Posts Tagged ‘Oracle’

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Monday’s Musings: Reflections On Obama And The False Hope For A Tech Halo

Published on February 21, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang

President Obama’s Visit Reflects The Importance Of Silicon Valley To The US Economy
By now everyone’s seen and re-seen the photo showing the tech-centric dinner at John Doerr’s house in Woodside, CA on February 17th, 2011 (see Figure 1).  With a guest list that included most of the “Captains of the Tech Industry” it would have been great to be a fly on the wall that night to hear what was the secret to innovation and how we could improve education.  On many levels, the dinner and the publicity surrounding the visit did emphasize:

  • The President’s desire to rub off the tech halo. For the White House, here was a chance to highlight an area of the economy that has managed to survive the global meltdown by out innovating the competition.  President Obama’s State of the Union talked about how a tech led job creation would be a key component of recovery.  The valley served as a great backdrop to show where this was already happening.
  • How lobbying does pay off for the Valley. For tech leaders in the valley, here was a chance to bend the President’s ear on a number of policies and reap the benefits of all the money spent lobbying.  In fact, among the 10 guests, MAPlight.org showed $735,000 given to the President’s party among the overall $913,000 contributed to all political candidates.  I would expect more official economic delegations and trade missions to come from the renewed focus on tech.  Many tech firms pondering the need for strong government affairs teams regained religion.
  • The state of Steve Jobs’ health. Good news!  Steve seemed healthy enough to dine with the President. After all the trash talk in the papers, a picture proved enough to quiet the critics.  Yes, that wasn’t a stunt double like Kim Jong Il!  In fact, the picture quelled all rumors.

Figure 1. President Obama’s Tech Centric Dinner Photo Op

Credits: White House Press Office.  Attendees include: Carol Bartz, President and CEO, Yahoo!; John Chambers, CEO and Chairman, Cisco Systems; Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter; John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Larry Ellison, Co-Founder and CEO, Oracle; Reed Hastings, CEO, NetFlix; John Hennessy, President, Stanford University; Steve Jobs, Chairman and CEO, Apple; Art Levinson, Chairman and former CEO, Genentech; Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google; Steve Westly, Managing Partner and Founder, The Westly Group; Mark Zuckerberg, Founder, President, and CEO, Facebook

Success In The Valley Stems From The Hard Work And Investment From…<GASP> Other Countries

One can only imagine the reasons punted around that night on why Silicon Valley is successful in delivering on concept to cash.  It’s true – the valley enjoys many of the assets that bring out innovation and helps the US lead with high tech jobs.  We have a top notch workforce.  We have several great universities.  We have a history of entrepreneurship.  We have access to funding and capital.  Many would think these elements were endemic to Silicon Valley.  Unfortunately, that’s not true.

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Press Release: Strategic HCM Expert Amy Wilson Joins Constellation Research, Inc.

Published on January 24, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang

Cupertino, CA – January 24, 2011
9:00 AM (GMT -8:00) Pacific Standard Time

Constellation Research Inc, an emerging and disruptive technologies research and advisory firm, announces the addition of Amy Wilson as a VP & Principal Analyst in the research team.   Amy will focus on emerging and disruptive business models and technologies in the human capital management (HCM) arena.

Wilson is a software industry visionary with over 15 years of experience focused on the intersection of people, business, and technology.  Most recently, Amy drove product strategy for Oracle’s next generation Strategic HCM Fusion applications.  At PeopleSoft, Amy served roles in development and product strategy from financials to HCM during the shift from PeopleSoft 8.0 to PeopleSoft 9.0.  End user client work at Arthur Andersen and PeopleSoft brings a pragmatic buy-side point of view to disruptive business models and technologies.

Active in the HR blogging community, Amy shares her insight and opinions on the industry-leading group blog TalentedApps she co-founded in 2007.  TalentedApps has been recognized as a Top 25 Talent Management Blog by Fistful of Talent, an Alltop Best of the Best blog, and has been frequently highlighted in online aggregators such as HR Tech Central, HR Carnival, and Leadership Development Carnival.  In addition, Amy has appeared in leading publications such as Human Resource Executive Online and Workforce Management. She now blogs under the moniker Shiny & Useful on her site wilsoninsight.com.

Amy’s an experienced keynote speaker, presenting at notable industry conferences including The Conference Board, TED, Human Capital Institute, and Bersin IMPACT.  Wilson has drawn large crowds at PeopleSoft Connect, Oracle OpenWorld, and the Oracle HR User Group.  Amy’s audiences appreciate her creative and enthusiastic style as well as her ability to provoke a new way of thinking.

Wilson will expand Constellation’s coverage to include:

  • Next gen HR leadership
  • Strategic HCM
  • Social recruiting
  • Talent management
  • Social collaboration
  • Project based solutions
  • Legacy optimization of HR systems

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Research Report: Constellation’s Research Outlook For 2011

Published on January 4, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang

Organizations Seek Measurable Results In Disruptive Tech, Next Gen Business, And Legacy Optimization Projects For 2011

Credits: Hugh MacLeod

Enterprise leaders seek pragmatic, creative, and disruptive solutions that achieve both profitability and market differentiation.  Cutting through the hype and buzz of the latest consumer tech innovations and disruptive technologies, Constellation Research expects business value to reemerge as the common operating principle that resonates among leading marketing, technology, operations, human resource, and finance executives.  As a result, Constellation expects organizations to face three main challenges: (see Figure 1.):

  • Navigating disruptive technologies. Innovative leaders must quickly assess which disruptive technologies show promise for their organizations.  The link back to business strategy will drive what to adopt, when to adopt, why to adopt, and how to adopt.  Expect leading organizations to reinvest in research budgets and internal processes that inform, disseminate, and prepare their organizations for an increasing pace in technology adoption.
  • Designing next generation business models. Disruptive technologies on their own will not provide the market leading advantages required for success. Leaders must identify where these technologies can create differentiation through new business models, grow new profit pools via new experiences, and deliver market efficiencies that save money and time.  Organizations will also have to learn how to fail fast, and move on to the next set of emerging ideas.
  • Funding innovation through legacy optimization. Leaders can expect budgets to remain from flat to incremental growth in 2011. As a result, much of the disruptive technology and next generation business models must be funded through optimizing existing investments. Leaders not only must reduce the cost of existing investments, but also, leverage existing infrastructure to achieve the greatest amount of business value.

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News Analysis: SAP’s TomorrowNow Debacle Ends With Jury Award Of $1.3B To Oracle

Published on November 23, 2010 by R "Ray" Wang

The recently announced jury award of $1.3B to Oracle marks the end of a tumultuous public trial on intellectual property (IP) theft.  Fellow Constellation Research Board of Adviser, Dennis Howlett provided commentary on the award stating,

“The jury were given the choice of making an award based upon a fair market value license or lost profits. If the jury had looked at lost profits then it is difficult to conceive how they could have awarded anything approaching this amount. Even looking at fair market value, one wonders how they managed to compute such a figure given the number of customers TomorrowNow actually secured and the value of those contracts”

Should the record breaking award be upheld, the decision will serve as a lesson carefully studied by every high tech company on how and how not to handle IP theft cases.  Oracle has made a significant win and SAP acknowledged guilt throughout the case.

The Bottom Line For Customers And Buyers Of Enterprise Software
Though many pundits have commented on the impact to SAP and the overall high tech market, a few key points should be clarified for customers:

  • Penalty award significant in size but not detrimental to SAP. The award will not materially impact SAP’s ability to conduct business or invest in future products.  Insurance, rainy day funds, and other sources of revenue should cover this amount.  Given SAP’s 30%+ profit margins and its ability to generate revenues of $12 to $15B a year, this is a small price to pay for a huge mistake in judgment.  Customers should not be concerned.  SAP can also appeal.
  • Verdict does not impact the third party maintenance market. This trial focused on IP theft.  This trial does not address the issue of whether or not third party maintenance is or is not a right for customers.  This trial does not provide the ground rules on how third party maintenance could be delivered by a solution provider.   The trial does put some frameworks on ownership of support and maintenance IP.  A separate lawsuit by Oracle with RiminiStreet will address this issue of third party maintenance rights.
  • HP escapes with minimal damage. With a settlement out of the way, HP and its new CEO, Léo Apotheker,  can carry on with future plans without the albatross of a lawsuit.  In many ways, Leo avoided the limelight with a little luck and deftness.

Your POV.

Will the lawsuit impact your purchasing plans w/ SAP?  Do you care that Oracle won?  Do you feel the jury made the right decision?  Please post or send on to rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org and we’ll keep your anonymity.

Related Resources And Links

20101123 ZDNet: Irregular Enterprise – Dennis Howlett “Jury Slams SAP With $1.3B In TomorrowNow Lawsuit”

20101123 Wall Street Journal – Cari Tuna “Jury Rules SAP Owes Oracle $1.3B”

20101123 SAP Global Communications – Bill Wohl ” SAP Statement on Jury Verdict in Oracle v. SAP”

Reprints

Reprints can be purchased through the Software Insider brand or Constellation Research, Inc.  To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact r@softwareinsider.org.

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us.  A full disclosure listing will be provided soon on the Constellation Research site.

Copyright © 2010 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.

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News Analysis: Oracle and IBM Partner On Java

Published on October 11, 2010 by R "Ray" Wang

Collaboration Puts Java In A Safe Place

On October 11th, 2010, both Oracle and IBM announced an alliance to collaborate on the future development of Java.  A quick assessment shows that:

  • Oracle and IBM intend to drive Java innovations. Oracle initiated a call to IBM to discuss collaboration efforts around Java.  As a result, Oracle and IBM intend to allow developers and customers to build and innovate based on Java investments and the OpenJDK reference implementation.  Both tech giants agreed to reiterate their commitment to the Java Community Process (JCP) as the official standards body.   The scope of the alliance includes the OpenJDK project, the open source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) specification, the Java Language, the Java Development Kit (JDK), and Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

    Point of View (POV):     As fierce competitors and close partners, the largest research and development investors in Java have agreed to jointly collaborate and develop Java SE.  Both Oracle’s “Red Stack” and IBM’s “Blue Stack”depend on Java for success.  The result – Java developers and customers gain stability and confidence that the future of Java remains secure.  Rivals can expect an Oracle IBM alliance to drive innovations in web apps, cloud standards, and mobile innovations.

The Bottom Line:  Java Now Back On Equal Competitive Footing With .NET

Oracle’s acquisition of Sun left many Java watchers uncertain about the future of Java.  In some ways, today’s olive branch announcement is akin to “Mideast Peace” and allows the Java ecosystem to thrive and compete head on with Microsoft’s .NET ecosystem.  With the Java and .NET wars moving into the cloud, mobile, and appliance market, today’s announcement shows common sense and logic remains paramount among even the fiercest of rivals.  In addition, the alliance takes IBM out of the Apache Harmony efforts with Google, which could result in either a Java fork for Android or Android on Open JDK.

Your POV.

Does this announcement surprise you?  Did you expect Oracle and IBM to collaborate?  Are you breathing a sigh of relief on the collaboration?  You can post or send on to rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org and we’ll keep your anonymity.

How can we assist?

Buyers, do you need help with your apps strategy and vendor management strategy?  Trying to figure out how to infuse innovation into your tech strategy? Ready to put the expertise of over 1000 software contract negotiations to work?  Give us a call!

Please let us know if you need help with your next gen apps strategy efforts.  Here’s how we can help:

  • Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
  • Evaluating SaaS/Cloud options
  • Assessing apps strategies (e.g. single instance, two-tier ERP, upgrade, custom dev, packaged deployments”
  • Designing innovation into end to end processes and systems
  • Comparing SaaS/Cloud integration strategies
  • Assisting with legacy ERP migration
  • Engaging in an SCRM strategy
  • Planning upgrades and migration
  • Performing vendor selection

Reprints

Reprints can be purchased through the Software Insider brand.  To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact r@softwareinsider.org.

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us.  Both IBM and Oracle are clients of Insider Associates, LLC. For the full disclosure policy please refer here.

Copyright © 2010 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.

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News Analysis: New HP Leadership Indicates Interest In Enterprise Software

Published on September 30, 2010 by R "Ray" Wang

Two Seasoned Software Veterans Join Hewlett-Packard

On September 30th, 2010, Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced two significant changes in its leadership structure.  Former SAP CEO Léo Apotheker was named as CEO; and Kleiner Perkins partner and former Oracle COO, Ray Lane was named as non-executive Chairman.  These two appointments signal a seriousness to shake things up for the better at HP because:

  • Cloud computing and consolidation forces hardware companies such as HP to seek higher margins. Most hardware vendors face single digit margins in their core business.  To bolster margins, many vendors acquired system integration and BPO firms.  For example, HP purchased EDS and Dell acquired Perot Systems.  The next logical step requires the hardware vendors to get into software (see Figure 1).  Software margins hover from 10% to 50% depending on the market.  Expect a hardware vendor such as Cisco, Dell, or HP to acquire a cloud based company such as Salesforce.com or Rackspace to move into the software business.  HP should go on the SaaS/Cloud offensive if they want to deliver rapid innovation to customers and break the cycle of dependence on packaged apps vendors such as Oracle and SAP.  HP can challenge Oracle through a complete cloud stack of SaaS, Paas, DaaS, and IaaS by investing in white spaces in the solution road map with verticals and other pivot points that have not been well served.  In addition, expect forms of SaaS BPO to emerge as clients seek best of breed SaaS and hybrid deployments.
  • Oracle’s acquisition of Sun follows the 1970′s IBM playbook and HP will compete with Oracle in the long run. Oracle’s going after the “golden age of computing”.  The impact — the tech industry reverts back to the beginning of a 40 year innovation cycle.  For example, mainframe time sharing manifests as SaaS/Cloud.  AS/400 and integrated computing evolves into appliances or cloud in a box.  Oracle’s strategy takes silicon to software and signals a need to deliver turnkey verticalized, integrated offerings.  Should HP continue to just serve in the commoditized infrastructure market, Oracle will beat HP in joint accounts for thought leadership and mind share.  Oracle’s going after the high end server market and the verticalized appliances market.  HP must have something to offer business leaders other than faster, better, cheaper boxes.  Software solutions are admission to the party.  HP could and should partner more closely with SAP in the short term to double up and battle Oracle.

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Event Report: Oracle Open World 2010 – The Wrap Up

Published on September 26, 2010 by R "Ray" Wang

Oracle Continues To Demonstrate Benefits From An Effective M&A Strategy

A quick poll of 61 attendees at Oracle Open World 2010, revealed that 57.4% (35/61) of Oracle customers were positive, 29.2% (19/61) were neutral, and 10.8% (7/61) were negative about Oracle’s application strategy to date.  A continued stream of product enhancements and releases may be one cause for the positive sentiment.  Delivery of Fusion Apps by Q1 2011 may also have lifted any previous negative sentiment from last year’s poll.  Additional feature and product release highlights from Oracle Open World 2010 include:

  • CRM On Demand Release 18 gains integrated sales and marketing. The latest release focuses on features that bridge marketing processes to sales. For example, key data integration tools for customer data improve the quality of common profiles for both customers and prospects. Campaign automation tools allow marketers to launch 1:1 marketing and lights-out campaigns across multi-channel and multi-stage campaigns using visual business process flows (see Figure 1). Analytics take advantage of the Hyperion multi-dimensional warehouse to integrate business intelligence between sales and marketing. Response management capabilities create personalized landing pages, web forms, and microsites.   Meanwhile, Partner Relationship Management (PRM) enhancements include improved deal registration and capabilities to capture partner enablement. The improved Insurance Edition adds a Producer Success Model and expands the broker demographic profiles. Adaptive planning streamlines business planning and delivers trend analysis across multiple time periods for simulation and comparison.

    POV:     The new release plugs a significant hole in covering prospecting to lead management to closed revenue business processes. However, buyers comparing best of breed marketing automation solutions such as Eloqua, Market2Lead, Marketo, Silvepop/Vtrenz, and Unica will find that major functionality gaps still exists. Despite the gap, those customers seeking an On Demand integrated sales and marketing suite will find that Release 18 sets the stage for a level of integration often lacking in best of breed suites and Salesforce.com.  Business benefits include a unified revenue pipeline that will improve close rates and reduces sales and marketing costs. More importantly, those customers on Release 18 gain an easier migration path to the Fusion CRM applications arriving in January 2011. Customers seeking Social CRM features will have to wait for future releases or go to competitor products.

  • JD Edwards Enterprise One customers gain key adapter to Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics. With Oracle BI Applications Release 7.9.6.2, Enterprise One customers can integrate to Oracle’s Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics.  Key features include the ability to assess inventory levels, predict backlogs, identify potential product fulfillment needs, improve accounts receivable (A/R) and daily sales outstanding (DSO) issues.

    POV:     Improved insight into order and inventory data will allow organizations to improve inventory management, order fulfillment, and reduce collection times.  This new adapter continues Oracle’s strategy to embed Oracle Business Intelligence Apps into the core JD Edwards product.  Financial analytics have already been delivered.  Buyers can expect Manufacturing Analytics, Procurement and Spend Analytics, and Projects Analytics to arrive in future releases.  In general, customers will find the analytical capabilities a significant improvement over existing JD Edwards offerings.
  • Apps Unlimited announcements show continued investment in R&D. PeopleSoft customers gain a visual company directory through PeopleSoft Enterprise Company Directory 9.1 and an upgraded PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.51 with a new PeopleSoft Test Framework that provides contextual menus and menu inclusion of user search results.  Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8 release delivers full web enablement, OBIEE integration, and a new governance platform.  Oracle BI Applications Release 7.9.6.2 adds full localization and translation to 28 supported languages, integration with Informatica PowerCenter 8.6.1 HF11 for ET and support for IBM DB2 9.1, 9.5 and 9.7; Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008; and Teradata v12 and 13.

    POV:     Despite the big shift in R&D resources towards the Fusion Apps teams, Oracle keeps up its promise to deliver customer requested features.  Larry’s strategy appears to provide a greater synergy and return on R&D investments when compared to other competitors.  However, customers must continue to hold Oracle accountable to investments in the short-term and long-term Apps Unlimited product road maps.  In fact, objective analysis on Oracle’s R&D investments by many influencers including Martijn Linssen show Oracle with the least relative investment in R&D when compared to competitors such as IBM and SAP.  Oracle could be the most efficient, but over the long haul, Oracle will have to invest more or explain why the organization is more efficient.  At the end of the day, customers want to know how much of their maintenance dollars go back to their product.

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