Dear Michael,

We saw your press release (PR mission accomplished), and we literally had to go out and check our calendars to make sure we weren't in the adolescent-dazed late nineties!

So in the spirit of showmanship and your upcoming Bible Study Software Conference in Las Vegas, I came Lets come up with 10 reasons someone would switch to i2; from an in-production implementation of Manugistics.

Reasons We'll Stop Using Manugistics and Listen to an i2 Salesperson

 

  1. Massive repatriation of cash from overseas — burning a hole in my CEO's pocket

  2. The Sarbox people say we have too much cash on hand and that poses a risk, so we decided to blow it all at the track. It was closed so we voted and chose an i2 implementation.

  3. I've only gotten 80% of my ROI from Manugistics so I thought I'd knock us underwater for a tax write-off

  4. I am a former i2 employee who doesnt feel railroaded out of a job and I'm wondering, "Does this really work after the demo? I've just gotta find out."

  5. Again with the same direct mail piece you've been sending every year??? Hey….now that I really look at it, I never quite thought about it like that! Thanks!

  6. We've outsourced everything else — why not ship our implementation and our knowledge capital around our supply chain overseas for an offshore implementation?

  7. I'm sure the same guys that got me to where I am will do so much better using a proprietary language

  8. SA-who? No we don't do advanced statistics here….

  9. I 'aint buying anything from a dude flying a MIG jet! What if he changes his mind about me?

  10. Hey…but we get a free trip to Vegas!

Look, everyone knows that the high tech clients Manugistics won in the past — the ones that haven't gone to you, Mike have either gone to Adexa or are looking at other tools like Kinaxis (WebPlan sounded so much more like a solution). What in the world were you thinking?

I checked, it is is hot down there in Texas — oh have you decided to move there yet — maybe the heat and the pollen let this one slip out of a boardroom joke an onto the wires.

For your sake, lets hope you have a couple of "switchers" in the pipeline and when they do switch, this press release will sound like gold and all you'll be doing is standing next to the fax machine waiting for faxes.

Before you hook up another line for the fax overload, make sure you know how to manage being marginalized by Oracle (broadly) and SAP (specifically). Think it through, if you "rustle up" a re-review, do you think you're the only one they're going to call to the dance?

I've got one for you that wasn't in the press release: what can i2 do right now to ensure that they are "Column A" in that evaluation matrix? More so than the incumbent? More so than Oracle and SAP?

To think your shareholders need to endure this — especially when Business Wire charges by the word. It it were me, I'd work on putting a simpler, more expert and thoughtful face on your company. Do that and all the customers will look.

You are inviting Manugistics customers to your "Planet" session in Las Vegas….who knows? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…lets hope you bring some home to Texas, or wherever you are.

Later,

V