Oracle details plans on fusion

According to this website, Oracle applications development senior vice president John Wookey recently did an interview with Computer News Middle East regarding Oracle’s upcoming suite of business software, Fusion. Wookey’s recent appeals to the media and his populist blogging, meanwhile, have been part of his efforts to reassure Oracle customers about Fusion. Customers are concerned that the production of Fusion is taking too long and that the product will not be properly tested. Wookey stated that the behind the scenes product development of over and testing is going on: “The nice thing is, now there are a lot of specific plans, and you can see exactly what is going on, and we can get feedback on it.” The Fusion suite won’t be released until 2008, and there’s no telling whether that estimate indicates the front or back end of the year.

As a bonus offering, however, Oracle representatives remind their customers that 2006 will see the releases of Fusion reports which can act as a proto-version of the Fusion suite through use of XML. These reports are to be used atop the current E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft or J.D. Edwards as the basis of Fusion reporting. This year is also the year Oracle promises integration of Siebel CRM capabilities into Oracle systems and PeopleSoft ERP systems. To be released before the new year, too, are the enhanced Siebel 8.0 with service-oriented architecture. The forward-speaking Wookey stated last week that “horizontal CRM is a fantasy.” He went on to add that “Dream CRM is about specific vertical marketplace requirements” and that “Siebel took a very strong core set of functionality around service, marketing and sales … And they did it in an innovative way.

They invested a lot in industry-specific domain expertise and built some very unique industry content and capabilities on top of the CRM components.” Wookey has recently personally taken on responsibility for integrating Siebel’s leadership team after the recent Oracle takeover of that firm; particularly key in his attempt at respectable synthesis was his move to move Siebel head of development Ed Abbo to the position of Oracle CRM development group head.