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P3059: CID - Mark Johnson (Oracle), Videotaped Deposition Transcript

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Government Exhibit P3059 [Non-designated testimony redacted]
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16          THE VIDEOGRAPHER: Will the reporter
17 swear in the witness, please.
18 Whereupon,
19          MARK JOHNSON,
20 a witness, was called for examination and, having
21 been duly sworn, was examined and testified as
22 follows:

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10    Q. Okay. Mr. Johnson, with whom are you
11 currently employed?
12    A. Oracle Corporation.
13    Q. And how long have you been employed with
14 Oracle?
15    A. I started in 1989.
16    Q. And what is your current official title?
17    A. Senior vice president, federal sales.
18    Q. And how long have you held that position
19 in federal sales?
20    A. I believe 1998.
21    Q. What position did you hold at Oracle
22 before '98?

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1    A. I ran our civilian sales. I was
2 director of civilian sales for Oracle.
3    Q. Any other positions at Oracle?
4    A. Before that I was a branch manager
5 within our civilian sales organization. And
6 before that I was a sales representative in the
7 civilian organization.
8          For the record, I did -- I had been at
9 Oracle since 1989. I did leave for three months
10 in early -- I think it was 1992, but I came back.
11 So there was a three-month period where I left and
12 came back, just so you know.
13    Q. Okay. And what did you do during that
14 time?
15    A. I left, went to a company, and shortly
16 came back.
17    Q. Okay. And how long were you the
18 director of civilian sales?
19    A. Approximately two years.
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3    Q. -- as senior vice president of federal
4 sales at Oracle. What would you say are your
5 primary responsibilities in that position?
6    A. I run the sales organization to the
7 federal government, the product sales.
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13    Q. And, in that capacity, you're familiar
14 with the sales process to federal customers?
15    A. Yes.
16    Q. Okay. And you possess knowledge of the
17 product functionality?
18    A. Yes.
19    Q. Is it part of your responsibility to
20 keep current with the federal marketplace
21 generally?
22    A. Yes.

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1    Q. The trends in the marketplace --
2    A. Yes.
3    Q. - in technology and applications?
4    A. Yes.
5    Q. Also, I guess generally, the
6 requirements for a federal customer, what they're
7 seeking in technology and applications?
8    A. As far as I can, yes. I try to keep as
9 current as possible.
10    Q. And, with that, are you familiar, then,
11 just in your responsibilities, with the rules and
12 regulations that affect the applications that are
13 sold to the federal customers?
14    A. Yes.
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3    Q. Who runs the government, education and
4 healthcare, I guess, section?
5    A. Kevin Fitzgerald.
6    Q. And is that who you report to directly?
7    A. Yes.
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5    Q. How is that different than the product
6 that is offered to the commercial customer?
7    A. It's -- we develop a financials product,
8 and then, for different industries, we will
9 develop enhancements for those specific
10 industries.
11          For example, in the federal government
12 there are certain legislative or regulatory
13 requirements that they have, that we have to
14 ensure that we meet within our software. And our
15 development organization will include those in the
16 software.
17    Q. Okay. If you can elaborate on the --
18 you said certain regulatory requirements that are
19 developed with the software. What do you mean by
20 that?
21    A. The way the government operates is
22 different, in some cases, than the private sector.

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1 So the way the private sector may close their
2 books, the way the private sector handles money,
3 let's say, is different, in some cases, than the
4 public sector. So the software has to conform to
5 that in order to meet the needs of the federal
6 government or other government entities.
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3    Q. But is the federal sector general ledger
4 functionality unique in comparison to the private
5 sector?
6    A. There's different processes, different
7 functions that would have to be performed.
8 However, the software that's developed, the
9 commercial release, is the platform for which we
10 build and execute for the federal government.
11          So, in the federal government, you would
12 have additional requirements, let's say, that
13 would have to be added to a product so that you
14 were compliant with how the federal government
15 required a module, like general ledger, to work.
16    Q. Okay. You said that you build these
17 modules to meet the federal requirements. What
18 exactly do you mean by that? Are you writing
19 software code for that?
20    A. We have a development organization,
21 engineers, who develop product. So they are the
22 individuals I'm referring to.

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1    Q. And they write code specific to meet the
2 functionality requirements that are demanded by
3 federal customers?
4    A. Yes.
5    Q. And one example of that is these core
6 functionalities that you were talking about, the
7 four core functionalities within the financial
8 management product that you offer to federal
9 customers?
10    A. Well, those four modules are offered to
11 the private sector as well.
12          What I'm referring to would be as it
13 relates, let's say, to JFMIP and the requirements
14 that they distribute to the software community.
15 An engineering group -- a development organization
16 will have to look at those requirements and ensure
17 that the software that was developed could meet
18 those needs and, if not, they'd have the developer
19 enhance the software.
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9    Q. And what do you do to -- what has been
10 done to federalize HR?
11    A. We collect requirements from agencies.
12 We fuel them back through product development, the
13 engineers. And they, through their
14 product-release cycles, will develop product. So
15 as we release to Oracle customers, it includes
16 that capability for the federal government.
17    Q. And what are some of the unique
18 capabilities of the federal government, within HR,
19 that are demanded?
20    A. I believe there is something called an
21 SF52, which is a standard form that the government
22 uses to track personnel actions. I believe that's

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1 unique. I'm sure there's many other areas. I
2 just can't go into details around those areas.
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5    Q. And you said it's the responsibility of
6 the sales team to understand the customer needs.
7 What exactly is involved in that? What does a
8 sales team do to understand the customer's needs?
9    A. There's not just one individual that
10 does that. There is a sales representative, but
11 they are merely a facilitator, I will say, to a
12 customer.
13          So, for example, the Department of
14 Justice, as an example, has a number of sales
15 representatives within my group that service the
16 Department of Justice. They will assemble a
17 number of other resources that help them manage an
18 account, and that team will meet with various
19 individuals across Department of Justice,
20 understand what their IT requirements are, and
21 they will, in turn, consistently meet with a
22 customer, like DOJ, to understand what those

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1 business requirements are, propose solutions to
2 help them meet those needs.
3          So it's more of an iterative dynamic
4 process that we establish with all the customers
5 that we have within my responsibility.
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20    Q. Let me ask in sort of a different way.
21 How do you know, from your perspective, what to
22 propose to the customer, if they're asking for a

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1 financial management system, whether it be your
2 outsourcing service or maybe just selling them a
3 license to your application?
4    A. We read the requirements within that
5 request for proposal and respond to the
6 requirements.
7    Q. Okay. So the requirements will dictate
8 what type of proposal you give, whether it's
9 applications or whether you're outsourcing the
10 service.
11    A. Sure.
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16    Q. Back on page 20, the strategy for HR,
17 under the applications initiative. The second
18 sentence there reads "target competitive win-back
19 accounts with replacement strategies."
20    A. Yes.
21    Q. What does that mean?
22    A. Accounts where they may be running

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1 another product. Go back in and try to win it
2 back.
3    Q. Another vendor's product, HR product?
4    A. Yes.
5    Q. And how do you -- how do you target, you
6 know, your competitive win-back accounts?
7    A. I think customers that have purchased a
8 product and have failed in implementing it, that's
9 one potential win-back.
10          Customers that have purchased a product
11 and are not referenceable, for example. They may
12 have it up and running, but they're not happy with
13 the experience or the software. That could be a
14 potential win-back as well.
15          So we'll look at accounts or services
16 like that and see if there's an opportunity for us
17 to come back in and sell our software.
18    Q. Is there a particular vendor that you
19 target specifically for the competitive win-back
20 accounts?
21    A. For HR?
22    Q. Yes.

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1    A. PeopleSoft is -- they have a lot of the
2 core HR systems today. So they would be,
3 probably, the primary software company that we'd
4 be going after as it relates to owning some of the
5 core HR functions today in the federal government.
6    Q. They have the majority of HR
7 installations in the federal government for HR,
8 the core HR?
9    A. I wouldn't say they have the majority.
10 They have a number of agencies that have selected
11 them years ago.
12          Today, I'm not seeing a lot of core HR
13 procurements, I will say. A lot of those
14 procurements have been done many years ago. A lot
15 of what I see today, from an HR perspective, are
16 the surrounding modules, the things like
17 self-service, things that compliment a core HR
18 system.
19          And in that case, you know, there's a
20 number of -- whether it's SAP or PeopleSoft or
21 niche solution providers can - that we would, you
22 know, provide or go competitively against in that

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1 area.
2          But this bullet is referring to where
3 customers have selected a COTS package, let's say
4 a PeopleSoft, and how they're doing, and are they
5 potential for possibly getting Oracle in there.
6    Q. Okay. And the vendor that you would
7 target most often for these type of accounts would
8 be, as you testified, was PeopleSoft?
9    A. Yeah. I'd say they have most of them,
10 that we'd be targeting here.
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8    Q. Okay. Are you aware of any other vendor
9 that has a core HR implemented at any of these
10 agencies, aside from the ones that are listed.
11 PeopleSoft and, you said, SAP for a couple of
12 those. Any other vendors?
13    A. I don't believe so. I think it's
14 Oracle, SAP, and PeopleSoft for the HR. I
15 believe. That's my understanding.
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5    Q. First, let me ask, you testified earlier
6 that AMS doesn't have an HR product for the
7 federal market, correct, that you're aware of?
8    A. I'm not aware of one. No, I'm not.
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8    Q. And when you are in selling an ERP
9 application, such as your core financial
10 management or your HR, how you sell or what you
11 propose depends on who you're up against?
12    A. Not necessarily. As I mentioned
13 earlier, any acquisition that we go into, there is
14 a set of capabilities that we provide, and we are
15 going to communicate those to a customer. Okay?
16 Regardless of whether we're going up against
17 multiple competitors.
18          So if you're going up against one
19 company or five companies, you're going to follow
20 the same process, communicate the same
21 differentiators, let's say, when you're up in
22 front of a group or trying to help them make a

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1 decision around a software package.
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19    Q. Speaking specifically about the HR
20 marketplace with federal customers.
21    A. Yes.
22    Q. Earlier you testified that SAP,

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1 PeopleSoft, and Oracle are the primary competitors
2 in that space; is that correct?
3    A. From a COTS, commercial off-the-shelf
4 software perspective, yes.
5    Q. What other vendors, if any at all, do
6 you compete with to sell commercial off-the-shelf
7 software HR solutions to federal customers?
8    A. The only other competition we'd have
9 would be existing systems that they have, an
10 existing system that's currently running, and
11 they'd have to make a decision whether or not they
12 wanted to go out and automate that.
13          You're also competing with the
14 franchise-fund agencies -- the NFCs, the
15 Interiors -- that actually have COTS solutions
16 that they're cross-servicing other agencies. They
17 are a competitor.
18          And then you have systems integrators
19 who may come in with a creative proposal to
20 actually provide a software as a service through
21 their host of capabilities.
22          So the traditional -- the traditional

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1 acquisition of "I have three companies," when you
2 enter in outsourcing or software as a service, it
3 changes that paradigm to offer a lot of
4 opportunities and alternatives to federal
5 customers today.
6    Q. And just to clarify. The systems
7 integrators, they will come in and compete for the
8 business using, say, a license software they
9 received from PeopleSoft, SAP, or Oracle, for
10 example.
11    A. Yeah, but let me clarify. The
12 government, when they send out a solicitation for
13 a service, they don't care what software is
14 running in that service.
15          For example, TSA came out with an RFP a
16 year or so ago. I don't know if you're aware of
17 that one. They were looking for a service for
18 their human resource requirements. They never
19 stipulated a product. They wanted a service.
20 Accenture actually won that with an already hosted
21 solution that they had.
22          So, yes, they have to, obviously, go out

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1 and buy a package or have a package already
2 running. But, in many cases, it's not something
3 the agency is going to dictate or allow them to
4 compete. They're going to provide what they have.
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15    Q. And why is it that some of these
16 discounts varying? What's your assessment of why
17 the discounts vary between the different
18 opportunities that I've been presenting you?
19    A. It depends, you know, how well you're
20 positioned in an account.
21    Q. And what do you mean by how well you're
22 positioned in an account?

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1    A. You know, how are you perceived in an
2 account, for example. You know, are you -- have
3 you been working in the account for a long time,
4 do you have a presence, that type of thing. In
5 some cases, if you're not in early, you're just
6 coming in at the end, you might be asking for high
7 discounts, like in this situation.
8    Q. That's what occurred here? Oracle was
9 coming in at the end?
10    A. We were not well positioned for this
11 opportunity.
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Updated August 14, 2015