Former JD Edwards and PeopleSoft customers are generally satisfied with Oracle’s post-merger performance, according to a survey conducted by the UK Oracle User Group (UKOUG).

More than half (58 per cent) of former JD Edwards customers believe the merger was handled quite well or very well, while 51 per cent of former PeopleSoft customers said it had been handled quite well.

Some 20 per cent of PeopleSoft users said Oracle had dealt with the merger badly or very badly, compared with 17 per cent of JD Edwards users, according to the annual survey.

UKOUG chairman Ronan Miles says the figures prove that former customers of PeopleSoft and JD Edwards are happy with the degree of support that Oracle is offering for its systems.

‘Both sets of numbers tell the same story: Oracle has done a good job in reassurance,’ he said.

Overall, customer satisfaction with Oracle has remained largely unchanged, dropping slightly from 64 per cent in 2004 to 63 per cent this year.

But nearly 80 per cent of respondents said they were unhappy with Oracle’s software licensing scheme, citing complexity as a problem. Miles says Oracle still has work to do to make its licensing policies less restrictive.

‘Oracle’s licensing for its historical applications is complex. If you are an Oracle customer buying database and applications simultaneously then, operationally, the company has two separate divisions for dealing with you,’ he said.

‘As far as the UK is concerned, things are going well with Oracle’s products and services. But ideally we would urge it to do more to take on the positive suggestions many members have made in the survey.’

The study also shows that most customers are moving to, or making preparations to, deploy Oracle’s 10G database and 9i Enterprise edition.

Miles says that, as the software was released more than a year ago, it is now recognised as stable and reliable.