Oracle Changes Strategy, Embraces App Integration

Computerworld - SAN DIEGO -- Oracle Corp. last week detailed changes it's making to regain the No. 2 spot in the business applications market, including a newfound enthusiasm for helping IT managers tie its software to other systems.
The integration push is a shift in strategy for Oracle, which fell behind PeopleSoft Inc. in the business applications sales race when PeopleSoft bought J.D. Edwards & Co. last summer. Until now, Oracle officials had lobbied hard to convince users they should install monolithic systems combining the company's database, applications and application server software.
But at the vendor's AppsWorld conference here, Oracle previewed a planned upgrade of its E-Business Suite 11i applications that will include enhancements designed to simplify integration with homegrown and third-party software. It also released a set of tools that can be used to pull customer data from 11i and other systems into a single repository.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison downplayed the idea that his company is shifting its stance on integration to recover market share, claiming that it's about even on sales with PeopleSoft. "We're not giving up on what we were saying before," he said during a press briefing. "[But] not everyone in the world wanted to go that way. We've got our fair share of wins. Now we live in a heterogeneous world."
Basheer Khan, a member of the independent Oracle Applications Users Group and senior director of the Oracle practice at consulting firm Vertex Systems Inc., said the integration hooks that Oracle is adding to its applications represent a big step forward.
"In the past, they've been going after customers to sell them the whole E-Business Suite, but they've realized some customers have invested a lot of money in other technology," Khan said. Los Angeles-based Vertex itself plans to install Oracle's financial applications later this year to replace homegrown software.
Making integration easier by providing built-in hooks to other applications offers obvious benefits to users, said John Graff, vice president of marketing at National Instruments Corp. in Austin. "Looking at it at the outset, it seems to make sense for Oracle to do this," Graff said. National Instruments runs the marketing and telesales modules in 11i, plus other Oracle applications.
Oracle, which is still trying to buy PeopleSoft via a hostile takeover bid, has seen the integration light relatively late compared with some of its top business application rivals. Market leader SAP AG has vigorously promoted its NetWeaver middleware technology for the past two years, and PeopleSoft last May announced a plan to build connectors into its