Louis Vuitton Pacific Series: Pataugas by K-Challenge has tough race with BMW Oracle Racing

Pataugas by K-Challenge was racing today its 3rd match against the American team of BMW Oracle Racing, with Russell Coutts at helm. After a long wait for the team members, racing has finally been able to be launched this afternoon, and all races were completed (start for Pataugas by K-Challenge at 4:40pm).

Unfortunately, the French didn´t get a new point today, which means they will have to race in the “silver fleet” in Round Robin 2, and to finish in the two firsts to reach the quarter finals. This scenario is for sure longer, but all is still possible for the French team.

Gilles Favennec, Pit : “we didn´t look bad in front of them, but we found ourselves on the wrong side of the race course at the start, and then, they end up in front of us at the first mark. They will remain in front of us after that, and even if we come back a bit on the downwind leg, this will not be enough to put pressure on them. It is a big team, but we were consistent, and we are not far from getting there. In fact, I´m quite satisfied about the team because the manoeuvres are better and better, and we manage to organize ourselves together, which is a good thing for the future. The bad point is that we really needed that point to avoid the silver fleet, where there will be four teams. But even if the way is longer, it still exists. We all improved a lot the past three days, even if we don´t see that in our results. We are better in the manoeuvres, in the communications, which is what we needed to work on at the beginning. We are still confident for what is coming up, we have everything in our hands.”

Philippe Mourniac, Navigator: “the important event in today's match is that we wanted the right side of the race course like BMW Oracle Racing. But they made a better job than us in getting it, and we found ourselves on the left. From that moment we were a bit late to come back, and when the first crossing happens, we are four lengths behind, which is not a lot, but enough to make the race easy for the Americans until the end.

If we end up in the two firsts of the silver fleet, everything is possible and clocks will be reset for the quarter finals. We will have three matches in Round Robin 2, we need to win at least two. So we still have our cards in our hands, but the coming days will be a bit less comfortable than if we had entered the gold fleet directly.”

Pataugas by K-Challenge will race tomorrow against Emirates Team New Zealand for its last match in Round Robin 1.

Race details:

Mark 1 : 13 seconds for BMW Oracle Racing
Mark 2 : 27 seconds for BMW Oracle Racing
Mark 3 : 37 seconds for BMW Oracle Racing
Finish : 54 seconds for BMW Oracle Racing

Author: Stephanie Nadin @ www.bymnews.com

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Open letter to Ellison critical of Oracle strategy

TechWeb Global CIO writer Bob Evans recently published an open letter to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. The heart of the note illustrates the point that Oracle's current strategy remains a burden to customers and that they are (finally) starting to get fed up.

The issue that needs your fresh thinking and attention in today's brutal economic climate is the one-size-fits-all, nonnegotiable 22 percent annual maintenance fee Oracle charges your customers.

As you well know, those customers are desperately trying to cut costs and conserve cash, and are exploring every possible option for doing so. You can help those customers very directly while also advancing Oracle's cause in a variety of ways by being willing to modify your stance on that single-tier, unmodifiable policy.

The author primarily takes issue with maintenance fees, but the underlying theme is that users have already paid for the software and that they aren't seeing much value in what is described as "maintenance." And Oracle doesn't seem to care a whole lot about it.

Mr. Ellison, it's easy to see why you like the current system, where someone pays, for example, $4,000,000 for a software license and then pays you $880,000 every year for "maintenance." And maybe CIOs will continue to find that's a fair exchange of value. But maybe they won't--as you know better than just about anyone, the IT industry is an archetype of creative destruction, where faster/better/cheaper alternatives relentlessly stalk, attack, and kill older/slower/more-expensive models.

Perhaps the model you and Charles Phillips and the entire Oracle global team have built is so extraordinarily singular that it will endure forever and remain unassailable from the forces that have ground down every previous eternal model in the technology business. But maybe not.

Definitely worth a read--this thread of "long-gone customer value" is what open source and software-as-a-service companies thrive on. The big vendor backlash is just starting.

Author: Dave Rosenberg @ news.cnet.com

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Oracle loses Melbourne to TechOne

The City of Melbourne (CoM) will ditch its Oracle business management and reporting systems in favour of local vendor TechnologyOne under a deal worth $3 million.

CoM signed the contract in December last year, it revealed today, with an initial contract value of just under $2 million and an expected $1 million in support and maintenance over the next five years. An Oracle Australia spokesperson declined to comment.

ASX-listed TechnologyOne will commence implementing the new systems in February, which will cover CoM's financial reporting, supply chain, projects, contracts, human resource and payroll, and grants management. The project is expected to be finalised in two years.

City of Melbourne CEO Kathy Alexander said in a statement issued by TechnologyOne that she hoped the new system would improve the accuracy of information the council had. "We will rely less on manual data entry, which in turn will ensure that there is less duplication and more efficient use of our employees' time," she said.

She also hoped the new system will improve the council's modelling and analysis capabilities.

Author: Liam Tung @ ZDNet.com.au

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