NetCustomer Inc. Tuesday announced customized support services for users of Oracle Corp.’s PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards enterprise applications.
Down the line, it also plans to offer support services to users of applications from SAP AG of Walldorf, Germany, said Punita Pandey, netCustomer’s chief executive officer, in an interview Monday.
Oracle last year acquired PeopleSoft Inc., which had earlier acquired J.D. Edwards & Co. As a result of the merger, the product roadmap has become blurred, and there is a sense of alienation in the PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards customer base, Pandey said. The support fees charged by vendors of enterprise software has also been escalating, she added.
NetCustomer aims to cash in on the expertise it has built up as an offshore support services contractor for PeopleSoft for over four years, Pandey said.
The company established an operation in Noida, India, in 2001 as a global support center for PeopleSoft. It also offered services to customers of J.D. Edwards after PeopleSoft acquired the company.
After Oracle acquired PeopleSoft, netCustomer decided to position itself as an independent third-party provider, as there was an opportunity for the company to offer its services approximately 13,000 large enterprise customers that use software from PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards, Pandey said.
While vendors have typically delivered services at customers’ sites, netCustomer plans to do so remotely, and more cost effectively, from India where staff costs are also lower, Pandey said. Customers want all their support needs taken care of by a single provider, regardless of where it is delivered from, she added.
The company is promising customers 50 percent savings over the annual maintenance and support contracts offered by Oracle. “Customers will not only save on the costs, but they will also get more services that they need, because they will get customized services from us,” Pandey said.
The company currently has about 80 staff at the Noida center which it aims to double in this year.
