Re: INFINIUM PURCHASE -- BPCS-L

There seem to be two discussions going on here . . . both of them eerily
remind me of what happened when Computer Associates purchased PRMS in
the late 80's(?). CA proceeded to purchase two other tiny ERP
packages.

1> The strategy discussion . . merging Infinium customers with BPCS and
PRMS customers

It is easy to criticize this decision, but there are valid reasons to
do it. It seems that SSA-GT is trying to gather a critical mass of
iSeries ERP customers to become a force in the market. If SSA succeeds
in bringing the customers and the applications closer together, they
will grow, and in fact the customer situation will improve.

2> OGS/Maintenance "extortion"

After Computer Associates bought PRMS, they cranked up the support and
maintenance charges over a couple of years, and engaged in the same
license key extortion (I chose that word carefully) when customers
upgraded. At the same time the level of support and the frequency of
patches dropped dramatically. Clearly, CA was milking the cash cow;
eventually virtually all of the PRMS customers dropped maintenance. If
SSA follows the same pattern (and initially they appear to be doing so),
the integration strategy will fail because we will all be too angry. If
on the other hand, there is increased value for the increased charges,
then the strategy has a great chance of working.

However it works out, this is going to be interesting!

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I disagree, I think the strategy is wonderful. By buying software
brands
and focusing on adding value by bringing those products up to current
technology standards is a wonderful plan..Consider the following...

JDE and Peoplesoft have world class financials and decent MFG
products.

BPCS/PRMS customers , now with Websphere, will get world class
financials
and one of the bet HR/Payroll products in the industry. SSA Can
compete
with any of these software companies on enterprise or stand alone
solutiuons. The cross selling of these brands is wide open...

Companies that do not want to buy a "new" package for instance will be
able
to add modules as they see fit..need plant Maintenance? Great SSA has
it.
Want world class financials? Great SSA has it. Need HR or Payroll? SSA
now
has the leading edge solutions for those as well with Web Self
services...

I thin it is a great move.

Oh and by the way ALL software companies charge OGS in the same range
as
SSA-GT.

Mitchell K. Kleinman
Executive Vice President
CCS- an IBM Premier Business Partner
mitch@ccseservers.com
Office: (949) 261-3298 - Direct
Mobile: (949) 922-2434
Fax: (949) 261-9164

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| To: bpcs-l@midrange.com
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| Subject: INFINIUM PURCHASE
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Well folks - Greenough has done it again. Diluted our
BPCS value by buying another tier two player -
Infinium. Spent $100 million to buy a company that
isn't even on most analyst's radar screens anymore.
Their process product is weak. The only redeeming
value is their gaming and healthcare verticals which
do have a market share is those respective industries.
Since everyone is talking about OGS it is apparently
clear that Greenough has indeed found the key to
profitability - sock it to the current users for as
much Maintenance revenue as he can get. With the CA,
and now the Infinium acquisition he can get even more.
Most of these customers are much like the BPCS
customer in that they will stick with the iSeries and
not bother with new technology. BTW, I don't think
that SSA GT can force you to be on OGS to receive a
key to run BPCS. As long as you comply with the terms
of your contract and do pay them for upgrades etc.,
they would be forced to give you a new key without OGS
payments.

All new strategies work for a while - the bad economy
is helping SSA GT because no one wants to, or can
afford to make a change right now. It's much cheaper
to fix it with bandaids and baling wire. However,
elephants never forget, and as soon as the economy
becomes brighter there will be a stampede toward the
door to other vendors. The OGS extortion with bite SSA
GT where the sun doesn't shine - then we'll see how
profitable they will be! They are not doing what is
best for the BPCS users - but what is best for
Greenough and Cerberus Partners who really own this
company. ASs usual it always comes down to money.

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