Oracle upgrades J.D. Edwards World; says it wants to keep those users
by Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 7/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
Oracle says the recently announced upgrade to the J.D. Edwards World package is evidence of its commitment to continue supporting all of the customers it acquired in its hostile takeover of PeopleSoft.
The J.D. Edwards World customers were considered the most likely to be abandoned by Oracle, since that package runs on the IBM iSeries, a self-contained platform that includes its own hardware, operating system, and database.
Initial speculation was that Oracle would not want to continue supporting World users because they would not be candidates to buy Oracle's database. But John Schiff, VP and general manager of Oracle's J.D. Edwards World organization, says, "Oracle continues its commitment to partnering with IBM and helping customers succeed running the J.D. Edwards World solutions on the IBM iSeries."
The World solutions were built for small and medium-size industrial manufacturers, and wholesale distributors. PeopleSoft acquired the World solutions when it purchased J.D. Edwards roughly a year before Oracle completed its hostile bid for PeopleSoft.
The new features include self-service applications for both customers and employees.
Oracle's commitment to the World product will continue with a full new release in 2006. That release is expected to have functionality to support lean consumer packaged goods, and pharmaceuticals.
Schiff says Oracle is readying a path for World users who may want to switch to the Oracle applications suite.
