Tomorrow Now

Have any of you heard anything about a company called Tomorrow Now that is providing JDE World 7.3 support as an alternative to Oracle? They are offering 24/7/365 support, fixes for software issues, and tax and regulatory updates, all for 50% of the Oracle cost. They've been around since '98.


Here's their site: http://www.tomorrownow.com/company/index.html


Your thoughts?

Yes,

We are starting support with them tomorrow (no joke). We have checked out a number of references and they all said they get better support with TN then Oracle. It is best to only use if you don't plan to upgrade anytime soon. If and when you decide to upgrade, you can always go back to Oracle.

Are you affiliated with TomorrowNow, Arbor?

From what I understand Tomorrow Now are a direct competitor to Oracle(JDE) in that their prime interest in JDE customers is to entice them in and then try and convert them to SAP. I believe they are in fact backed by SAP as well.

They have gone out of their way to recruit people from the JDE response lines worldwide, which could explain the increase in disatification shown in jdelist with the Support that Oracle is giving list members at the moment.

They are under cutting Oracle on maintainance agreements and paying above industry rates to attract the JDE response line staff, not usre how long that that business model can last (mind you if SAP are backing them then I suppose it can last as long as they want it to).

You need to not just look at the savings that can be made by going with them but also the downsides to leaving the JDE community. For some it will be an outright win situation, others not so clear and probably marginal.

As they say you pay your money you make your choice.

SAP supports PeopleSoft, Siebel in Sydney
By Steven Deare, ZDNet Australia
07 July 2006 01:28 PM

PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel customers have another option for
Sydney-based support after SAP-owned TomorrowNow opened an office in the
city.
TomorrowNow, which was acquired by SAP last year, is a provider of
software maintenance and support for the Oracle-owned platforms. The
company will use a "follow the sun" model via its global offices to
provide 24x7 support.
Four PeopleSoft development experts have been hired for the Sydney office,
according to a statement issued by the company on Friday.
"The increased interest in TomorrowNow Support Services in the
Asia-Pacific region made opening this office in Sydney a logical choice,"
said Stuart Fisher, TomorrowNow Asia-Pacific director.
"We want to draw from the available talent pool of experienced JD Edwards,
PeopleSoft and Siebel support engineers in this area to support our
growing client base," he added.



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Hi,
TomorrowNow was an independent company which began its operations aiming customers fed up with Oracle's 20 - 30 % licence costs per annum for AMC.

When SAP released Safe Passage program to woo Oracle customers, it needed someone who could provide PeopleSoft / JDE AMC support in lieu of Oracle. TomorrowNow fitted the bill.

Now SAP has taken over this organization and if you ask TomorrowNow for provinding AMC , be prepared to receive a call from SAP soon .

To the best of my knowledge, they are value for money AMC service provider.

Smiles
Ashish

Not affiliated. The question comes from a client of mine who just happens to run JDE. One thing I'm curious about is what one does when needing to change machines. This client probably will never need any more updates to the JDE software, but will run out of gas at some point with their System i that they bought recently. They are also running that goofy Seagull software, but could probably get a new license from Seagull.

Dresdow's comment you cna always go back to Oracle when you upgrade may lead folks astray. Every vendor I work with, so I can assume Oracle does too, has a plicy that if you drop maintenance, and then want to renew maintenance, you MUST PAY the back maintenance for all the years you missed. No one let's you just pay in the years you want to upgrade.

Switching to Tommorow Now or one of the other third party maintenance providers may be worthwhile. I looked at it. But stuck with Oracle because I do plan to upgrade in the future (as painful as the fees are).

At the company I last worked for, my boss stopped support for JDE about 18 months ago.

After he was fired (long story) and we needed to fix several programs, my new boss tried to start support again and Oracle didn't want to know. It wasn't just a case of paying for coverage for the time that we were not on support, they just didn't want to grant us support again period.

This is as I understand and remember it of course - I don't want to get into a flame war, but beware of cancelling support for any software product that you might need to restart. You never know what's around the corner...

As Marc has just eluded to life with Tomorrow Now could lead to increased costs and pain tomorrow as well.

They are owned by SAP and they are not doing this for nothing.

SAP will not provide you with ESU / ASU fixes.
SAP will not provide you with Service Pack upgrades (that could be a bleesing).
SAP will not provide you up to date white papers.

If you need to upgrade your harware / database software / Operating system and this now means you need the correct service pack for these to work with World / OneWorld SAP will not be able to provide you with these.

They know this and they know that eventually you will need to make a decision to protect your business and keep some form of ERP solution going within your company.

If you have an old version of JDE and you are happy, and have no intention of upgrading your hardware / OS / database (even though those vendors have also said they will no longer support the versions that you are on) then Tomorrow Now is the perfect solution for you.

If you are currently on JDE and know that when the time comes for your company to decide on the way forward as far as your ERP system is concerned and you are certain that JDE / Oracle solutions are not going to be considered then Tomorrow Now is the perfect solution for you.

If you are certain you are going to move off of JDE / Oracle and move to SAP then Tomorrow Now is perfect for you.

Otherwise you are taking a big gamble for what seems like short term gains.

Once you sign with Tomorow Now as someone else mentioned you will have SAP sales people talking to you regularly, they want your business as quickly as possible so again you are paying full rates for maintainance fees but now to SAP.

No business does something for nothing, you always pay in the end, it just depends on to whom and at what price to your business.

The only free forum for JDE support is this one (jdelist).

Buyer Beware !

I think that although TomorrowNow provides a nice freindly helpdesk better than Response Line, that is all that some customers perceive as "support". Ever since I was at JDE, I told customers to drop "gold" or "silver" and go down to the lowest cost support program from JDE (whatever they call that now) to ensure they have web support and upgrade ability with ESU's etc - then go out and find a nice company or consultant that provided excellent peace-of-mind support (little promo for The iConsortium for example !) for the same cost. You do NOT want to drop support - and anyone, ANYONE telling you to go ahead and cut off Oracle is just misleading you and purposefully trying to corrupt your ERP system towards their own goals, they are NOT in your best interest.

Sure, Response Line has always had its issues - I personally come to JDEList above and beyond the response line and the no-ledge garden. Of course, the response line HAS come up with some solutions a few times, but usually it takes a good consultant with good contacts to make the right recommendation !

Jon,
I am really glad you posted this response, you took the words right out of my mouth -
I absolutely 100 percent agree with you.

Manoj