I’m following the Edwards – Peoplesoft – Oracle catfight with some interest, given that it is all more or less in my professional space. For those who haven’t been following this particular mess, News.com has more coverage than you could possibly want.
What really caught my eye, though, is Oracle’s recent advertising campaign to reassure Peoplesoft customers that if it succeeds in buying Peoplesoft, it will take good care of them. The June 28th – July 4th (U.S.) edition of the Economist, for example, has a full back-cover ad from Oracle. The text of the ad is a slightly summarized version of this page on Oracle’s site, which lists the following commitments:
1. We will not shut down PeopleSoft products
We are devoting more than US$6 billion and engineers around the world to PeopleSoft products. We are committed to supporting the current PeopleSoft products for at least the next 10 years.
We want you to be a satisfied Oracle customer
2. You will not be forced to convert to Oracle E-Business Suite applications
Our interest in you as a customer is not based on you migrating to Oracle applications or database
By committing to extend your support, you will not be forced to migrate to any other version or product
3. We will provide high quality, truly global customer service for PeopleSoft products through our award-winning customer support organization, which will include PeopleSoft specialists
We will provide you with the same high level, global support that Oracle provides to its customers
We have a longer track record of offering superior customer support, and have received numerous service awards. Read more about Oracle Support (PDF, 55K)
4. We will extend the support period for PeopleSoft products beyond the timeframe PeopleSoft itself has committed to and into the next decade
Oracle support for PeopleSoft Version 7, which PeopleSoft is desupporting in December, 2003, will be extended for at least two years
Oracle will support PeopleSoft Version 8 for at least the next ten years
5. We will take no action that reduces the functionality of your PeopleSoft implementations
Oracle commits to enhancing the current PeopleSoft products for at least the next decade
In every acquisition Oracle has made, we have never reduced the functionality of the acquired products.
6. We will increase the value of your PeopleSoft investments through ongoing enhancements and maintenance delivered by one of the largest software development organizations in the world
Together with the PeopleSoft team, we will continue to enhance and maintain current PeopleSoft products
Customers will benefit from a next generation of products that incorporates the best features of both companies
7. If, and only if, you elect to do so, you may move to the Oracle E-Business Suite via FREE module-for module upgrades
You can stay on PeopleSoft applications, or upgrade to Oracle applications at your discretion. It’s entirely your choice
Utilizing PeopleSoft code and developers, we will build lower cost, automated migration scripts and tools
The interesting question to me is, do these ‘commitments’ have any actual legal force?
What happens if, for instance, Oracle decides to discontinue support for PeopleSoft Version 8 after only seven years (as opposed to ten)? Can a company which built its business strategy around Version 8 sue Oracle for damages?
And the fuzzier claims seem even more dangerous (or perhaps, more meaningless): given the complexity of software in general and Peoplesoft in particular, I find it hard to imagine that some enterprising lawyer won’t be able to make a claim sometime after a theoretical Oracle takeover that some change “reduces the functionality” of a Peoplesoft implementation.
Anybody from the legal side of the Blogosphere care to chime in here? Should Peoplesoft users consider this a strong reassurance, or is it just marketing noise?
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