Hyperion Solutions held a webcast yesterday for PeopleSoft SQR users.
Hyperion, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, owns and develops SQR,
now renamed "Production Reporting." PeopleSoft bought the source code
several years and several releases ago. PeopleSoft customers are using
that older release of SQR. Oracle is now in the process of acquiring Hyperion.
The webcast showed off the capabilities of the latest version. The SQR
we use today is a mere shadow of what Hyperion SQR has become, and
development is continuing. The presenter said that Hyperion has "clear
roadmaps" for the future and no indication that these will be altered
by the acquisition.
What does this mean for PeopleSoft customers? Oracle has announced
that SQR will not be a part of Fusion: "The new development environment will combine the productivity of PeopleTools with the standards-driven approach of ADF/JDeveloper.
This combination is planned to improve the traditional approach of PeopleTools, but it should do so without proprietary technology and languages like PeopleCode and SQR.
Our customers demand the ability to extend the use of the world's most widely adopted standard language, Java. PeopleTools skills will not be directly applicable, but familiarity with a declarative development environment will be accelerated."
("Customers demand?" I have this image of hordes of pitchfork-and-torch-wielding customers, having
already invested so much in PeopleCode training and development, standing outside of Oracle
headquarters chanting "We want Java!". Seriously, though, it will be beneficial to
most PeopleCode and SQR developers to get experience with Java.)
In light of this, Hyperion is suggesting that PeopleSoft customers buy the
full Production Reporting product and is offering a "Customer Loyalty Program,"
which is a migration to SQR version 9 and Hyperion support.
It will be interesting to see how many customers choose this option and how
this plays out after the acquisition.