Oracle reassures JDE resellers

At an Oracle JDE reseller meeting last week, Oracle's tri-President, Charles Phillips, tried to encourage J.D. Edwards resellers that Oracle means business in helping them to sell JDE to small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).

But according to eWeek, some of the resellers aren't convinced.

Resellers who attended the summit Thursday expressed concern about whether they would have a free hand to market their services to SMBs, despite assurances to the contrary.

In particular they want some assurances that they will get at least the same level of sales opportunities that they had before the PeopleSoft buyout.

To be fair, Oracle is doing the JDE resellers a big favor by raising the bar that defines the market to which the resellers can deal, to companies under $500 million in annual revenue, up from $100 million last year. Interestingly, however, Oracle resellers of its E-Business Suite continue to operate under a $100 million bar. This means that when a JDE reseller goes after a prospect between $100 million and $500 million, there's a good chance it will be facing an Oracle direct sales rep.

The JDE resellers are concerned, no doubt, that when the Oracle direct sales force and a JDE reseller are in the same deal, the gloves may come off. At an executive breakfast with Charles Phillips earlier this year, I asked him about the potential for channel conflict. His response was that it would be the customer's choice as to which way the deal would go--a good response. But the real test will come when a few such scenarios materialize--how aggressively will Oracle allow the direct sales rep to discount versus the JDE reseller? I haven't seen such a scenario yet, but I'm sure I will within the next year.

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Oracle's new reseller strategy and speculation on the future of JDE