I think the indefinate support of World just came to an end. We will be taking a hard look at any upgrade. It doesn't make sense to take a major upgrade like ERP 9 when you may have to upgrade to PeopleSoft x.x later. I think PeopleSoft wanted JDE to fill in the pieces it doesn't have, so I don't look for them to convert JDE clients to PeopleSoft as it is. Modules like property mangement don't exist in Peoplesoft. As I said, it will be interesting to watch....my agenda for focus complete changed for next week..that's for sure.
 
It will be interesting to see how this goes. I think the indefinate support of World just came to an end. We will be taking a hard look at any upgrade. It doesn't make sense to take a major upgrade like ERP 9 when you may have to upgrade to PeopleSoft x.x later. I think PeopleSoft wanted JDE to fill in the pieces it doesn't have, so I don't look for them to convert JDE clients to PeopleSoft as it is. Modules like property mangement don't exist in Peoplesoft. As I said, it will be interesting to watch....my agenda for focus complete changed for next week..that's for sure.
 
It will be interesting to see how this goes. I think the indefinate support of World just came to an end. We will be taking a hard look at any upgrade. It doesn't make sense to take a major upgrade like ERP 9 when you may have to upgrade to PeopleSoft x.x later. I think PeopleSoft wanted JDE to fill in the pieces it doesn't have, so I don't look for them to convert JDE clients to PeopleSoft as it is. Modules like property mangement don't exist in Peoplesoft. As I said, it will be interesting to watch....my agenda for focus complete changed for next week..that's for sure.
 
Does anyone know of a Peoplesoft equivalent to JDELIST.COM? It would be interesting to see what the folks on the other side of this equation have to say about this development.
 
No, and a cursory review of the PeopleSoft website raises an issue with the one piece of this large equation that no one has mentioned yet...

JD Edwards has the best "people" tools of any package out there. From "jdelist" to the Local User Groups to Quest, no other software package has the resources that JDE has (I've worked with other software packages and have seen the lack of such resources firsthand). Maybe these resources grew out of necessity (lack of contact with JDE support), but they are now an integral part of the software, in many ways as important as the software itself.

My hope (beyond "no major changes to the software") is that nothing happens to reduce the effectiveness of this and the other forums in supporting the JDE product.
 
I was waiting for when the first World customer came to the realization that theres no way that PSFT would continue support of World....

This might be a good thing however, it certainly would keep everyone concentrating on OneWorld, and will encourage upgrades - but you are indeed correct, that many might just jump to Peoplesoft if the product suits their business well.

However, I don't believe that this is the end of the OneWorld product. The name "J.D. Edwards" might disappear, but "OneWorld" will most certainly last. I am reminded of when Microsoft purchased Fox Software - the name "Fox Software" disappeared, and MSFT incorporated much of their code into their own products (MS Access for example) - but you can still buy Microsoft Foxpro today - and it is still very much supported, almost 10 years after the acquisition.

I believe therefore that something similar will occur, that Peoplesoft OneWorld will be a product NEXT to Peoplesoft 8 (of course the version numbers might change to ally confusion) - and Peoplesoft will sell the products to two seperate types of customer. Of course, they will always prefer to sell their own product to the customers that only require a "Generic" product - so, like Foxpro is today, OneWorld will become a specialist niche product.

I do believe, however, that in the mid-term, PSFT will lay off the majority of the consulting organization at JDE. Look for a reversal of the agressive consulting technique, since JDE consultants are expensive, and it is a PSFT policy to push partners to consulting, rather than doing it themselves. I would certainly be printing my resume if I were at JDE today.

I have already heard of projects being placed on hold. Expect more of the same. I don't believe they'll be cancelled, but more information needs to be forthcoming at this years Focus.

So - I might have been a little more negative when I saw the news first thing this AM, but now I think that the product might have a chance to continue under Peoplesofts name - I feel theres probably some opportunities to come along the line. OneWorld is still a superior product above Peoplesoft (hence the reason for the buyout) - and this is the first time a company realized this. I think Peoplesoft customers might actually be the ones that should worry more.
 
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