WebProNews

Those pricey enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications have several drawbacks. Dave Duffield has an answer.

He hasn't revealed the whole answer yet, but followers of Mr. Duffield's web site can see what it won't be.

Mr. Duffield decries several deficiencies in modern-day ERP software. Expensive to deploy, complicated to learn, and not oriented toward the needs of front end managers seem to be issues in need of a solution.

That solution may come from one of two places. One place would be Redmond, Washington, home of Microsoft and residence of a recent agreement with SAP. The Microsoft-SAP partnership would meld the dominant Office suite of front-end products with SAP's back-end software.

And another place would be Mr. Duffield's new venture. He touts an approach that included open source solutions and XML and web services. His leadership team includes a couple of former PeopleSoft executives, so there will be no lack of brainpower at the new venture's Walnut Creek headquarters.

Can a beloved former corporate leader face down the combined Microsoft-SAP challenge, or even that of his former firm? Java will figure prominently on the server side of the solution, as jobs for Java developers have been posted on the site.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.