Dave Duffield, one of the key people behind Peoplesoft is apparently starting a new business aimed at developing and supporting a new ERP/SCM package that mixes open source with traditional business methods to compete with Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft.
Here's how his Davesnextmove.com website describes the problem they want to address:
Today's enterprise applications are no longer meeting the needs of their customers. These applications
- Are too expensive to deploy and maintain.
- Are complicated and difficult to use.
- Were built for the back office and largely ignore the informational needs of the line manager.
Today's applications are constraining business.
Second acts, except for highly motivated people like Steve Jobs, have not typically been all that successful. Here, however, that motivation may be in place and there's certainly an enormous opportunity for improvement in the ERP/SCM business.
I've been a big fan of Peoplesoft's ever since their campaign against client-server started. Between Microsoft's changes to IE and customer entrenchment they never quite got that off the ground, but if he's serious this time, I have only one question: Mr. Duffield, how can I help?