Peregrine and Harbinger...

[Kjonnnn]

How will this affect the software?

Software company Peregrine plans to layoff 1,400 employees


SAN DIEGO (AP) - Peregrine Systems Inc. is cutting 1,400 jobs, or nearly its half work force, and closing some of its offices to cut costs amid an investigation by federal securites regulators.

Peregrine officials said Tuesday the company will reduce the number of employees from 2,900 to 1,500 -- or about 48 percent -- in its U.S. offices. It was not immediately known how many locations would be closed.

``We've had to take difficult, but necessary, steps to reposition our company in line with current market conditions, and this work force reduction will help Peregrine sustain long-term viability,'' said Gary Greenfield, who was named chief executive two weeks ago. ``These actions will have minimal impact on our customers and the level of services and support we offer.''

Peregrine, a business-software company, admitted it may have overstated as much as $100 million in revenue. The company is under formal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and said it will restate three years of earnings.

Peregrine fired Arthur Andersen as its auditor April 2 and fired its replacement auditor, KPMG, at the end of May. KPMG then sent the SEC a letter, alleging possible fraud at the company.

After the auditing firms were fired, Steve Gardner stepped down as board chairman and chief executive, while Matt Gless resigned as chief financial officer and executive vice president of finance.

Greenfield, who was named CEO June 3, previously was president and CEO of Merant Inc., a publicly traded e-business development company, and was an adviser to private venture capital firms JMI Equity Fund and Lazard Technology Partners.

Peregrine has lost about two-thirds of the value of its shares since the executives' departure and shareholders have filed civil lawsuits against Peregrine.

 

[K]

Well if the past is any indication ...

Originally, the company was Premenos. The software/upgrades and tech support were great!

Then Harbinger bought out Premenos, and it started to slip. Their software upgrades were not as sound and useful as in Premenos-style. Their technical support had a hard time ramping up to the new product and was not as "reachable" as we had become accustomed to with Premenos.

Then, along came Peregrine and they bought Harbinger. Their software upgrades are down-right awful -- sometimes even losing previous functionality. And, their technical support is pretty much worthless! If it isn't a simple how-to mapping 101 question, good luck!

Now, it's going to be sold again -- Hang on! It's not going to be a fun ride.

Just my $.02

 

[gchmilowsky]

Premenos, Harbinger, Peregrine and now .....

Golden Gate Capital Acquires Supply Chain Enablement Division from Peregrine Systems, Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 27, 2002--Golden Gate Capital announced today that it has closed on the acquisition of the Supply Chain Enablement (SCE) division of Peregrine Systems Inc. (NasdaqRGNE). The newly formed private company will retain the existing management team and staff, with Dave Williams, a 19-year software industry veteran and the current General Manager, continuing to lead the company as President and CEO. Joining Golden Gate Capital in the transaction are Cerberus Capital Management and Parallax Capital Partners.

The SCE division, which consists of the former Harbinger Corp. and certain assets and intellectual property rights from Peregrine's acquisition of Extricity, Inc., provides data transformation software (EDI and XML) and business process integration solutions to over 20,000 customers globally, including delivering access to approximately 90% of the Fortune 500. The division also hosts the global trading community, Get2Connect(SM), which serves more than 40,000 companies and enables over 1.3 million e-Commerce transactions daily.

David Dominik, a Managing Director of Golden Gate Capital stated, "We are both excited and committed to building the company for the long-term. Our investment will provide a solid financial foundation for the business to maintain its market leading position in the EDI market while strengthening its presence in the fast growing B2B integration (B2Bi) and Business Process Management (BPM) segments. In the near term, however, we will be singularly focused on re-engaging and re-building the relationships with our customers, channel partners and vendors as a stand alone entity."

"Our business has a solid history in the EDI/XML enablement market and is enhanced by our cutting-edge trading partner collaboration software, and our state of the art network and hosting services. It has all the components necessary to not only deliver advanced B2B solutions but to bridge the gap between legacy and emerging technologies," stated Williams. "We are proud of this deep domain expertise, our tremendous customer base, and our unique ability to deliver an end-to-end solution to enterprises and their extended trading communities."

About the investors

Golden Gate Capital (

http://www.goldengatecap.com)

is a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm with approximately $700 million of capital under management. Golden Gate is dedicated to partnering with world-class management teams to invest in change-intensive, growth businesses. They target investments of up to $100 million in situations where there is a demonstrable opportunity to significantly enhance a company's value. The principals of Golden Gate have a long and successful history of investing with management partners across a wide range of industries and transaction types, and in particular, have been very active in the enterprise software market.

Parallax Capital Partners, LLC (

http://www.parallaxcap.com)

is a private investment firm that dedicates its resources to the acquisition and management of technology related businesses. Parallax focuses on companies that generate revenues of between $10 and $100 million of revenue that require capital to either expand their existing business, make strategic acquisitions, or plan for ownership succession. In the Parallax commitment to building long-term value throughout companies, Parallax has established an extensive operational infrastructure which includes an active data center, functions such as accounting and finance, worldwide sales and marketing, research and development, customer support and human resources. Together, Parallax and its partners have participated in over 200 transactions ranging in size from $5 million to over $1 billion.

Cerberus Capital Management, LP is a special situations investment firm, with over $8.5 billion under management.

CONTACT:

Coltrin & Associates (for Golden Gate Capital)

Todd Irwin, 650/373-2005

SOURCE: Golden Gate Capital

 

[Beeds]

The new company name is Inovis.

As for what affect this will have, I would say it will be an improvement.

I have been using both the Premenos and TLE products for years and since the Premenos EDI/Open product is gone, TLE is the main one to talk about.

Inovis has a Real-Time product called Power.Enterprise, mainly an APP to APP product, but they have added EDI to it and in the future you will be seeing this name more as they will be incorporating the Workbench mapping software into it.

This means you will be getting enhancements to the current mapper in TLE.

Feel free to ask any questions as I was in Inovis' Atlanta World Headquarters this week talking with them about their plans for the products. Thanks...bradley@remoteassist.ent

 

[khood]

Like Beeds, I've been using TLE since it was called Premenos. I like the product, but can't stand the technical support. I sure hope that they invest heavily into improving their website. One thing that they can do is BRING BACK THE FORUMS! There is no good place to discuss TLE issues.

K.Hood

 

[Beeds]

Until we start one, this one will have to do!

 

[LILLAN]

Bradley,
Do You have the web-address to Inovis
Regards
Kurt Svensson

 

[Beeds]

Sorry, their web page is not ready yet....a work in progress I guess. Most folks are still using their Peregrine email address. I post the new web address when it becomes active. I am guessing it will be

http://www.inovisinc.com

 

[khood]

The get2connect website is still up. That's what Peregrine used for support (in addition to phone support). It appears that Inovis is using it too, because they responded to a support request that I had entered last week. As usual, they couldn't help me.

K. Hood

 

[Beeds]

What problem couldn't they help you with?

 

[khood]

Beeds,

Several things, actually. I've been using the product long enough to resolve most normal issues on my own. When I call, it's usually to ask a question that wouldn't be the usual type stuff.

My client has TLE/400. We were switching from a dialup to a VPN connection with our VAN (GEIS). I entered an issue to verify that I was setting this up properly, and calling the right program. Harbinger didn't readily provide built-in support for GEIS VPN.

The first question from the "engineer" was "what's VPN?". That's when I got worried. I don't expect everyone on the street to necessarily know what VPN is, but a well-qualifed "support engineer" should know a few things about the product & communications.

I have also recently asked specific questions about where to find certain fields in their database. The answers that I got were just wrong. After waiting two days for an incorrect answer, I eventually figured it out on my own.

I'm not trying to denegrade the TLE product - I prefer it over the others. But when I compare their tech. support to others (such as Sterling's) it is noticibly worse. The impression I get when talking to them is that they seem to be "school trained" - no actual experience with the product (if it ain't in the book, forget it). Their #1 goal is to close the ticket. When I call Sterling, I get the feeling that I'm talking to a fellow technician.

When you call tech. support, the recording that you hear while you wait encourages you to use their support site (get2connect). Their knowledgebase is incomplete & the search tool is cumbersome to use. I know it is incomplete, because I can't even find resolutions to issues of my own from months ago!

K.Hood

 

[Beeds]

You are absolutely right about the limited "tech support" you get from them. It needs to be a very specific issue with their product's functionality, and that alone. As soon as you ask something about it's interaction with something else, like the database, 3rd party communication software, etc, they go blank, and in a hurry.

I guess that is where the Inovis(Harbinger) Solutions Partners come in. People that have actually run an EDI department with real live experience. Those folks could be quite helpful.

Without an Inovis web page to look at, that will be hard to find. Consultants like yourself will have to do that for them.

Thanks for your input.