Oracle this week

In a clear attempt to keep its name at the forefront of media consciousness, Oracle representatives today chose to remind news outlets of the firm’s continued run of success with small- to mid-size businesses. Naturally, the words “over SAP” were not far behind, as they never are. Just as naturally, representatives were ready, willing and able to credit and tout the virtues of Oracle Fusion for SAP or “OFF SAP,” which the firm sees as “driving more customers to evaluate Oracle Applications.”

The OFF SAP program offers SAP R/3 customers up to a one hundred percent (and you can’t get much more than that) license credit to switch from SAP to Oracle applications. Oracle was able to pony up companies such as Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., Carter & Burgess, Da Stuart Company, Haemonetics, Humanscale, Thales Corp., Town Sports International and Riverbed Technology as small-time success stories in the Oracle world last quarter. Carter & Burgess offers engineering, architectural and related services, and employs nearly 3,000 nationwide.

The initial deployment of Oracle E-Business Suite here focuses on shoring up travel and entertainment expense management, procurement and subcontracting. Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. is the third largest fitness club operator in the United States with 142 locations and over 400,000 members. At the gym, Oracle applications were installed everywhere to integrate operations throughout the entire club system. Such implementations and moves are keeping the Oracle reputation fresh in industry minds. Over at Computer Business Review online, the wonderful (and wonderfully named) Angela Eager sees such moves as representative of “the changing face of Oracle,” saying the firm has “considerably changed the shape of its business and is now presenting a new face to the world.”

In Eager’s analysis, all changes stem from one change: Oracle’s transition from infrastructure technology provider to applications provider. In the EMEA region, Eager says, the firm now employs a staff of 4,000 dedicated to business applications, representing a “significant expansion compared with three to four years ago.” Eager also cites the recent release of the Oracle Applications Unlimited program, a program that will keep viable applications alive if maintenance is paid by users. “For the first time we are not forcing an upgrade,” claimed Sergio Giacoletto, Oracle EMEA executive VP. “Traditionally software companies forced upgrades on the technology cycle, not the customer cycle. This is a significant internal change.” Eager’s thesis is further backed up with a pithy quote from Keith O’Hara, Oracle practice director at Diagonal Consulting. The company, he says “has reinvented itself.”

In the final analysis, the CBR opinion is that Oracle is “in the midst of probably the largest integration and development project any software vendor has ever attempted.” The company, goes the judgement, is facing major operational changes as it adjusts to the subtlety of business application sales. Activities involving targeting small- to mid-sized businesses must be managed without negatively impacting its day-to-day operations, or those of its customers. “Something may have to give,” opines CBR, “either the timescale, or the quality of the work. If the company wants to prove that the changes to its business are systemic rather than cosmetic, CBR believes it needs to prioritise quality.”