IFS, Intentia target PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards' customers
Mesa, AZ — June 24, 2003 — With PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards under pressure to complete their merger before the Oracle of Redwood Shores makes good on its offer to buy PeopleSoft, customers of J.D. Edwards may be feeling like they've detoured off the Information Superhighway into an e-business Twilight Zone, leaving the fate of their technology investments in question.
Now two other solution providers are stepping up the pressure on JDE by offering those concerned customers alternative roadmaps for where to take their IT infrastructure in a bid to "cherry-pick" accounts away from J.D. Edwards.
IFS, a provider of component-based business applications for medium and large enterprises, launched a new "rescue program" for J.D. Edwards' customers in North America. Under the program, these customers can upgrade to IFS applications without paying upfront license fees.
The program requires participating companies to sign a three-year agreement that covers support and maintenance costs for only $1,000 per named user per year, in exchange for which the company can replace their current software license for selected IFS financial, manufacturing and distribution applications.
The IFS program is limited to customers in a number of manufacturing industry segments, including automotive suppliers, electronic components, electronic equipment, fabricated metal products, food and beverage, machinery manufacturing, medical devices, metal industries, paint and adhesives, pharmaceuticals, plastic product manufacturing, semiconductor, and shipbuilding.
Mike Nordin, president of IFS North America, noted in a company statement that his firm and J.D. Edwards both target the mid-market. In addition, he added, "we're confident our component technology will allow us to get JDE customers up and running quickly and cost-effectively without disrupting business operations."
Meanwhile, Intentia International has announced a suite of programs, a "conversion lab" and price incentives intended to draw J.D. Edwards into switching to Intentia.
Pointing to the "FUD" factor — that is, "fear, uncertainty and doubt" — brought on by the PeopleSoft-J.D. Edwards-Oracle skirmish, Intentia said its program is designed to capture increased market share and offer an easy transition strategy to Intentia's own enterprise software platform.
Intentia will unveil the program details over the next several weeks, but the suite of solutions includes new pricing programs, a "JDE Conversion Lab" and a knowledge capital preservation program.
"When the pending PeopleSoft/JDE deal is consummated, Intentia stands to become the largest business application provider exclusively focused on the needs of the mid-market," Intentia said in a company statement.
"We see this as a significant opportunity to better service the JDE customer base, due to the upheaval typically caused by these mergers," said Linus Parker, president of Intentia Americas.
J.D. Edwards has endorsed the merger with PeopleSoft, and both of those companies have said that the deal would be good for J.D. Edwards' customers, since the two providers have pledged to continue supporting those customers. Oracle has said it would consider an acquisition of J.D. Edwards after a success purchase of PeopleSoft, but it made no commitment one way or the other.
