Cobol - Re: OT (Maybe): ERPs

Author

Re: OT (Maybe): ERPs

Robert Wagner

2005-01-26, 3:55 am

On 25 Jan 2005 16:45:22 -0800, "steve.t" <sthompson@ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

>I'm looking for a web site that I think exists that shows all the
>failed whoopie-wow projects. You know, like the attempted Siebel
>implementations (where they tried to take over something being done on
>a mainframe).
>
>I know of one major disaster involving Siebel, IBM and a few others.
>I'd like to see if it has been listed on such a site.
>
>Seems the company migrated from VSE to z/OS, ran lotsa COBOL and VSAM
>and had sub-second response time from CICS. But they got forced into
>going to Siebel.
>
>Well here we are a few years later, and the CEO has been fired, the
>second CIO has been terminated, several RIFs have taken place and the
>company is still on their mainframe that was supposed to be gone in 18
>months.

With 4,000 customers, HP/Siebel is a small fish in the ERP pond. SAP
has 18,000 customers, Oracle/Peoplesoft/JDE has 14,000, Lawson has
6,000 (guesstimate) and MS/Axapta 5,000. Adding small players such as
BAAN, the total number of ERP customers is about 50,000.

If EVERY mainframe customer had a failure story on the Web site, the
ratio of success to failure would be 2:1. Using a realistic estimate
of 500 failures, a disproportionate number of them Lawson, the success
ratio is around 100:1.

In case you haven't heard, Oracle's acquisition of Peoplesoft was
completed last w

. The price was $10B, which comes to $700K per
customer. Oracle quickly announced a layoff of 5,000 (10%), mostly
from the ranks of its own failed ERP products such as Oracle
Financials. They're keeping >90% of Peoplesoft developers and support
people. The percentage of Peoplesoft customers already using the
Oracle database was 63%, so the motivation was not database sales; the
cash cow is maintenance.

I've had lots of hands-on with SAP and Peoplesoft. They're ok but not
great. Based on what I've read, Microsoft's Axapta is the best of the
ERPs. Many studies have shown that it returns the investment in less
than two years, reduces both total IT budget and clerical costs. Other
ERPs promise that but don't come close to delivering.

Howard Brazee

2005-01-26, 3:55 pm

On 25-Jan-2005, Robert Wagner <spamblocker-robert@wagner.net> wrote:

> In case you haven't heard, Oracle's acquisition of Peoplesoft was
> completed last w

. The price was $10B, which comes to $700K per
> customer. Oracle quickly announced a layoff of 5,000 (10%), mostly
> from the ranks of its own failed ERP products such as Oracle
> Financials. They're keeping >90% of Peoplesoft developers and support
> people. The percentage of Peoplesoft customers already using the
> Oracle database was 63%, so the motivation was not database sales; the
> cash cow is maintenance.

Apparently Oracle isn't interested hardly at all in the J.D. Edwards portion.

Robert Wagner

2005-01-26, 3:55 pm

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 15:46:15 GMT, "Howard Brazee" <howard@brazee.net>
wrote:

>On 25-Jan-2005, Robert Wagner <spamblocker-robert@wagner.net> wrote:
>
>
>Apparently Oracle isn't interested hardly at all in the J.D. Edwards portion.

Yes they are. The former JDE suite, now Peoplesoft World , is
marketed to low-end customers -- medium sized businesses who cannot
afford to spend millions on consultants. It's often sold stripped down
and pre-configured for rapid startup. SAP has a similar offering
called AcceleratedSAP (ASAP).

I worked in the same building with an ASAP customer featured on
billboards, and shared smoke-break discussions with the IT manager. He
said installation was painless, conversion from the old in-house
system easy (with Oracle assistance). They got it up in less than six
months. His users complained about missing features such as inability
to make partial shipments; if one item is out of stock, the whole
order is held up. Sounds to me like a configuration option (to save on
freight), but I don't know.

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