Elizabeth Goins, systems analyst for the Manatee County School District in Florida, noted that many of the problems with World began long before Oracle acquired the product.

Goins, who is also director of World advocacy at Quest, said that many customers stopped participating in user group activities as support for the product languished while it was owned by J.D. Edwards. Therefore, many users lost the ability to communicate directly with Oracle developers and managers through Quest's channels.

Since Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft, she noted, the lack of communication has caused confusion among some World users about Oracle's plans for the applications.

In addition, a number of World users said they don't know what will be in the next iteration of the product, Version A9.1, or exactly when it will ship. A couple of customers at the conference said they were unsure of what educational and training resources were available from Oracle.

With Oracle's renewed commitment to the product, Goins said the user group and Oracle will more aggressively reach out to World users through Quest's Web site and by conducting surveys on user needs.