I said regarding i2-
This is the problem I have with the layoffs,
At a conference call briefing Sidhu also said several operations might be shifted to India to cut costs further.
Why do you consider that to be a problem? I2 is an international company, isn't it?
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BGR- first I haven't seen you in a long time! Hope you are doing ok in this terrible mkt.
WRT i2. Well you know how it is speculating when things are bad for companies such as what is happening to i2 and their license revenue decline. I really don't know all of the factors that have led up to it.
However, I am choosing to focus on Manugistic's ability to pull themselves out of the gutter on the strength of their revenue and pricing optimization products which they conceived of in 2000. The EPO suite has allowed manu to sign at least some new customers and book between 25-50mm license revenue for the last 3 quarters and they have a tiny installed base compared to i2 so thats pretty good. Revenue optimization is an analytical product and i2 already has a pricing dept, so why did Manugistics blindside i2 like that? I2 doesn't even have a me-too product for revenue/pricing optimization. In the last mid-qtr call, analysts even pointed out that the lack of a revenue/pricing product -which sells into retail, a decent mkt now- has allowed manu to stabilize while i2 is suffering with concentration in only the tech vertical.
It looks to me like i2's marketing dept is not spending enough time in the field or something, or have lost touch with their mkt. At the same time, a few months ago I noticed i2 was hiring marketing people (MBA types) to be based in Bangalore. Personally as someone who knows product marketing for enterprise software I don't know how effective you can be identifying mkt opportunities in Bangalore. It seems to me that moving marketing people offshore to cut costs is a gross mis-step in applying cost-cutting, especially now, when i2 has *product* problems.
Thats my only point. In contrast, take a company like Oracle. No product/conceptual problems there. They know what they want to build and can market it. There only issue is execution, getting it out the door. Then by all means outsource. But that means outsourcing production of software not conceptualization!
On a different note, Tom Siebel was asked in the call whether Oracle's suite approach was gaining share as Larry says. Tom responded that despite Larry's claims the suite approach doesn't sell, best of breed does and Oracle has not gained in CRM or supply chain. Thats good news for i2 because analysts are saying supply chain is being cannibalized by the ERPs (moreso than CRM).
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