Thursday, December 28, 2006
Unbreakable Linux Expectations
Unbreakable Linux was downloaded 9,000 times in the first 30 days, according to comments made by Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle’s president Chuck Phillips during the company’s recent earnings call. Compare this with the download rates for Red Hat Inc and Novell Inc, however, and it is almost insignificant.
While it may seem Oracle's Unbreakable Linux program is not gaining the traction it should, I highly doubt that Larry expected to convert the masses. The program is more a signal of a continuous shift for Oracle to cover the entire IT stack. Meanwhile, Oracle makes a few bucks on services without a significant investment. Moreover, it's really a defensive move against operating system providers. Oracle wants to neutralize Microsoft’s dominance in the OS layer, prevent open source competitors like Red Hat from inching up the stack, and cover an area that IBM and SAP does not own. So I don't think Oracle is spending any sleepless nights worrying about the progress of its Linux program and comparing it against Red Hat or Novell.
SAP Does Enterprise Search Widget-Style
But that's not all SAP has in store for 2007. Enterprise Search, which the company will also introduce in the first half of the year, looks to me to be one of the more interesting products of 2007. As you know, most search products focus on text. If you're looking for news, reviews, or an esoteric piece of information about an obscure author, Google is the way to go. But what if you want to know the status of a customer shipment, how much inventory is left, who is so-and-so's supervisor, or whether I am authorized to give him or her a raise? These are the kinds of questions Enterprise Search is built to answer.
SAP is also seeding the development community with a toolkit to build what you might call it applets, widgets, or gadgets, ala Microsoft Vista, for SAP. The company is also building its own gadgets that give you an alert box for, say, an RSS reader that tracks business events rather than news or blogs. That way, a sales manager can monitor when a sales rep closes a deal, for example. There are also alerts for corporate KPIs (key performance indicators), as well as alerts for tracking workflow queues, such as notifying a purchasing manager of requisitions waiting for approval.
Sounds like a dashboard, but these applets embody more of a Web 2.0 approach — they’re updated over the Internet, you don’t have to install anything, they’re more dynamic than what you get with a dashboard, and you get to pick the ones you want.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Fusion Downgrade
First Albany Capital analyst Mark Murphy on Friday downgraded software developer Oracle Corp. to "Neutral" from "Buy," saying the stock is pricey, growth is likely to slow and the company may have trouble integrating its many acquisitions.
"Investors are too complacent if they believe that the largest, messiest, most complex application integration project in the history of the technology industry will go off without a hitch," Murphy wrote in a research report.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Oracle Loses Key Retail Bid
Oracle Loses Would-Be Customer To SAP Due To Integration Concerns
- One of the biggest turnoffs to Oracle, says Sport Chalet CFO Howard Kaminsky, was -- ouch -- lack of integration between Oracle financial applications and the retail apps of Retek, which it acquired about 18 months ago.
- SAP's offering for the retail market, by comparison, "was ahead of its time in that a lot of pieces were integrated," Kaminsky says.
- Such impressions on would-be customers aren't good for Oracle, as the potential difficulty of integrating its myriad acquisitions is the biggest question hanging over its success in ERP.
- "We went out and looked at all the usual software companies that relate to retail," Kaminsky says. "At the time we didn't expect SAP to be in the running; we didn't know they were that interested in the middle market. They came back very aggressively and said they were very interested."
Sunday, November 05, 2006
A Would-Be Contender in Utilities: Oracle Buys SPL WorldGroup
Why purchase SPL? Oracle's rationale was the following:
- Penetrate an industry where SAP is the clear leader. With SAP in a strong #1 position (over 800 utility customers & 300 CIS customers), Oracle saw an opportunity to buy a foothold in a market where it lacked presence.
- Existing Oracle utility products were weak or functionality was missing
>Oracle had weak and overlapping Enterprise Asset Management products; it still has a long way to go in rationalizing disparate applications – Oracle eAM, JD Edwards, and the SPL-acquired Synergen product
>Oracle completely lacked Customer Care & Billing, Outage & Distribution Management, Meter Data Management, and Mobile Workforce Management capabilities
Oracle speaks of the integration work done between Siebel and SPL. However, the integration between Siebel and SPL is not as strong as Oracle purports it to be. Business processes are not integrated--examples include not being to move between applications to complete a business scenario.
There's plenty of marketing hype surrounding this acquisition. Sure, if Oracle succeeds in integrating all of the pieces SPL has itself purchased (CES, Axiom, Sidewinder, Synergen) and ties these products to Siebel, JDE, PSFT, and Oracle...then yes, we might have something. But Oracle has a bigger challenge in Fusion. The question is, will it really dedicate resources to utilities when it has much much bigger development issues at hand? I do commend Oracle for spinning out a separate utilities division. Whether it thrives or fails in the Oracle machine is to be determined.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Little Known MDM Successes
Like I said, ultimately it depends on the customers. Today, SAP has more than forty customers live and more than thirty references. If that doesn't say "good product" with a solid future, I don't know what does. Only IBM may have more customers through acquisitions and service engagements.
A Note on the "Bloatosphere"
The number of blogs has increased 100-fold since 2003 to 50 million. In addition, the total has doubled every six months for about two years, according to a new report quantifying the blogosphere by Technorati. In July alone, there were 1.6 million blog postings daily, or 18.6 per second. Two blogs were created each second of each day.
While the report and its author say the rate of blogging activity and growth can't continue, the data begs many questions about the direction of blogging: Are quality blogs simply getting lost in the noise? Or more precisely, is quality even relevant in the blogging world? How do you find blogs worthy of consistent return visits when the universe of blogs has reached into the tens of millions? If you do have a quality blog, is it even possible to build a sustainable audience and consistently deliver valuable (or entertaining or insightful) information to readers?
I do think that we're getting to a point where there IS a lot of noise. But if you are an informed reader, you can easily make the distinction between a quality blog and someone who is just spewing. Starting a blog is easy but maintaining it and finding a voice in a sea of very opinionated industry insiders is challenging. I do agree that over time, they will consolidate, like any other market. However, I am constantly amazed at the breadth and depth of blogs and continue to discover blogs of note in every walk of life -- from ones dedicated to niche software markets to ones on fashionable purses. I mean, the key is community, right? As long as you can build and sustain a community interested in a certain topic, consistently providing updated and interesting information, then you are hardpressed to find another one just like it.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
The Difference Between SAP MDM and Oracle Data Hubs
If the customer wants its CRM system to be the single source of creation for customer master and the one that retains all customer records, then that is easily enabled. The rules for data mapping, data distribution, and data validation for source and destination systems are easily defined as processes for managing data. The customer would not have to continually ping the hub for master data any time updates or changes need to be made. While these are Oracle’s future DH plans, currently the DH product is still based on old Oracle technology. Oracle will likely maintain the old DH product as it develops the new Siebel-based product.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
The Scarlet Letter "E"
Q U O T E D
Your absence has really thrown a spanner into the trademark and IP strategy of a lot of Web 2.0 firms. Where do you think you're missed the most?
"There definitely are companies that may be showing signs of having issues. In addition to Flickr, there are companies like Beggr, Coastr, Colrpickr, Fastr, Frappr, Gabbr, Mappr, Nabbr, Phrasr, Soonr, Talkr, Zooomr and probably a metric ton of other ones. A few individuals have flamed me for 'stifling innovation,' but I prefer to think of it as an opportunity to help those organizations out of a creative rut. Unfortunately, few seem to have risen to the challenge."
-- In an exclusive interview with BidnessWeek, the letter "e" talks about what he's been doing for the past few years
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Prison Outsourcing
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
SAP Buys Praxis
The bottom line on this acqusition is that it is a smart one if SAP is serious about SMB...and it is. Business One needed better CRM functionality and now it has it. Certainly, integration with Praxis will be far easier than the hairy monster Oracle is dealing with right now. Small aquisitions, small wins, for small businesses.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Quote of the Day - 7.11.06
-- Blake Ross, one of the founders of the Mozilla Firefox project
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Oracle's 585 B.S.
This is pure marketing b.s.! Having gone through this list of customers, only a handful were actually competitive deals. The rest, it seems, Oracle dreamt up or counted as wins on their own whim. The majority of claims were upgrades for Oracle or extensions of apps for vendors it recently acquired. Just a whole lot of smoke and mirrors...typical Oracle fare.
If Oracle spent half as much time on integrating its apps and finishing up Fusion as it did picking on SAP, it would have a killer product set. But no, it continues to pick petty battles and create false campaigns around its successes instead of focusing on customers. Face it, Oracle is just a big bully with a lot of hot air.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Quote of the Day - 7.4.06
— Thomas Jefferson
Happy Fourth of July!!!
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Demantra - Just An "OK" Purchase for Oracle
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Interesting Database Innovation
Since most database management software products are proprietary and incompatible, its costly and risky for companies to migrate from one to another. In comes Ants, which claims to be "universally compatible." This means it can mimic all database management software, enabling companies that tailored applications to run on Oracle or DB2 to easily run them on other databases.
But will Oracle or IBM just buy them up? What's the competitive differentiation here? According to Haderle:
"If Ants viewed itself as a DB2 killer, they'd die along with all the other object database companies," Haderle says. "Even if we could operate three times faster, those differences only last for a moment in time. IBM would throw the hordes on it and have it figured out and build it, or buy it. "The question in my mind is how to find growth in areas not supported by existing database systems and be synergistic with the big guys," Haderle adds.
SAP & Microsoft Reintroduce Mendocino as "Duet"
The Microsoft spokesperson in the press release explains what the product is:
“Duet is a business mashup of Microsoft Office applications with SAP enterprise information and processes that can improve the quality and speed of decision making and workforce productivity. With Duet, SAP will be easier to access and more relevant for many more users who spend their workdays in the ‘Microsoft’ Office.”
This is a prime opportunity for SAP to extend its reach beyond R/3 users and the targeted segment of people that touch ERP systems. Everything happens in Excel and Outlook anyway. What's in it for Microsoft? It gets to maintain itself in the frontline, owning the business user...AND it gets to build on integration with enterprise applications which it can then leverage for its own apps products later.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Oracle Acquires Net4call
"Oracle has acquired Norway's Net4call for an unspecified sum. The deal doesn't the fit the recent pattern of Oracle acquisitions, which have largely involved vertical-specific applications providers. Net4call is more on the IT infrastructure side, with its main competence coming in an application development product for the Parlay environment."
I would disagree with Line56's assessment. This certainly has a vertical play - telecom. Seems like Oracle is trying bolstering its telecom service provisioning capabilities through this acquisition.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Quote of the Day - 4.27.06
-- A recent visitor marvels at the exotic wonders of Google's Mountain View campus.
...At SAP, we get Coke AND Pepsi! Whoo-hoo!
Manugistics Acquired By JDA - Supply Chain Blunder or Firesale Win?
Supply chain vendor, Manugistics, had been floundering for the last few years and it's not a surprise that it was finally acquired. Having seen success during the dot.com boom as one of the top best-of-breed supply chain players, Manugistics joined the likes of i2 when the SCM market matured and demand for manufacturing software was tapped out. As SAP and other behemoths entered the market with a best-of-suite option (as well as bundled APO with SAP ERP purchases), SCM specialty vendors found it increasingly difficult to compete.
Manugistics then attempted to expand its value proposition to encompass demand chain management, offering profit and revenue optimization solutions to retailers, CPG, high-tech, and hospitality and travel companies. The company was unable to establish a new market for itself in PRO, despite the promising ROI it offered customers.
At some point, Manugistics was going to be an acquisition target but who would buy them given the maturity of the SCM market? What is surprising is that JDA stepped in. While it makes sense that retail, wholesale distribution, and CPG manufacturing is covered by the combination of JDA and Manugistics -- targeting a demand chain strategy, it is unlikely that JDA will succeed in entering manufacturing. This definitely opens the door for SAP. The crux of Manugistics' installed base is CPG manufacturers that have a SAP R/3 and Manugistics SCM landscape. Converting these customers to all SAP is a likely scenario.
What does JDA get then? Well, besides SCM - which I think is a non-starter, JDA gets Manugistics' transportation management (TMS) solution - which is known to be the best software in its category. This could benefit JDA's retail customer base. Also, Manugistics' PRO capabilities could help JDA with retail price optimization - an area that SAP now owns with its Khimetrics acquisition and Oracle owns with its ProfitLogic plus Retek combination.
However, all in all, what JDA gets is a SCM company that has already seen its best days and despite getting the company on the cheap, JDA has likely made a supply chain blunder.
Friday, March 31, 2006
Oracle is a Contender
The Epitomy of Geekdom (I Mean, Go SAP!)
Darth Ellison vs ABAP
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Quotes of the Day - 3.29.06
A: No, I do not. Nor do my children. My children--in many dimensions they're as poorly behaved as many other children, but at least on this dimension I've got my kids brainwashed: You don't use Google, and you don't use an iPod.
-- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the Ballmer family prefers to dine on its own dogfood.
"For all those who lament the pre-inclusion of Internet Explorer, it's worth noting that if IE WASN'T pre-installed, most people wouldn't be able to download all that IM, media playing, or even alternative browsers such as Firefox. In other words, if IE wasn't pre-included with Windows, the market for software -- including open source software targeted at desktop computers -- might actually shrink."
-- Microsoft's John Carroll says Firefox users, the open source community, all of us owe Redmond an enormous debt of gratitude.
-Silicon Valley
Google's "Oops "
"We've determined the cause of tonight's outage. The blog was mistakenly deleted by us (d'oh!) which allowed the blog address to be temporarily claimed by another user. This was not a hack, and nobody guessed our password. Our bad."
That's pretty bad (and humiliating) that Google can't get it together -- what hope is there for other corporate blogs?
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Oracle Admits Data Hubs Not Good Enough?
This will have interesting implications since Oracle has been pushing a single data schema approach, one that encompasses their EBS data model. What will it mean if Oracle drops CDH? It means that they will have to eventually offer the Siebel data model in CDH also. Offering all of these data models pre-packaged will take lots of time because Oracle probably wants to include PeopleSoft and JDE's data models as well. All of these rewrites and integration work admist plans for Fusion is pretty tough. But it makes sense for Oracle to prioritize Siebel UCM integration if it is dropping all other CRM applications in its portfolio in favor of the Siebel CRM solution. The problem is, Oracle gets into this conundrum of continuously re-writing Data Hubs and picking and choosing data models to give to customers.
The reality is that 95% of customers end up re-working and re-shaping their data models anyway and need data objects they hadn't thought of. Customers require the proper tools to create a data model customized for their specific business process. What customers want is data model flexibility, not data model rigidity. I mean, isn't the SOA movement--which Oracle, SAP, IBM, and Microsoft can all agree will happen--all about business process flexibility? Dictating a data model to customers is not the best way to offer flexibility.
What should customers' approach be then? They need a true MDM SOA "service" -- one that allows you to create your own data model. That's truly applying the SOA principle.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Open Source Does Matter - But In What Segments?
"The exact shape of things to come is still hard to discern, but Carr predicted a commodity base of open-source software was likely to become available through large centralized suppliers.
Carr said the enterprise software stack of the future would have a mix of open source and commercial code, with the more specialized layers, such as industry-specific applications, remaining the province of private suppliers. But the operating system and middleware layers will move toward open source code because of its low cost and the inability of commercial suppliers to strongly differentiate themselves and add value at that level."
I agree with Mr. Carr in that some types of applications are well-suited for open sourcing while others are not. The large centralized suppliers like Oracle and SAP are already moving in this direction and considering what they need to do to have a smart, consistent open-source strategy. We've seen the multitude of completed and pending acquisitions from Oracle for embedded database -- namely Sleepycat, JBoss, and Zend. Certainly the open-source opportunity is there for that particular segment (i.e. a commodity embedded database segment) but will it be the case for industry-specific applications that thrive on detailed business process automation? SAP argues not:
"While open source software is known for bringing enterprise costs down, that alone may not be enough, according to SAP's Peter Graf. "What really matters is the business value you provide and how much you can provide IT value to the organizations," he said.
So business value DOES matter and open source software doesn't necessarily deliver on that. This gives SAP a sustainable advantage to maintain its current bread and butter. However, SAP would be wise to consider parts of the Netweaver stack for potential open-sourcing. One of these areas is Master Data Management (MDM). MDM has gotten a lot of flack for not being a universal, operational engine for managing all types of data and no single vendor, not Oracle, not SAP has been able to conquer this market and serve up what customers need.
Now, what if SAP were to open source its MDM code? It would be very interesting for SAP to explore the potential for open sourcing the raw technical implementation (e.g., the synchronization engine) and then capitalize on the proprietary data schema and related meta-data descriptions (i.e., sell repository and data schema implementation pre-integrated with R/3). This may be a bit too progressive but considering all of Oracle's recent moves, SAP would be smart to manage the open-source movement proactively and with a differentiated strategy - one that doesn't include buying anyone and everyone up.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Business Objects Picks Up Firstlogic
Today, Business Objects announced its $69 million acquisition of Firstlogic, the data quality vendor. This purchase was intended to round out Business Objects' Enterprise Information Management (EIM) strategy. The announcement comes on the heels of a failed attempt by Pitney Bowes to purchase Firstlogic for approximately $50 million. Had Firstlogic been swallowed by Pitney Bowes, the data quality tools it offers probably would not have survived. As part of Business Objects, it will be a key component of the company's EIM plans. EIM is yet another acronym associated with MDM. MDM application functionality should include data quality capabilities. However, not all vendors have great data quality tools on offer. This acquisition certainly gives Business Objects a leg up on the EIM/MDM space.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Oracle's "Pluggable" SOA Pitch - "Hot" or Not?
Now, Oracle claims the SOA suite is "hot-pluggable" meaning that it is interoperable with other vendors' middleware platforms. Is this a testament to Oracle's "openness"? Of course not, it's to sell as many pieces of 10gAS (or whatever you want to call it) as possible. Even the press saw right through the marketing.
When a journalist can decipher marketing spin (we're not even talking analysts here), then Oracle has no chance.