This is Going to Sting a Little...

Saying you're sorry is never something that vendors are over anxious to do, let alone publicly. Every vendor, from time to time, has to deal with issues that spiral out of control, with of course the preferred method being a quiet communication and a hearty promise to rectify the problem.

The challenge with solving the problem that way is the fact that there are any number of ways for disgruntled customers to turn a private apology into a public relations fire drill. And that seems to be what's happened to Business Objects, an SAP Company recently.

Apparently there have been some major issues with the data quality side of the business, and in an email sent out to clients after close of business Friday (pretty sneaky, sis...) pledges were made, resources were marshalled, internet links were included. All with a hope that things would settle down and the customers would be placated.

Alas, such was not the case, as someone sent the customer note onto DM Review, and now everyone knows the issue. Now it's one thing to be a blurb in a "notes" column; but when the editor-in-chief of the publication goes to the trouble to print an article about the issue, things have clearly gotten away from you. And Franz Amman's email statement, while official sounding, doesn't really do much to close the issue since it's still unclear what the issue was. Reading between the lines, it sounds like poor support for upgrading to a new version that finally took a client or two over the edge. It invites more questions and leaves open a lot of interpretation as to what the issue is. Is it a poor quality product? Do the support people now know about the new version? Are there not enough resources to help with migration? Is the migration a much bigger issue than customers were promised? We're left to guess, which likely makes the issue bigger than it probably actually is.

To their credit, BOBJASAPC is running the standard "play defense" from the PR playbook well: issue your statement, use as few facts as necessary, say you're dealing with the problem, stay quiet and let it die away.

The key now is the execution. If they take care of the problem, this will melt away; if not, E6.1 redux here we come! Great for blogging, not as great for the EIM customers out there.

Is SAP Too Preoccupied?

We've wondered here before that in this Performance Guy's opinion/hypothesis, was Oracle always intending to go after BEA and not Business Objects, forcing SAP's hand and tying them up in a costly and lenthy acquisition and integration process while continuing to encircle them with more competitive technology?

Now news comes that Oracle has added to its performance management portfolio with the announcement of their intent to acquire Interlace Systems, a maker of integrated planning systems, which in large part acts as an extension of sales and operational planning--kind of a "planning for planners" type of approach. This move will further differentiate Oracle's performance management portfolio, and adds a solid extension of planning capabilities that you would expect to be used in sales cycles as soon as the acquisition is closed.

Interestingly, the "SAP may be distracted" angle was just picked up by another blogger we're now linking to on the right hand side here, Tony Baer at www.SandHill.com/opinion. Tony's insights are interesting in that as he looks on the Interlace site, while they have IBM, Oracle, and SAP as partners, the SAP partnership does have prominence over the others, particulalry on the support and certification side vs. what they are doing with Oracle, and he surmises that this may be another acquisition that Oracle has snatched away.

Time will tell, but first BEA, now Interlace, stay tuned for more developments...