Based in US, JD Edwards (JDE) was founded in 1977 and is the fifth largest ERP vendor in 2002. JDE started as a custom software developer, then moved to off-the-shelf finance and logistic packages. The company continued to expand into new markets with the addition of manufacturing modules. JDE mostly targets mid-size corporations and has enjoyed a long-term growth rate in excess of 50% over its 25 years in business and its revenue reached top US$1 billion in 2000 (WSRN, 2003).

At a JDE user conference in the summer of 1998, CEO Ed McVaney said that, “If we don’t grow faster than Peoplesoft and SAP, we won’t be around in five years” (Stein, 1998). His prediction certainly came true. On 2 June 2003, PeopleSoft announced a definitive agreement to acqui

The scenario above is very cruel to JDE customer. They can breathe easier when Oracle spoke person said they would continue to support current JDE customer. Although the product will not receive further development, current user who do not wish to switch or react can still expect support of their existing product to continue, but for how long? JDE president also said that with the merger of PeopleSoft and JDE, some of the current 2000 JDE consultant would be lay off. And for the people left in JDE, they will be burdened with extra work. What would happen to their morale? Certainly the support that JDE customer going to get will not be at the level as it used to. To ensure they receive the support they needed, they will have to resolve by hiring third party consultant, this will certainly add up to the cost they already bearing now. Another scenario is that Oracle to sell JDE in the near future to ensure they will escape anti-trust suit. To whom they would sell and what is the plan of future owner will be hard to judge for now and whatever the scenario is, JDE customer will certainly be hoping to read tomorrow newspaper today.

Whatever happens tomorrow, JDE customer face a tough time to decide what to do next. The scenario faced by them today will be a lesson for new ERP adopter to re-think their criteria in choosing an ERP product or to do without it.

re JDE for US$1.7 billion in stock. The merged entity would have combined annual revenue of US$2.8 billion and would be the second largest enterprise application software vendor behind SAP (Geishecker, 2003). This triggered the second largest ERP vendor, Oracle to react and bought instead PeopleSoft. The big five ERP vendor which used to be known as J-BOPS suddenly became BOS.

Client satisfaction is a determinant of JDE’ success. Market research has found that 90 percent of its client would recommend the company’s solution to reference hunting prospects. This compares with an industry average of around 65 percent (Merrill, 1998). However with the sudden news of two mergers coming out of the blue to JDE customer within 2 months time, several concerns starting to surface in their mind. The merger of JDE and PeopleSoft was defended by JDE CEO as a strategic plan for the JDE. He said “We were never for sale. We chose PeopleSoft as a company to explore merging with, and it so happens PeopleSoft chose us, and we got together out of mutual interest. We were not peddling ourselves (Singini, 2003).” Whether it is a strategic plan or a desperate attempt to save the company, JDE customer largely supported the idea. In a survey conducted by JDE Quest Online User Group, 80 percent of current JDE customer supported the deal (Kelly 2003). However the same survey also showed that 96 per cent of JDE customers indicated that, if Oracle acquired PeopleSoft after it had acquired JD Edwards, JD Edwards' users would be left out in the cold. They was further enraged by Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison earlier statement that he will stop development for both PeopleSoft and JDE product and forced current user to migrate to Oracle solutions. Oracle spoke person however denied this and said that they will continue to support their new acquired assets. So now with so many conflict statements from so many powerful people and also the media, JDE customers are left in a limbo.

After all been said, so what is the possible alternative that JDE customer have? JDE customer can be separate into three main groups. The first group is potential JDE customer whom would like to purchase JDE One World

Some topics in this essay:
JDE World, JDE OneWorld, PeopleSoft JDE, Oracle JDE, Edwards JDE, BOS Client, Planning ERP, JDE CEO, Quest Quest, Larry Ellison, jde customer, erp vendor, jde world, jd edwards, current jde, party consultant, third party, third party consultant, jde oneworld customer, oneworld customer, peoplesoft oracle, current user, current jde customer, package vendor erp, extra third party,