Dave Duffield's back...

Guess who's back
Back again
Dave's back
Tell a friend.....

In my posting on PeopleSoft and JD Edwards Customers - In the Driver's seat I suggested Dave Duffield himself may have a long term alternative for this customer base. May be I should have put him in the medium term category.

He has a teaser site up and promises: “….a revolutionary approach to technology that includes open source, object-oriented techniques, XML, and web services.” Buzzword compliant – but seriously if he and his team can leverage the new economics of software development – with offshoring, open source etc module for module he could build functionality at a third of what Oracle and SAP sunk building it in the 90s.

I am not a big fan of sequels in the same market category. Frank Dodge tried to go after D&B customers in the early 90s and while he was a sentimental favorite, he only snared a few customers, at significant investment.

But Dave is a different class of operator, revered in many circles and a really nice guy. And he believes in sequels (He founded Integral and Information Associates prior to PeopleSoft) He already has put together a strong team which includes several PeopleSoft stalwarts (including Aneel Bhushri and Stan Swete) and Karen Beaman, a well known HR expert (ex ADP, AG Consulting).

Maybe Karen can also help seed a BPO DNA in the company…as my BPO article suggests it is a long term threat to the software industry. Word is Dave is focused on SAP – more so than Oracle, as he builds this new company. A few years from now, both may be the “legacy” competition like D&B turned out to be when he started PeopleSoft. The new competitors may be more Accenture and offshore BPO.