IBM Rules Middleware, While Oracle + BEA = Distant No. 2

The worldwide market for middleware totaled $14.1 billion in 2007, a 12.9% increase over the year before, according to a summary of the market published this week by Gartner.

Middleware trails databases as a major enterprise software market, but not by as much as it used to. Databases amounted to an $18.6 billion market in 2007, but at 12.1%, it's not growing as fast as middleware is. Business process management software, portals, business-to-business software, and enterprise service buses are being added to the application servers and application integration software in the category.

The Gartner report said the middleware market is outpacing enterprise software in general. "This technology area has not seen any noticeable signs of slowdown," said Fabrizio Biscotti, Gartner research director.

Oracle announced it was acquiring BEA Systems in January of this year and completed the purchase at the end of April. But Oracle and BEA revenues from last year added together still leave it a distant number two to market leader IBM.

IBM had revenues of $4.1 billion in 2007 for a 28.9% market share, an increase over its 28.3% share of the year before.

BEA Systems occupied the number two spot with revenues of $1.3 billion and 9.3% market share. Its share was down slightly from 9.8% the year before.

Oracle was number three, with $1.2 billion in revenues and 8.5% market share, an increase from 8% the year before. Oracle acquired BEA Systems as a Java middleware supplier. Middleware will be a crucial element of future application-buying decisions, with customer's wanting the middleware most attuned to their applications, Oracle believes.

Sterling Commerce was number four, with $443 million in revenues and 3.1% market share, down from 3.5% the year before.

Microsoft was number five, with $426 million and 3% market share, up from 2.4% the year before, the Gartner report said.

Author: Charles Babcock @ InformationWeek

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Oracle Corporation to Release Q4 2008 Earnings June 25

Oracle will release the fourth quarter earnings for 2008 on Wednesday, June 25 after the market close. A conference call will be held at 5:00 pm ET that evening to discuss the financial results. Interested parties may listen to the call by visiting oracle.com/investor.

Oracle Corporation is an enterprise software company. Oracle develops, manufactures, markets, distributes and services database and middleware software, as well as applications software that help organizations to manage their businesses.

Oracle is organized into two businesses: software and services. These businesses are further divided into five operating segments. Its software business consists of two operating segments, new software licenses, and software license updates and product support. Its services business consists of three operating segments, consulting, On Demand and education.

In April 2007, it announced the availability of Oracle Manufacturing Execution System for Discrete Manufacturing (Oracle MES for Discrete Manufacturing), a application that enables manufacturers to deploy Oracle Applications directly on the shop floor. In September 2007, it acquired Bridgestream, Inc. In December 2007, it acquired Moniforce. In April 2008, Oracle acquired BEA Systems, Inc.

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Oracle Previews On-demand 'social' CRM Module

Oracle is giving the industry another peek at the first in a planned wave of social networking-infused CRM (customer relationship management) applications this week at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, but did not supply a release date.

Oracle Sales Prospector, which Oracle first previewed back at its OpenWorld show in November 2007, will ship sometime this quarter, according to Mark Woollen, vice president of CRM development at Oracle, which means anywhere from now to August under Oracle's financial calendar.

The software is supposed to help salespeople find the best leads by analyzing the buying history of companies, based on private and public information. Users contribute data from their sales transactions, which over time improves the database and leads to better recommendations, according to Oracle.

Such a concept banks on the contrary-seeming notion that salespeople -- often competitive souls by nature -- will buy into the idea of sharing potentially valuable information with their peers.

Woollen suggested it will be possible for users to create a "mutual back-scratching society," while acknowledging that they probably won't give away their "book of business" wholesale.

The software features a flashier user interface than typically seen in many CRM systems. On the back end, it is based on the company's Fusion Middleware platform and employs Oracle's data mining technology for analysis, according to Woollen.
But it should "not necessarily" be viewed as the first offering in the long-anticipated wave of Fusion Applications, the vendor's next-generation product line that will gradually replace its current family of software, Woollen said.

That's because Prospector is focused on social networking, as opposed to being a mainline CRM product, he said.

The second version of Sales Prospector will add integrations with transactional CRM systems, including Oracle's Siebel offerings and Salesforce.com, which will enable users who pinpoint a good lead in Prospector to "promote the prospect to an opportunity," Woollen said.

While Oracle is positioning the product as able to complement "virtually any" CRM system, Oracle plans to focus on selling to its own user base, but is also anticipating referrals from one user to another, Woollen said.

The company plans to release updates roughly twice a year, he said. Oracle declined to provide pricing information.

Additional "social CRM" modules are in the pipeline. They include Sales Campaigns, for creating and analyzing e-mail marketing efforts; and Sales Library, which revolves around sharing and rating sales presentations.

Author: Chris Kanaracus @ IDG News Service

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