Oracle and Accenture integrate Oracle Fusion Middleware software

Oracle and Accenture have integrated Oracle Fusion Middleware into Accenture Communications Solutions, Accenture's suite of business offerings and assets designed to mitigate the risk of deploying, and reduce the time to deploy, OSS and BSS software applications.

Oracle Fusion Middleware is a pre-integrated portfolio of customer-proven software that spans from portals and process managers to application infrastructure and business intelligence.

The newly integrated capabilities are intended to further enable communications service providers to rapidly launch new services and reduce the inherent risks - such as exceeding project budget or project time limits - which can be associated with new software implementations. Now that Oracle Fusion Middleware is integrated into Accenture's Communications Solutions, it can serve to further expand a service providers's ability to bring services to market more quickly.

Accenture is also adopting Oracle's Application Integration Architecture for Communications to deliver additional solutions for the communications industry. Delivered through Accenture Communications Solutions, Accenture intends to leverage these pre-built software products that will enable service providers to bring services to market more quickly, identify new revenue streams through enhanced data analysis, and capitalize on new opportunities by rapidly adapting streamlined business processes.

Source: www.cbronline.com

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Salesforce.com shopping itself to Oracle?

Tom Foremski is reporting that a "reliable source" indicates that "Salesforce.com has approached Oracle to gauge if there is any interest in a sale at $75 a share."

At first glance it would appear strange for Marc Benioff, who has long trumpted his software-as-a-service (SaaS) model as the "death of software," to be offering his firm for sale by to the world's second largest enterprise software vendor.

But Foremski thinks the deal makes sense for several reasons. Apart from the obvious synergies of Oracle's market presence with Salesforce.com's technology, he also points out that Benioff appears to be losing interest in his current job and has been selling an enormous number of shares recently. He also speculates that Benioff would make a great candidate to replace Ellison, whenever Larry sees fit to retire.

My take
There was a time when I would discount rumors such as this one. But after watching Oracle for the last five years, I rule nothing out.

It would certainly launch Oracle to the front of the on-demand market. Oracle's only true multi-tenant SaaS offering is the online CRM offering it picked up from Siebel, which was a fraction of the revenue from Siebel's on-premise product line. Oracle's main on-demand offering is simply its traditional E-Business Suite, offered on a single tenant hosted basis. Oracle has been touting this model as superior to the multi-tenant model lately, but to me it smells of "if you can't fix it, feature it."

There's one other big plus for Oracle. Buying Salesforce.com would take the wind out of the sails of SAP's recent launch of its own on-demand offering, Business by Design. With SAP making such a strong move into the SaaS market, can Oracle afford to appear as a laggard?

Update, Feb. 12: Salesforce.com's share price was up nearly 8% yesterday on the rumor of its interest in a deal with Oracle.

Upon further consideration, however, it seems to me there are two possibilities, both of which are problematic:

1. Contrary to Foremski's assertion, the source is not reliable. The rumor could be a ploy by someone interested in pumping up the share price.

2. Foremski's source is reliable. If so, and the source has factual knowledge of a $75 per share offer from Salesforce.com, then the source is disclosing insider information.

Either way, the SEC should investigate.

Source: http://fscavo.blogspot.com

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IDEA Uses Oracle

Oracle today announced that IDEA Cellular Limited, a leading mobile operator in India and a part of the Aditya Birla Group, has selected Oracle's Siebel CRM to deliver a unique customer service experience to pre- and post-paid mobile subscribers across its entire operations in India. IDEA's strategic outsourcing partner, IBM, will undertake the implementation, which on completion is expected to address challenges arising from IDEA's extensive channel and dealer network and meet its fast-expanding customer base.

IDEA is focused on enhancing the customer experience and service delivery, and plans to increase its customer base rapidly over the next three years from its existing 22 million subscribers. The operator currently provides mobile services in 11 areas with plans to expand into two new areas -- Mumbai and Bihar. With the help of its IT infrastructure outsource partner, IBM, IDEA will adopt an enterprise-wide CRM system spanning all lines of business in India. A sign of convergence, this is the first time a communications company in India will use a single CRM solution to provide customer service to both its pre- and post-paid customers.

IDEA chose Siebel CRM over competing applications for several reasons including the extensive out-of-the-box communications-specific functionalities, coupled with Oracle's superior architecture, flexibility and scalability.

"IDEA has been on the forefront of adapting cutting-edge technology to exceed customer service expectations. In doing so, we have adopted a collaborative approach to partner with the best-in-class application technologies available to streamline and enhance our business processes. I am confident that all IDEA customers will benefit significantly from our selection of Oracle's Siebel CRM, and our decisions to converge pre- and post-paid care, a first in the Indian communications industry," said Prakash Paranjape, chief information officer, IDEA.

Source: www.lightreading.com

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