The Hindu : J.D. Edwards' global clients not to be affected by acquisition

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 23, 2003

Business

Business

J.D. Edwards' global clients not to be affected by acquisition

By Shanthi Kannan

CHENNAI SEPT. 22. PeopleSoft's recent acquisition of J. D. Edwards will not affect the latter's consultant partners across the globe. J. D. Edwards continues to do the same task as it has been doing earlier, asserted Ram Gupta, Executive Vice-Presient (products and technology), PeopleSoft.

In India, PeopleSoft will manage two dedicated centres — Hexaware and Covansys. Covansys has been the dedicated centre for J. D. Edwards. Mr. Gupta said the company wanted more consultant partners the world over. In India the centres would be marketing all the eight products of PeopleSoft along with the five product lines of J. D. Edwards. However, these two centres would work as separate entities.

Asked about the PeopleSoft's relationship with Hexaware, Mr. Gupta told this correspondent that it would continue only if the consultant partner performed well.

The whole contract was based on `build, operate and transfer' basis. It would be decided after the expiry of the two-year lease period.

About Oracle's $7.3 billion offer to the shareholders of PeopleSoft to buy their holdings, Mr. Gupta said, "The saga is over.''

The Oracle bid had failed, in his reckoning, mainly because of the support PeopleSoft's customers offered to the company, both verbally and by `opening their wallets'.

PeopleSoft and J. D. Edwards were profitable. PeopleSoft recently gave guidance that it expected per-share income of 90 cents from the combined company in 2004, up from guidance of 50 cents to 55 cents for PeopleSoft alone in 2003. "We are confident we can pull it off, and we're already seeing signs of success," Mr. Gupta said.

J. D. Edwards's products are focused on asset management. PeopleSoft claims to have strength in service automation and management. Together, "we will be able to deliver the best applications to all customers," Mr. Gupta said, as the integration was designed around their strengths.

With the merger, PeopleSoft would primarily concentrate on three product lines — PeopleSoft Enterprise, PeopleSoft Enterprise One and PeopleSoft World. Enterprise was targeted at the upper end of the market, primarily for large companies. Enterprise One, essentially a re-branding of J. D. Edwards 5, would focus on mid-size firms.

Mr. Gupta said there would be a single branding for all products. The acquired J. D. Edwards products would, henceforth, be marketed under the PeopleSoft's brand name.

Mr. Gupta noted that the sharing of intellectual property across the product lines would allow PeopleSoft to build better products "natively", starting immediately. He said product integration to be accomplished in the next 18 months, would benefit all customers.

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