Oracle Exec: Support But No Upgrades For PeopleSoft Products

He also said during a pretaped hearing that was played Monday for the court during the Oracle antitrust trial that there's still a market perception that PeopleSoft's human-resources technology is better than Oracle's.

Clearly not accustomed to being grilled on Oracle's technology on a granular level, and the size of Oracle's customers, Henley offered a series of rambling answers before a Justice Department attorney asked about Oracle's support plans for PeopleSoft products after a merger.

"We'll continue to support the (PeopleSoft) products for 10 years. We'd try to improve the products, but we would not invest large amounts of time in a brand new version," Henley said. "In the spirit that we want the PeopleSoft customers to be happy. If they're not massive (requests) that require a brand new release, we'll certainly try to do that," He said Oracle will honor written contracts PeopleSoft has issued to customers, including providing `"minor enhancements" to the product.

Henley also said PeopleSoft doesn't offer any technology, or modules that Oracle lacks. And he said that in the ERP software arena, Oracle is "certainly equal to or better" than PeopleSoft--but that a perception remains that PeopleSoft is superior in human-resources technology. "There's a market perception in many people's minds--they think PeopleSoft's HR (software) is better," Henley said.

Oracle attorney Daniel Wall told InformationWeek later Monday that Henley wasn't implying that this perception is the reason Oracle is purchasing PeopleSoft. "The crux (of the matter) is that size matters. The bigger you are, the more customization you can do, the more maintenance you can spin off, the better the company,'' Wall said.

Following Henley's taped testimony, the government called Professor Randall "Preston" McAfee, of California Institute of Technology, who also served as an expert witness in the Federal Trade Commission's case against Enron.

McAfee determined that an Oracle-PeopleSoft merger would result in significantly increased pricing for customers, based largely on his research of Request for Discount Forms filled out by Oracle sales representatives and previously submitted to executives in search of sometimes steep discounts in order to land new large customer accounts. McAfee was able to cite a number of cases in which the salesperson indicated serious pressure coming from PeopleSoft as his reasoning for the discount request.

One case study he cited stated: "We're in a head-to-head battle with PeopleSoft. Craig Conway (PeopleSoft's CEO) is calling in to the account to try to delay decision past 5-31, and have gotten ultra-aggressive on the price and discount to win the business." Another discount form was filled in by a salesperson trying to land an account with Hallmark Cards and describing himself as being in an "extremely competitive situation against PeopleSoft. PeopleSoft is in at less than 1 million in license fees and lower yearly support. Craig Conway is all over this account with meetings and calls."