Sympathy for the Oracle

I used to envy Larry Ellison. But then I had lunch with one of his senior minions, and now I feel a little sympathy. Just a little. :-)

It was actually very educational, because it reinforced for me the power of an open-source sales model, and how it could help Oracle. Oracle kicks tail with sub-$1 billion companies, selling a feature/function value model often winning these deals from SAP. But in the biggest companies, Oracle often loses, and not because it's technology is worse.

No, according to this Oracle executive, it's because SAP builds relationships with executive management at target customers and these CxOs decide for SAP, even when it's the wrong technical decision. Time after time, he talks with the IT executive responsible for the decision after Oracle has lost the sale, and finds out that he was selling to the wrong person.

But surely Oracle could outdo SAP on the executive meet-ups?

Oddly, no, he suggested, because SAP's management exudes thought leadership, whereas Oracle's is more about execution. The prospects want to connect with these SAP executives. As a result, SAP's sales model starts with its thought leadership and ends with a product sale (whereas Oracle takes the inverse approach).

I have no way of knowing how true this is but, if true, an open-source model offers a ray of hope (though surely not the only one, or even the easiest one). Why? Because open source makes it easier to win the bottom-up war. Once one gets to the stage of Red Hat, perhaps it helps to win the top-down war, too (albeit slightly different? Alan Cox exuding technical leadership to the IT staff rather than the CFO/CIO).
Oracle already makes most of its profit on maintenance revenues and, as my friend reminded me, breaks even or loses money quite often on these initial big license sales (because upwards of 100 people can get involved in closing a $1 million deal with a multibillion dollar prospect). So, a low-cost sales model that gets it in the door and sets it up for downstream maintenance revenues sounds ideal.

Is open source a panacea? Of course not. But it sure sounded like a good idea in light of how Oracle prefers to sell and the costs associated with that preference. If only Oracle could adopt the model before it starts getting bumped and scraped by open-source applications and databases. It's nowhere near hurting today, but it could start putting a serious dent on SAP and Microsoft by going on the offensive with open source.

And then we'd no longer need to sing (from The Rolling Stones, "Sympathy for the Devil")...

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long years
Stole many a man's soul and faith...
So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste.

No, we'd have real sympathy.

Author: Matt Asay

Read more ...

Oracle Officials Pleased With Siebel CRM Progress

Oracle officials have announced they are pleased with Oracle's Siebel CRM On Demand and Oracle On Demand customer traction, announcing that in the last quarter alone Oracle established or expanded its relationship with more than 200 new global customers, including ADP, Central Plastics, Fidelity Registered Investment Advisor Group, GE Commercial Finance and Translational Genomics Research Institute.

With 14 releases of Siebel CRM On-Demand in less than four years, Oracle's Siebel CRM On Demand Release 14 is now generally available. This new version unites CRM functionality with the latest in Web 2.0 technologies, company officials say, and includes "significant enhancements across its sales, marketing, services, analytics, built-in call center, and industry edition capabilities."

Siebel CRM On Demand Release 14 will also include "next-generation usability and customization capabilities, and strong integration capabilities that allow customers and partners to quickly and easily establish deep integration with other applications," company officials promise.

Additionally, with the Siebel CRM On Demand Integration Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite, customers gain pre-built integration between their subscription CRM applications and the back office suite.

Early this month Oracle announced that Jenny Craig, the weight management company, had expanded its relationship with Oracle to standardize on Oracle's Siebel CRM to help increase business growth, improve overall efficiencies, gain a 360 degree client view across all sales channels and trim the fat from its operating expenses.

Using Siebel CRM, Jenny Craig will be able to automate business processes for sales, inventory, reporting, and scheduling, company officials say.

Jenny Craig, based in Carlsbad, California, has about 650 centers in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico. "We recognize knowledge and insight as the currency of influence among our clients," said Shoukry Tiab, Vice President of Information Services and CIO at Jenny Craig. "We chose Oracle's Siebel CRM for its flexibility and scalability. We will have visibility to forecast growth and revenue based on client preferences and seasonal campaigns."

Jenny Craig also runs Oracle Database 10g, an Oracle-based data warehouse, Oracle Partner Portal, Siebel SmartScript and Oracle Business Intelligence Applications.

Author: David Sims

Read more ...

Openbravo recruits senior Oracle director from Silicon Valley

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Openbravo, the leading developer of professional, web-based, open source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions designed specifically for small and medium businesses, has expanded its management team with the appointment of Paolo Juvara as Chief Products Officer (CPO).

Paolo Juvara joins Openbravo from Oracle Corporation, where he worked for fourteen years, most recently as senior director, leading the development of the Service product line. He also held a broad range of development and management roles within Oracle's Applications Development business, including positions in Financials, Supply Chain Management, CRM and Business Intelligence.

His experience in developing products for global markets is highly relevant to Openbravo's ERP software.

Moving from Oracle's headquarters in Redwood Shores, California, Paolo Juvara will be based in Pamplona, Spain, and will assume responsibility for Openbravo's ERP product roadmap, engineering and integration projects.

Manel Sarasa, Openbravo's CEO, said: "Paolo understands our market and the opportunities and challenges that open source brings. Furthermore, he has the personality and level of insight to be involved with our development communities, to listen to and engage with them. His appointment is a great endorsement of our product and strategy. I look forward to Paolo playing an important part in our achievements as we work towards 500,000 downloads on SourceForge."

Paolo Juvara, the newly-appointed CPO for Openbravo, said: "I deeply believe in the design and application of open source software and I look forward to applying my experience of development of commercial software into an area that I feel passionately about. Openbravo has a strong team and a strong strategy, and I am proud to be part of one of the most successful projects in SourceForge."

Ismael Ciordia, Chief Technology Officer for Openbravo said: "Paolo has the perfect combination of experiences to take Openbravo to the next level: he is a capable developer; he is used to managing large teams of developers; he has global experience and he has worked on strategy, sales and consulting with companies across Asia Pacific, EMEA, Latin America. While Paolo will take full responsibility on business focused products, such as the ERP, I will focus on evolving and enhancing our powerful development platform in which these products run."

Openbravo is a fully functional integrated web-based open source enterprise management system (ERP), with a proven track record. The ERP has already been installed by a number of innovative SMB enterprises (http://www.openbravo.com/customers/success-stories/).

About Openbravo

Openbravo is the leading professional open source enterprise management (ERP) solution for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs). Driven by open source philosophies and best-in-class services, it delivers a fully integrated, web-based ERP system tailored to the needs of any company, regardless of size or industry sector. The functionality of Openbravo is in continual growth thanks to an expanding international community of users, partners and developers. Openbravo helps companies to manage daily operations, optimize business processes, enhance customer satisfaction and ultimately increase profitability. And because it is open source, Openbravo puts the customer in full control without the overheads of contracts or licenses. In January 2006, Openbravo secured a EUR 5 million ($6.4m) financing agreement with Sodena - record funding for an open source ERP company - to fuel further software development and international growth. Openbravo is a founder member of the Open Solutions Alliance - an independent consortium launched in 2007 to educate and inform businesses deploying Open Source, while promoting best practice and interoperability among vendors. Openbravo is a winner of a 2007 'Red Herring 100 Europe Award' and of the 'LinuxWorld.com Product Excellence Awards 2007' in the Best Integration Solution category.

Source: www.openbravo.com

Read more ...