What recession? Oracle support provider quadrupled its customer base

In a year when a lot of other companies floundered, Rimini Street, Inc. -- a services provider for PeopleSoft and other Oracle-owned software products -- picked up 150 new business customers in 2008, four times its 2007 number.

How did Rimini Street pull off that feat? A "significant number" of new customers came to Rimini from Tomorrow Now (TN), a SAP business unit which disbanded last year in the wake of an acrimonious lawsuit with Oracle. But other customers, fed up with Oracle's high software maintenance and upgrade fees, migrated to Rimini directly from Oracle, said David Rowe, Rimini's senior VP of global partnerships and alliances, in an interview this week with Betanews.

Founded in 2005 by ex-TN executive Seth Ravin, Rimini has seen its sales bookings mushroom from $1 million in 2006, to $9 million in 2007, to $86 million in 2008, according to Rowe. Sales bookings for multi-year contracts are counted according to when they get signed.

The year 2009 could shape up into a lucrative one for Rimini Street, too. The third-party services provider is now launching a SAP practice, adding to its existing practices for disaffected users of Oracle's PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel CRM, ERP, and sales automation software. Sales bookings for the new SAP practice aren't even included in the company's 2008 numbers, Rowe noted.

SAP originally purchased TN back in 2005, using the business unit to provide customer support for both its own software and products garnered by major rival Oracle Corp. through a string of buyouts.

But in mid-2007, SAP admitted that members of its TN unit had improperly downloaded materials from Oracle's Web site by posing as Oracle customers. By November of that year, SAP announced that several of TN's top executives had resigned, including Andrew Nelson, its CEO and founder.

After trying fruitlessly to sell TN, SAP pulled the plug on the unit in October of 2008, giving TN's remaining customers just two or three months to "find a new home" for software maintenance and support, according to Rowe.

Rimini Street inked some TN customers even in 2007, Rowe said, during an earlier interview. But a lot more came on board in 2008, particularly at the end of the year, the senior vice president told Betanews this week.

In any case, the market is ripe right now for third-party maintenance and support, according to Rowe. With budgets strained from the economic crisis, fewer customers than ever are willing to fork over Oracle's software maintenance fees, which amount to 22% of the cost of software licenses, he said.

Users also tend to be less interested in costly upgrades by Oracle to solutions aimed at providing better integration with Oracle's own brand of applications and middleware.

Many businesses want to maintain their existing investments in Peoplesoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel software and customizations for the next five or even ten years, contended Rowe. "At that point, they might look at SaaS solutions like Workday or NetSuite, once these things are widely deployed and more mature," he conceded.

SAP, too, is now charging maintenance fees of 22%, up from its previous level of 17%, according to Rowe. "But their timing isn't good. It's terrible," he added.

As for its own new SAP practice, Rimini Street isn't targeting customers of the German-based software vendor that are based overseas.

The third-party provider is taking its time, starting out right now with a small group of reference customers. "Customers are giving you their mission-critical systems. You need to make sure you get it right," Betanews was told.

But Rowe claimed that Rimini Street already has a growing waiting list of potential SAP customers. "We have a methodology for building third-party support, and we connect that methodology with specific applications. We're building a support program for SAP now, for full roll-out later this year," he elaborated.

Author: Jacqueline Emigh @ www.betanews.com

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Kapital Bank implements Oracle Flexcube

Optimizes business performance across its network of 88 branches. Azerbaijan-based Kapital Bank has implemented Oracle Flexcube universal banking system to help expand the size and depth of its banking operations across its network of 88 branches.

Oracle Flexcube's process-centric approach has enabled the bank to optimize business performance by using best practices with an ability to define, implement and monitor the effectiveness of its processes. The system has helped provide the bank with an application platform that enables it to conduct its operations in both domestic and international markets.

Oracle Flexcube has also helped the bank enhance its risk management practices through audit trails and limit tracking across customer segments.

Rauf Razayev, chairman of Kapital Bank, said: "We wanted to roll out Oracle Flexcube to help expand the size of our banking operations and completed the project in under 11 months. This solution is a complete banking product suite covering all areas of banking needs and has enabled us to adopt international standards and meet regulatory requirements. Our association with Oracle Financial Services Software, over the past 18 months, has helped us to translate opportunities in the market into tangible results.

Mustafa Moonim, vice president of Europe and Middle East sales at Oracle Financial Services Software, said: "Kapital Bank was our first deployment in the country and we had a tremendous success in the joint engagement with the bank. We are very pleased with the outcome for Kapital Bank. Banks in the region have shown great acceptance of Oracle Flexcube and the success at Kapital Bank has helped provide us with the foundation for this achievement."

Source: http://enterpriseapplications.cbronline.com

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Oracle Acquires Leader in Application Configuration Management

In its first acquisition of 2009, Oracle purchases mValent, a company whose configuration management solutions can promote efficiencies within Oracle Enterprise Manager. Even as it envelops smaller companies, Oracle may also be looking towards a future where cloud computing dominates the enterprise IT scene.

Despite the economic doldrums seizing most of the IT industry, the Oracle acquisition machine is alive and well. The company’s purchase of mValent, a provider of application configuration management solutions, is designed to enhance Oracle Enterprise Manager’s configuration-management capabilities across IT environments.

Announced on Feb. 4, the complete transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2009, according to a statement released by Oracle. As to be expected, financial details were not disclosed.

The move represents Oracle’s first acquisition of 2009. In 2008, they took over 11 companies, including Lodestar and Interlace Systems.

With mValent technology in place, enterprise users should be able to collect and harmonize data from even the most complex of systems. Ensuring consistent configurations across IT environments would also lead to both improved productivity and application uptime.

Oracle Enterprise Manager enhanced with mValent will also simplify systems’ root-cause analysis and automate remediation of issues caused by configuration changes. mValent’s customer base before the acquisition included Direct TV, Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan, and Kohl’s.

“Effective application configuration management is increasingly important as businesses look to improve operating efficiencies,” Richard Sarwal, senior vice president of Oracle Applications and Systems Management, said in a statement. “This acquisition is consistent with Oracle’s strategy for delivering cost-effective solutions for managing applications that enable customers to adopt new, innovative technology with reduced risk.”

In addition to its focus on enhancing its own product line through acquisition, Oracle has also been casting an eye towards paradigm shifts within enterprise IT. Even as CEO Larry Ellison denounced cloud computing as “gibberish” in Sept. 2008, Oracle has perhaps begun to embrace the model as a means of ensuring future survival.

Author: Nicholas Kolakowski @ www.eweek.com

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