Andy Aicklen has been thrown a lot of curve balls over the past two years.
First, PeopleSoft acquired J.D. Edwards and its channel, more than doubling PeopleSoft’s customer base in Canada to more than 750.
Then all hell broke loose with Oracle Corp.’s hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft.
That battle quieted early this year, as the U.S. department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against Oracle. Aicklen, among others, believed it was the final chapter in this saga.
So PeopleSoft struck a big partnership with IBM to leverage Big Blue’s Express channel partners. This deal would help PeopleSoft add more than 100 new IBM-focused resellers to its channel base worldwide.
“”One of our main objectives in 2004 was to grow our partner base in Canada,”” Aicklen said. The IBM deal solidified this objective.
PeopleSoft Canada gelled its channel strategy this year and was able to build its base of channel partners. These partners, Aicklen added, play an integral role in delivering world-class solutions to Canadian businesses valued at $150 million and less.
During this time, Aicklen managed to complete the organizational integration of J.D. Edwards Canada, making sure that every account rep was in place.
But in October the Oracle takeover struggle erupted again with court dismissal of the antitrust action. PeopleSoft’s board of directors fired president and CEO Craig Conway and replaced him with company founder and chairman Dave Duffield.
With everything that has been going on over the past two years, Aicklen said that he has never never experienced anything as exciting.
Aicklen is a newsmaker this year for his work in building channel momentum for PeopleSoft in Canada from scratch, and for being able to do this while handling many issues beyond his control.