But the assembled money managers seemed unconvinced. Several people rose to ask Calderoni why Ariba had not acquired a supply chain management company. And when Calderoni tried to answer, they asked the same question again. Dell is still a big internal user of Ariba software, but that more important fact was overshadowed by the closure of this rather insignificant marketplace venture. One of the rumors making the rounds was that Ariba's sales force is angry about a sharp jump in the company's annual sales quota.
Resumes are on the street, is the word.
Calderoni fielded a question about the quotas, acknowledging that they had, in fact, been increased, but he didn't say by how much. It's fairly routine for software companies to crank up the heat on their sales force every January, so Ariba's move, depending on the size of the quota increase, may not be unusual. But if the company's loses its top salespeople, revenue growth could be impacted. This might seem like unfair piling on. After all, Ariba has performed well by many measures.