Will Oracle Cut Deals to Boost Earnings?

A head of a consulting firm that helps Oracle customers cut licensing deals with the enterprise software giant said Friday that fallout around Oracle's recent earnings announcement could help clients out at the bargaining table.

"If Oracle is posting fantastic numbers and growth, they tend to play hardball," said Ed Ramirez, president of Software Licensing Consultants, a San Ramon, California, firm. "If earnings are weak, perception is weak, that's good for end users and customers."

Oracle said Wednesday that its third-quarter revenues were up 21 percent to US$5.3 billion compared to the same quarter last year. On the surface, the numbers looked strong, especially in light of the widespread malaise in the U.S. economy, but Oracle still fell slightly short of analysts' estimates and its stock dropped in subsequent days this week.

But Eliot Arlo Colon, president and chief operating officer of Miro Consulting, an Oracle license consulting firm in Fords, New Jersey, didn't go quite as far as Ramirez. "It provides notice to clients that there's a weakness with Oracle," he said. "It gets them excited that maybe there's a possibility for a bigger discount. I don't know if that will play to getting huge concessions from them. It's still a case-by-case basis."

For its part, Oracle downplayed the results and said investors could expect a stronger fourth quarter. During a conference call Wednesday, the company president, Charles Phillips, said "a lot of people have annual buying cycles around our Q4. Customers think they're going to get a better deal if they wait until Q4."

But will they? The answer isn't clear-cut, according to Ramirez and Colon.
For example, while there might be a rush of discounting at the end of the fiscal year, it's difficult to predict how much, Ramirez said: "Everything is triggered by sales people not hitting their quota. In turn, their management doesn't hit their number. That is what triggers it -- it's not necessarily that Oracle as a corporation says, 'We need to do this.' It's a trickle-up effect."

Ramirez, who worked as an area sales manager at Oracle, added that the company can make concessions to customers beyond discounts, such as on various terms and conditions.

Colon offered a different caution, saying that there's far more competition for discounts during such rush periods.

"It's becoming more public that Oracle only has so much bandwidth to process larger deals at the end of the year. The message coming from Oracle field reps now is, 'Don't wait until the end of May, because I won't be able to get you the aggressive discounts.'"

"Once one big deal closes, a sales team may have hit their number and [other customers] get kicked to the second tier," he added. It might be wiser, he said, to "be the first in line, have a good story and play to the weakness of Oracle, which is that they have so many people waiting until the end of the year."

Nailing down a huge influx of complicated licensing deals can be overwhelming, even for a company the size of Oracle, Colon said. "For the first time this year, I was seeing six-figure deals missing the quarter because there wasn't enough time. That never happened in the past."

However, Oracle's sales representatives on the whole have been hard bargainers recently, Ramirez said.

"With all the acquisitions [Oracle has made] a lot of times they realize, 'Where is the customer going to go? What are their options? Before, there was a lot more competition. That's the attitude. 'Where are you going to go? We've got you.'"

Colon agreed that Oracle's buying spree has changed the landscape, but from a different perspective. His firm is now seeing clients order nothing for several months, but then buying up a slew of products at once.

"I've never seen that take off as much as it has in the last six months," Colon said. "The positioning from Oracle from all these acquisitions is, 'Now is the time to bundle and get all these things together.'"

On the flip side, customers are being emboldened, he said. "I'm seeing people asking for higher discounts and an overall lower price because they're dealing with one vendor."

Author: Chris Kanaracus @ IDG News Service

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Oracle Acquires Web Application Testing Tools

Oracle plans to integrate the Empirix Web application testing suite with its existing Enterprise Manager and Real Application Testing packages.

One day after it reported a 21 percent increase in its fiscal third quarter 2008 software revenues to $4.2 billion, Oracle announced yet another acquisition, albeit a small one.

The company announced March 27 that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the e-TEST product suite from Empirix, a company that provides voice and Web application testing and monitoring software.

Oracle plans to integrate the software with its Enterprise Manager and Real Application Testing portfolios. The combination, company officials said, is "expected to result in a comprehensive solution for testing packaged and custom built applications."

Oracle is also in the process of acquiring BEA Systems, which has substantial application development tools. The e-TEST suite will likely augment any application development capabilities in BEA.

"Customers are looking for automated application testing solutions that help prevent costly application performance problems, avoid unplanned outages of business-critical applications, and automate the manual steps involved in application testing," said Leng Leng Tan, vice president of applications and systems management at Oracle, in a statement.

"We expect that the combination of Empirix's e-TEST suite and Oracle's Enterprise Manger will create a best-of-breed systems management portfolio spanning the full application life cycle, from development and testing to production deployment and management."

Oracle did not disclose the financial terms of the deal with Empirix.

Oracle has been on a buying spree since 2005, when it acquired PeopleSoft along with JD Edwards, which PeopleSoft had acquired. Since then the company has bought more than forty companies that span database, middleware and applications development.

Ovum analyst David Mitchell said in a March 27 research note that, while Oracle's earnings call Wednesday showed some elements of the company's continued success, there are signs that the global fiscal problems are beginning to have an impact on the industry. "This makes Q4 more interesting than ever in the Oracle economy and with more at stake than ever."

Author: Renee Boucher Ferguson @ www.eweek.com

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Even Oracle Isn't Immune to the Slowdown

A disappointing third quarter highlights the software giant's vulnerability to the ripple effects a sluggish economy is having on IT. Tech investors looking for a stock haven amid roiling markets of late have turned to industry consolidator Oracle. Shares of the software company rose nearly 14% over a three-week span in March as investors bet on Oracle's formidable lead in database software and its aggressive acquisition strategy in business applications as an antidote to the economic malaise that's throttling IT budgets.

Some of those shareholders reconsidered their strategy on Mar. 26 after Oracle released fiscal third-quarter results that fell short of analysts' forecasts. Oracle reported sales of new business application software licenses, a barometer of future revenue, that were about $100 million less than Wall Street expected.

Total sales fell $70 million short of expectations in the period that ended Feb. 29, and Oracle shares fell in extended trading. "Our checks suggested [the results] were going to be pretty solid all around, so we're surprised by this," says Jeff Gaggin, an enterprise software analyst at Avian Securities.
Ellison Looks Ahead

Oracle executives attributed the shortfall to customers who are taking longer to sign off on IT purchases as the economy slows. "Deals are getting done, although they took a bit longer than expected in the last few days of the quarter," Safra Catz, Oracle's co-president and chief financial officer, said during a conference call with investors to discuss the results. Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison added that the company faced a difficult comparison with the year-earlier period, when new application license sales rose 57%. Ellison predicted a rebound in the business during the current quarter, which ends in May.

But for now, it's apparent Oracle isn't immune to the slump that's causing some corporations to curtail IT spending, darkening the outlook for a host of tech bellwethers, from Cisco Systems (CSCO), to Intel (INTC), to Dell (DELL). Dell's profits fell by 6.5% in its fourth quarter ended Feb. 1, as financial services companies slowed spending, Intel said on Mar. 3 it expects lower first-quarter profit margins on weaker flash memory prices, and Cisco on Feb. 6 issued a disappointing sales forecast for its third quarter (BusinessWeek.com, 2/8/08), which ended in April.

At Oracle, third-quarter application license revenue increased a mere 6.6%, to $451 million, far short of Wall Street's expectations for 30% growth, to $553 million. Oracle, the dominant supplier of database software, is counting on rapid growth in business applications, which companies use to manage payrolls, chart financial performance, and keep track of inventory levels, to expand in size and take market share from rival SAP (SAP). Oracle has bought about 40 software companies for more than $25 billion in a little more than three years to gain share in the market.

A Fine Ride for Shares

Despite the disappointing third-quarter growth, analysts say Oracle is still well positioned for the future. "Given the environment we're in, it was a decent quarter," says Andy Miedler, a senior technology analyst at Edward Jones. "Make no mistake about it—Oracle, and technology in general, is an economically sensitive area," he adds. "Customers are prudently being more cautious. You'd expect deals will take a little longer to close than they would just a few months ago."

Total revenue rose 21%, to $5.35 billion, in the third quarter, compared with $4.41 billion a year ago. Net income rose nearly 30%, to $1.34 billion, compared with $1.03 billion. On a per-share basis, Oracle earned 26¢, or 30¢ excluding special items, in line with analysts' estimates. But Oracle's revenues fell short of the $5.42 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial (TOC). Operating margins increased to 41%, vs. 39% a year ago.

For most of March, Oracle shares have been on an upward ride. During the three-week period between Mar. 5 and Mar. 26, the shares rose 13.56%, handily outperforming the Nasdaq Composite Index as well as large-cap tech stocks such as Microsoft (MSFT), IBM (IBM), Cisco, and SAP. Oracle shares closed Mar. 26 down 14¢, or 0.7%, at $20.94, and had fallen by more than 8% in after-hours trading.

Oracle forecast results for the quarter ending May 31 that were in line with analysts' estimates. The company said it expects new software license revenues to increase by 10% to 20%, including applications, databases, and middleware. It expects to earn 37¢ or 38¢ per share, compared with 31¢ a year earlier.
Cautious optimism

Moreover, Oracle's flagship database business continues to steam ahead. New license sales for database and middleware software grew 20% in the third quarter, to $1.17 billion, and the company signed database contracts with customers including RealNetworks (RNWK), Salesforce.com (CRM), and Omni Hotels. As Oracle continues to acquire companies, it's positioned itself as a supplier of more of the software its customers use to run their operations.

Oracle added to its middleware portfolio when it bought BEA Systems (BusinessWeek.com, 1/17/08) on Jan. 16 for $8.5 billion after a protracted takeover negotiation. The deal is expected to close during the current quarter. The same day, Oracle acquired document management software maker Captovation for an undisclosed amount.

The net result is that Oracle has a broader palette of products to sell to its customers, which results in sales reps being able to close deals for more products with each customer, UBS (UBS) software analyst Heather Bellini said in a Mar. 6 research report. In a Mar. 26 note she called Oracle's third-quarter application license sales "clearly disappointing," however.

During the company's conference call, Oracle's executives sought to reassure investors that the scope of its third-quarter troubles were limited. "We've been through this before, and we know how to adjust to it," said Oracle Co-President Charles Phillips. The argument is finding some takers. "In a big global economic downturn, should that occur, these guys are well positioned to weather that storm," says Avian Securities' Gaggin.

In the short term, though, investors who have turned to Oracle as a harbor could find the waves a bit rough.

Author: Aaron Ricadela @ www.businessweek.com

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Oracle's Agile PLM gains popularity

I recently spoke to Oracle about their Agile Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution, which has crowned them the leader in the PLM market -- or so they kept on repeating. Here is some information on what it is and how it can be of benefit to an enterprise:

* After its acquisition and integration of Agile Software Corporation, Oracle has been able to provide an integrated PLM solution for enterprises. PLM refers to the management of a product through the different stages in its lifecycle, from the initial concept to disposal.

* Oracle's Agile PLM provides a set of technologies for companies with a large collection of products that can be complex to manage. The solution helps companies manage information related to their products, such as customers, costs, suppliers, manufacturing, design, service, compliance and new products.

* Product information is usually dispersed across different global systems. Oracle’s Agile PLM supports collaboration between these systems and protects sensitive information with attribute-level security.

* Integration with other crucial systems such as CRMs, ERPs and CAD is also a feature of this PLM solution.

* Oracle has focused on specific industries such as foods, electronics, medical, aerospace and automotive, thus providing industry-specific expertise to companies operating in these sectors.

Overall this integrated PLM solution is meant to simplify product management throughout its lifecycle and consequently lets enterprises improve efficiency and deliver better quality products.

Is that really how it works? What experiences have you had with Oracle products beyond their database offerings? Let us know in the comments below.

Author: Lana Kovacevic @ www.builderau.com.au

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Oracle expected to post gains despite economy

Oracle Corp. is expected to report significant profit and sales gains when it posts third-quarter earnings next Wednesday, despite the difficult economic environment encountered recently by many of its corporate customers.

Analysts on average expect Oracle to post earnings excluding special items of 30 cents a share for the period ended in February, and $5.4 billion in revenue, according to FactSet Research.
That compares with earnings excluding special items of 25 cents a share and $4.41 billion in revenue in the same period a year earlier.

Software maker Oracle, which has numerous customers among the U.S. companies thought to be affected by the economic slowdown, has so far managed to turn in recent quarterly results that have met or exceeded Wall Street's expectations.

JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens wrote in a note to clients last week that he expects Oracle to again deliver a "solid" quarter Wednesday that includes earnings excluding special items of between 29 cents and 31 cents a share.
"Oracle appears to be benefiting from the consolidation of the software industry," Walravens wrote.

Oracle's ongoing acquisition spree has had it rolling up a variety of significant business software companies, most recently BEA Systems Inc., a maker of so-called "middleware" for which Oracle agreed to pay $8.5 billion in January. Middleware is software used by sprawling businesses to connect disparate networks and programs. The BEA deal "truly does open up a whole new set of enterprise license agreement opportunities," Walravens wrote.

Bear Stearns analyst John DiFucci wrote in a note to clients last week that Oracle is likely to meet expectations for its third quarter, and "likely benefited from a strong seasonal December month."

However, DiFucci noted that Oracle is unlikely to "show the magnitude of upside it has in recent quarters," and "may be experiencing effects of a deteriorating macro environment," though he doesn't expect any surprises in the company's outlook.

Pacific Crest Securities analyst Brendan Barnicle wrote in a note to clients Tuesday that checks on Oracle's business have been "a little weaker than earlier in the year." While results from Oracle's middleware business have been mixed, its applications business has been stronger than expected, Barnicle wrote.

More importantly, Barnicle wrote that its BEA acquisition will pay off well for Oracle soon.
"Oracle is likely to get a much bigger benefit from BEA than we had expected," Barnicle wrote, adding that if Oracle closes the acquisition earlier than anticipated it will likely see up to $200 million in additional revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter, rather than waiting until its fiscal first quarter.

"As a result, Oracle could grow [fourth-quarter] revenue by 17%, rather than by 14%, which is the current expectation," Barnicle wrote.

Author: John Letzing @ www.marketwatch.com

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Oracle taps into Grey Matter

Oracle has enlisted the help of VAR Grey Matter to capitalist on the growing demand for service-oriented architecture (SOA), business intelligence and security technologies.

Under the partnership, Oracle is hoping to encourage more ISVs to migrate to an Oracle technology platform, by tapping into Grey Matter's skills in the area.

Together with Oracle, Grey Matter will deliver a single access point for ISVs and developers looking to build their products on an Oracle database or using Oracle Fusion Middleware.

The partnership follows Oracle's dedicated ISV recruitment drive, which saw over 200 ISVs join its PartnerNetwork in 2007.

Alan Hartwell, vice president technology solutions and channels at Oracle UK, Ireland and Israel, said: "We are experiencing significant demand from ISVs looking to adopt Oracle. This is largely due to growing market demand for SOA, business intelligence and security. Technology like Oracle Fusion Middleware enables partners to deliver SOA for customers in heterogeneous computing environments.”

“ISVs and developers are quickly realising the value of Oracle’s technology suite and its role in allowing them to deliver more efficient standards-based solutions to their customers and the initiative with Grey Matter provides a user-friendly avenue for ISVs to become Oracle enabled,” Hartwell added.

Andrew King, managing director of Grey Matter said: "This is very much a demand driven development. We service one of the largest ISV communities in the UK and are seeing a move toward Oracle as a preferred technology and development platform. Our key driver is to ensure our ISVs have fast and concise access to information about Oracle, migration facilities and ongoing enablement and support.”

Author: Sara Yirrell @ www.vnunet.com

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Teradata and Oracle Partner for Enterprise Analytics

Partnership will result in improved integration between Teradata Warehouse and Oracle's BI assets. Ever since Teradata Corp. spun off from parent company NCR Corp. late last year, it's been a gregarious partner. In fact, post-NCR, Teradata seems to have become even more ambitious on the partnership front.

At last month's TDWI Winter World conference in Las Vegas, for example, Teradata and SAS Institute Inc. touted a new technology partnership and jointly hosted a prominent conference event (see http://www.tdwi.org/News/display.aspx?ID=8813).

Just last week, Teradata signed an agreement -- an "expanded worldwide relationship" -- with Oracle Corp. to promote enterprise-wide analytics. Both companies promise to improve integration and interoperability between Teradata's DW stack and Oracle's BI and operational stack to improve customer insight into a wealth of detail data.

Industry watchers say it makes for a compelling pitch. "Teradata's expanded partnership with Oracle … will facilitate the ability of users to integrate Oracle's business intelligence software and solutions with Teradata's data warehouse technology," says Mike Schiff, a principal with BI consultancy MAS Strategies and a contributing analyst for data management with Current Analysis.

First, some background: Teradata officially expanded its channel relationship to include Oracle's Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus and Business Intelligence Analytic Applications. This is in addition to Teradata's current channel support for Oracle Data Integrator and Oracle Essbase (nee Hyperion). The upshot (for joint or prospective customers) is that the two partners can now tout optimized versions of Oracle's BI products running on Teradata.

It used to be that when you asked Teradata about which vendors it competes with in the high-end data warehousing market, the company named Oracle and IBM Corp. -- and not data warehouse appliance specialists Netezza Inc. or DATAllegro Corp. -- as its foremost rivals. What's Teradata doing partnering with an arch-competitor?

Schiff, for his part, doesn't see a show-stopping contradiction. "While Oracle and Teradata compete with each other in the high-end data warehouse database market, Oracle's BI technology can certainly be of value in non-Oracle database environments including Teradata's installed base," he points out.

Instead, Schiff says, Teradata's accord with Oracle demonstrates a kind of limberness on the part of the high-end data warehousing powerhouse, which -- lest we forget -- was itself an independent company before NCR acquired it 17 years ago.
"Teradata … has faced increased competition from general purpose database vendors … [that are] suitable for both query-intensive data warehouse environments and transaction-oriented operational systems," he concedes, adding that Teradata also markets analytic applications (including CRM, supply chain management, and performance management) that nominally compete with Oracle, too.

"While Teradata is highlighting its expanded partnership with Oracle, it also competes with Oracle in database technology, analytic applications, and master data management."

What does Teradata get out of the deal, then? Schiff sees a number of positives.

"[D]espite the risk of providing Oracle with an entry point into its installed base, this is a good relationship," he argues. "Teradata, prior to being acquired by Oracle, partnered with the companies that provide much of Oracle's current BI portfolio [namely, Hyperion and Siebel]. [It] will be able to highlight the 'openness' of its data warehouse platform and Oracle will be able to demonstrate that its BI technology is not necessarily dependent on an underlying Oracle database," Schiff continues.

"While the competition between the two companies will certainly remain strong, the expanded partnership between them should provide immediate benefits to both."

Author: Stephen Swoyer @ www.esj.com

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New Report on Oracle Corporation Gives an Insight into the Company’s Recent Growth

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c85968) has announced the addition of Datamonitor's new report: Oracle Corporation Japan - SWOT Analysis to their offering.

Our Oracle Corporation Japan - SWOT Analysis Company Profile is the essential source for top-level company data and information. The report examines the company’s key business structure and operations, history and products, and provides summary analysis of its key revenue lines and strategy.

Oracle Corporation Japan is a software and technology company that specializes in internet servers, business software and support systems. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle Corporation, and develops and distributes Oracle software products and services in the Far East region. It is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and employs about 1,710 people. -The company recorded revenues of JPY100,767 million (approximately $828.9 million) during the fiscal year ended May 2007, an increase of 10.1% over 2006. The operating profit of the company was JPY36,781 million (approximately $302.6 million) during fiscal year 2007, an increase of 14.5% over 2006. The net profit was JPY22,134 million (approximately $182.1 million) in fiscal year 2007, an increase of 16.6% over 2006.

Scope of the Report

- Provides all the crucial company information required for business and competitor intelligence needs

- Contains a study of the major internal and external factors affecting the company in the form of a SWOT analysis as well as a breakdown and examination of leading product revenue streams

- Data is supplemented with details on the company’s history, key executives, business description, locations and subsidiaries as well as a list of products and services and the latest available company statement

Reasons to Purchase

- Support sales activities by understanding your customers’ businesses better

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This product typically includes the following sections:

Key Facts

Company Overview

Business Description

Company History

Key Employees

Key Employee Biographies

Company View

SWOT analysis

Products & Services Listing

Products & Services Analysis

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c85968

Source: Datamonitor

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Oracle slammed for its 'poor' patching

Oracle’ processes for patching databases were heavily criticised in a presentation at the European Computer Audit Control and Security Conference in Stockholm this week.

Karel Miko from Czech consultancy DCIT, speaking at the event said Oracle was five eyars behind Microsoft in dealing with the issue.

"When Microsoft announced Trustworthy Computing a lot of people laughed, but now you see a real difference," Miko said.

Microsoft offers central patch management tools that allow customers to see what patches are missing and so on, whereas Oracle doesn't, he added.

Oracle also doesn't make life easier for companies who want to keep their databases secure, according to Miko, by making it complex to download and install patches.

He also questioned Oracle’s approach to new vulnerabilities. "An independent consultant announces a vulnerability to Oracle. Three months go by, and nothing happens, six months, a year and still nothing. Oracle puts it in a queue and will solve it sometime, maybe," said Miko.

If customers put pressure on Oracle it might be prompted to improve, but Miko isn't holding his breath.

"Customers are very dependent on Oracle – its database is number one. If you have an application based on an Oracle's database there is no way to change, in maybe 90 percent of all cases," he said.

Databases were one of the hottest topics at the conference; no other product category had more sessions devoted to it. This follows damning surveys have revealed that even though Oracle has been adding patches and new security features many customers are not deploying them.

Miko said, "In my experience even some small enterprises have better administrators than large banks, and do a better job."

Author: Mikael Ricknäs @ www.computerworlduk.com

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Oracle Is Cheap, Goldman Says; Buy Rating, $24 Target

Oracle (ORCL) shares are higher this morning following a bullish note from Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar. She “reinstated” her Buy rating on the stock with a $24 price target.

This is not an upgrade, exactly. Although it is not obvious from the report, I believe Goldman previously had suspended its rating on the stock; the firm was BEA’s adviser in its recent sale to Oracle. Nonetheless, it is a pretty bullish review of the company’s prospects.

Friar notes that the stock through last night had been down 18% year to date, dropping the stock to 15.8x 2008 estimated EPS, and 12.2x 2009, including stock options. That’s below the software group average at 19.7x/17.6x and the S&P 500 at 16x/15x.

Friar also adjusted her EPS estimates for the company to reflect the acquisition of BEA. She now sees $1.26 this year, $1.47 next year and $1.63 in 2010, from $1.26, $1.46 and $1.60. (On a non-GAAP basis, she sees $1.22, $1.41 and $1.58.)

Friar says Goldman has a cautious view of the economies in the U.S. and Europe, but that Oracle is a defensive holding in the tougher macro environment “due to diversified geographic and vertical exposure,” and with nearly half of revenue coming from recurring maintenance.

Friar says the company’s acquisition strategy “seems to be paying off,” and adds that “the addition of BEA will create more up-sell opportunity in high growth areas such as China.

The company’s fiscal Q3 earnings report, due March 26, should “provide some relief to the shares,” Friar says.

Oracle this morning is up 56 cents, or 3%, at $19.36.

Source: blogs.barrons.com

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Database Survey Gives Oracle The Lead In All 13 Categories

The survey compared Oracle with DB2, MySQL, Informix Dynamic Server, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Sybase Advanced Server Enterprise.

In its first survey of database preferences, market research firm Evans Data found that Oracle (NSDQ: ORCL) leads in user satisfaction in performance, security, and 11 other categories.

At the same time, it found IBM (NYSE: IBM)'s DB2 tied with Oracle for one top score and ranked number two in several of the remaining categories. Microsoft's SQL Server showed high user satisfaction in ease of database management and modeling tools, but fell behind in scalability and performance.

"The most glaring item that we took away from this research is that in 23 years we've never had one vendor come out number one in all categories," Evans Data CEO John Andrews said of Oracle's ranking in an interview. The report becomes public Tuesday.

In a few categories, the open source system, MySQL, trailed most of the five commercial systems with which it was compared. But high user satisfaction in several categories indicates thatSun Microsystems (NSDQ: JAVA) may have gotten its money's worth when it paid $1 billion for the database's parent company, MySQL AB, last month. MySQL was second only to Oracle in multiplatform support, an important factor in hosting Web applications. When it came to the all important "performance" category, it ranked higher than Microsoft SQL Server, Informix, and Sybase.

The results, however, are measures of user expectations for each system, not frequency of use or a neutral metric of actual performance, Andrews cautioned.

"Sun has publicly stated they will do very little to change the open source database or its business model. The two companies have a good match in culture and offerings, and we predict Sun will successfully integrate MySQL and the union will be a benefit to both companies," the report predicted.

In most cases, the 1,470 respondents to the survey were users of several database systems and were comparing systems as they rated each in 13 categories as excellent, very good, adequate, or needs improvement. Evans Data then assigned a numerical value to the ratings and plotted the results. The complete survey results may be downloaded from http://www.evansdata.com/reports/free-report.php.

The survey was conducted in December 2007.

Oracle lead in performance ratings, followed by DB2 Universal Database, MySQL, Informix Dynamic Server, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Sybase Advanced Server Enterprise.

In scalability, Oracle lead, followed by DB2, then PostgreSQL took over the commanding position of the open source systems, followed by SQL Server, Informix, Sybase, and MySQL. Andrews said MySQL's adoption is predominantly among workgroups and smaller businesses with less expectation of scaling up to very large databases. When it was pointed out that Google, Facebook, and Slashdot were all MySQL users, Andrews said: "Some of these giant Internet entities have demonstrated that MySQL can scale, if you have the know-how."

Oracle lead the security category, with its ability to automatically store data in encrypted form and to maintain an Audit Vault of information drawn from the operating system, database, and any other auditing source. DB2 was number two followed in the third position by PostgreSQL, with its "robust security layer," said Andrews. Number four was SQL Server, followed by Sybase, MySQL and Informix.

Atomicity is the quality of "all or nothing" when it comes to capturing a transaction. It's important for the integrity of the database to confirm that all parts of a transaction have been committed to the system, not just a fraction of them. Oracle was tops in atomicity, followed by DB2, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Sybase, MySQL and Informix.

In multiplatform support, Oracle once again lead the category, followed by MySQL. Informix was tied with MySQL, with PostgreSQL holding down the fourth spot. DB2 landed in the fifth slot. Sybase was sixth and SQL Server seventh. "This is where Microsoft SQL Server really falls down and that's becoming more and more of a problem as the frequency of Microsoft-only shops declines," said the report.

An increasingly important category for databases that are intended to serve Web applications is XML data handling. Again, Oracle and SQL Server lead the category, followed by DB2. But the open source systems, MySQL and PostgreSQL made up the sixth and seventh ranks, respectively. Informix and Sybase occupied the fourth and fifth positions.

When it comes to management tools that come with the database, Oracle lead, followed by SQL Server, DB2, MySQL, Sybase, and Informix. Bringing up the rear was PostgreSQL. "PostgreSQL, which has a large community of open source developers to create tools for it, does not provide them with the database," the report noted. In another category, the ability of a system to maintain the integrity of the data through system failures, incomplete backups, or storage failures, is known as durability. Oracle once again lead, followed by DB2, SQL Server, Informix, PostgreSQL and Sybase, with MySQL holding the bottom rank.

In quality of data modeling tools, Oracle lead, followed by SQL Server, DB2, Sybase, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Informix. Oracle offers both the Designer modeling tool and JDeveloper with design tool elements. Microsoft offers Visio modeling from its acquisition of Visio tools several years ago. Under Microsoft ownership,"the Visio technology has evolved until Microsoft has some of the world's best modeling tools."

In a bar graph showing how the seven systems compared on a point basis after including all categories, Oracle lead with a rounded off score of 2,500; DB2, roughly 2,200; SQL Server, 2,000; MySQL, 1,800; Informix, 1,775; PostgreSQL, 1,750; Sybase, 1,600.

The survey sought responses from 1,470 developers and IT managers in North America (420), Asia Pacific (500), Europe/Middle East/Africa (400), and South America (150). About one third were enterprise database users; one third were database consultants, value added resellers, and system integrators; and a third were other types of organizations, including academic institutions, OEMs and ISVs.

Author: Charles Babcock @ www.informationweek.com

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Oracle provides data capture for life sciences sector

Oracle has upgraded its electronic data capture offering for life sciences organizations and contract research organizations.

Oracle Remote Data Capture Onsite 4.5.3 is integrated with Oracle Clinical, its data management system for the healthcare sector.

It is a web-based product that offers spreadsheet displays including new patient data reports. It also provides users with navigation of patient case report forms for data entry and review, with tailored interfaces based on job function.

Neil Crescenzo, group vice president of healthcare and life sciences at Oracle, said the application provides capabilities for trial sponsors and investigative site personnel. "Oracle Remote Data Capture Onsite 4.5.3 is testament to Oracle's continued commitment to developing applications that help our life sciences customers address their pressing business challenges, including containing costs, ensuring safety and accelerating time to market," he said.

Source: www.cbronline.com

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Oracle Upgrades Its CRM Software-As-A-Service Offering

SaaS momentum can't be denied, but the vendor will try to limit uptake among its core customers. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, in a conference call with financial analysts last fall, summed up the company's predicament vis-à-vis the software-as-a-service model. SaaS is "very interesting," Ellison noted, "but so far, no one has figured out how to make any money at it."

Well, at least the conventional software titans haven't. But that's not stopping Oracle from giving it the old college try. Momentum for SaaS, particularly for CRM, continues to build, prompting renewed efforts from Oracle in a market dominated by Salesforce.com. Oracle will release a new version of its Siebel CRM On Demand next month, only eight months after a full upgrade of the offering.

There's good reason: The on-demand CRM sector will grow at a 26% compound annual clip, Gartner predicts, reaching $2.5 billion by 2011.

Siebel CRM On Demand languished under Oracle after the company's $5.8 billion purchase of Siebel Systems in January 2006, with no major upgrades for 18 months. Gartner analyst Robert Desisto, in a report last year, blamed that neglect for a 75% reduction in inquiries for competitive evaluations of the product.

Siebel CRM On Demand Release 15, to be announced March 11, includes Web 2.0 features that support what Oracle calls "social CRM." The release includes integration of RSS feeds directly into applications and the ability to tap into social networking sites. That means, for example, that a salesperson could get news feeds for content relating to customers and receive alerts when a customer makes a change to his or her profile at business and social networking sites, says Anthony Lye, Oracle's senior VP of CRM products. The upgrade also includes improvements to how users make and share notes on customer records, to help avoid slips in communication on hot leads, accounts, and service requests.

The improvements in last summer's Release 14 included a nifty in-line editing feature and better integration with other Oracle apps. Oracle offers an integration pack for linking Siebel CRM On Demand with a customer's on-premises Oracle E-Business Suite, and in the coming year will release integration packs for its Siebel and JD Edwards on-premises apps as well, says Oracle VP Jose Lazares.

Oracle will market Siebel CRM On Demand to large companies, Lye says, while rival SAP pursues only small and midsize companies with its new Business ByDesign SaaS applications. "SaaS has expanded the market by opening up CRM to a whole new set of industries that want something lighter-weight and easier to use," he says, citing wealth management, construction, consulting, and other areas where the "professional relationship is far more social" than transaction-based industries such as telecom and retail banking. Oracle counts among its SaaS customers Accenture, General Electric, Ingersoll Rand, Kodak, and 3M, but it won't divulge numbers of users at customer sites.

Salesforce's largest customer is Japan Post, which has licensed about 40,000 seats of the CRM vendor's subscription service; Merrill Lynch has about 25,000 seats. Last week, Salesforce reported fourth-quarter revenue of $217 million, up 50% from the same quarter a year ago. By contrast, for its entire line of On Demand services, which includes hardware and software hosting services, Oracle reported revenue of $167 million for its fiscal second quarter ended Nov. 31, up from $140 million in the year-ago quarter. Oracle says Siebel CRM On Demand accounted for 10% of that growth.

Author: Mary Hayes Weier @ www.informationweek.com

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Teknosa implements Oracle

Teknosa, a Turkish consumer electronics retail chain, has implemented Oracle Retail applications to support its expansion strategy and enhance service levels across its multiple sales channels, states FOXBusiness.

The implementation of the Oracle Retail merchandising system, Oracle Retail allocation and Oracle Retail category management is enabling Teknosa to optimise inventory management, allocation and replenishment across its e-commerce and telephone channels as well as its 230 stores as the retailer expands its operations across Turkey and neighbouring countries.

"The implementation of Oracle Retail applications is part of Teknosa's three-year transformation programme designed to implement efficiencies and best practices that will optimise our agility as we diversify our merchandise offerings, extend our domestic operations and expand into new territories," explained Mehmet Nane, GM of Teknosa.

Source: www.itweb.co.za

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