Could be worse — at least Interex doesn't face a rival user group

August 2004

Could be worse — at least Interex doesn’t face a rival user group

While Interex has its work cut out for it over the next year against a competing HP Technical conference, things could be worse. Members of CAMUS, the manufacturing software users society that represents MANMAN sites, report that the MANMAN vendor is starting up a new, consolidated user group. CAMUS can join, or not, but SSA Global will be starting its own user group anyway. Terry Floyd of ERP support provider the Support Group inc. reported that CAMUS members heard on a conference call from SSA “we’re setting the rules, and you guys aren’t even going to have a seat on the board of directors. So join us, or don’t.”

SSA has been buying up ERP software providers for years now, scooping up CA’s MANMAN sites, Infinium from the IBM world and then Baan in its biggest acquisition. CAMUS had been debating whether to join a Baan user group when SSA dropped the bomb that all of these acquired users will be part of an SSA user group. Floyd said the vendor-led user group looked like the beginning of the end for independent CAMUS conferences, and maybe for the user group as well.

The rise of competing user groups and shows offers serious challenges to such groups, he said. Vendors like Oracle, Peoplesoft and SAP “all have a users group, and if they can, they control it,” Floyd said. As far as CAMUS and MANMAN, I think it’s dead. CAMUS might be able to pull off one more conference next year. But it would be for homesteaders only, for people who wouldn’t want to go to an SSA-led user group meeting.”

CAMUS president Malcom Miller said the user group doesn’t have a solution to the quandary of staying close to its vendor for migrating customers, while it maintains independence for sites who will homestead. “CAMUS must retain a close working relationship with SSA Global for the benefit of those members following the SSA ERP migration path,” Miller said in a letter to members. “CAMUS must also provide benefits to the members who choose to homestead on their current platforms. The challenge becomes trying to satisfy both requirements. The solution will not be immediate.”

SSA plans to consolidate its software users onto a single application, and like HP, it wants to spend less on supporting user conferences. “If there is to be a single ERP application, then why not a single user group?,” Miller asked. “This allows SSA Global to concentrate their investment into a single conference, rather than supporting several conferences at different times and locations throughout the year.”

Floyd added that he believes about half of the MANMAN sites won’t even look at an SSA alternative like Baan. He also had heard the vendor was buying out support contracts, so customers could pay about one and a half years’ worth of support fees and be released from future support commitments. That’s a move that would help SSA in any future effort to go public. The company’s S-1 filing, a first move to an IPO, claims that SSA doesn’t have any customer contracts which force sites to stay on support. Some MANMAN sites got locked into such agreements when they took an upgrade of the application.