Intentia Entices J.D. Edwards' Customers

Intentia International aims to capitalize on the uncertainty of the Oracle, PeopleSoft, and J.D. Edwards (JDE) acquisition triangle by encouraging existing J.D. Edwards' customers to hedge their bets. Intentia yesterday announced its migration path for J.D. Edwards to Intentia's Movex Collaboration applications. The Movex Collaboration Applications comprise six components: Enterprise Management, CRM, Supply Chain Management, Business Performance Measurement, Value Chain Collaboration, and e-Business. Intentia will use its JDE Conversion Lab to migrate JDE customers to the Intentia enterprise application platform. The JDE Conversion Lab will leverage the existing worldwide Intentia Modification Centers. Each lab will provide data/file transfer, process conversion templates, and customer support needed to ensure quality and the success of the JDE customer migration. "Our deployment of the JDE Conversion Lab is another way we are trying to demonstrate our commitment to the mid-market," Linus Parker, president of Intentia Americas, said in a statement. "Manufacturers and distributors need to work with software vendors that understand their business and share their same beliefs. With the change of strategies of these vendors, the eye is off of the mid-tier enterprise. We are keeping our focus and dedication to this market's success." J.D. Edwards' roughly 6,000 customers are highly concentrated in the mid-market, according to Henrik Billgren, cofounder of Intentia. Intentia, which in 2001 recorded just over $379 million in revenue and is the second-largest enterprise software company in Europe (after SAP AG), is also focused on the mid-market, specifically on companies between $100 million and $1 billion in revenue. As a mid-market vendor Billgren maintains that Intentia has extensive experience working with IBM midrange servers. That's why he says it makes good technology sense for J.D. Edwards' customers, who are using IBM midrange servers to switch to Intentia. "J.D. Edwards is very much a mid-market player, with a lot of its customers using IBM iSeries midrange servers," Billgren says. He adds that no matter which company J.D. Edwards ends up with (Oracle or PeopleSoft), the J.D. Edwards mid-market customer base may not be able to afford the upgrade paths presented by the two large enterprise companies. Chris Selland, an analyst at Reservoir Partners, says Intentia is after J.D. Edwards' manufacturing and enterprise resource planning (MRP and ERP) customers. "Everyone knows Intentia on the MRP side, but in CRM in North America Intentia is almost completely unknown," Selland says. Yet, he suggests Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft may materialize and J.D. Edwards may be included in the deal. In which case, if you're a J.D. Edwards customer, he asks, "Why move until you know what is being offered?"