Users of HR technology from PeopleSoft have been assured that Oracle’s takeover of the business software supplier will not adversely affect their business.
Oracle is due to complete the £5.4bn takeover of PeopleSoft next January, a move that will create one of the largest providers of HR software in the world.
Some PeopleSoft users are concerned that Oracle will not support them or invest in improving their software, but the company has insisted that this will not be the case.
The day the companies announced the merger, Oracle president Charles Phillips contacted the heads of many PeopleSoft user companies to calm strained relations resulting from an 18-month hostile takeover struggle, according to IT news website CNET.com.
The company also sent a memo outlining its support plans, which include pledges to:
- Ensure that customers experience very little disruption as a result of the merger
- Work with database rivals IBM and Microsoft to provide support to PeopleSoft customers “as long as working relationships can be maintained”
- Make upgrades to next-generation products “as straightforward as possible”
- Allow PeopleSoft customers that wish to migrate to Oracle’s applications and database products to do so free of licensing charges.
