racle is aiming to make it easier for medium-sized companies to roll out its client-server applications software quickly and at a predictable cost. The software developer this week will announce a program designed to get as many as 100 users up and running on its financial or manufacturing applications within three to eight months.
The program, called FastForward, is aimed at companies with annual revenue of $50 million to $500 million, where deployment of enterprise applications is less complex than at larger companies, says Edward Sanderson, senior VP of Oracle Consulting Services. The offering is part of Oracle's effort to sell more products to small and midsize companies by cooperating with systems integrators and other distribution partners.
Oracle isn't the first vendor to make such a move. Enterprise application leader SAP launched its own quick-start program called AcceleratedSAP (ASAP) last year to help midsize companies deploy its R/3 suite quickly.
Oracle's FastForward combines version 10.7 of Oracle Applications with Oracle's database, consulting, training, and a year of support. Prices for FastForward Financials range from $450,000 for 20 concurrent users to $850,000 for 60 concurrent users; FastForward ERP is priced at $950,000 to $1.3 million for the same numbers of users.
Locus Of Interest
Judy Hodges, an analyst with market researcher International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass., expects midsize companies to show interest. "Midmarket companies seek to implement the same types of client-server enterprise applications [as larger companies]," she says. "Low-cost, rapid implementation is man- datory for the midmarket."
Daw Technologies, a Salt Lake City provider of "clean rooms" to semiconductor companies, is an early customer of FastForward. "In five months we implemented all of the applications," says Nate Jensen, Daw's director of IS.
Another analyst, however, believes Oracle's prices are too high for this market segmen
t. "They're at least 50% higher than the market will bear," says the analyst. "It's unlikely that Oracle will have big success with this."
SAP's ASAP program combines a five-step methodology, software tools, service, and support. The vendor aims to complete installations in roughly six months, but it does not yet offer fixed prices. That's something the company is considering, says Jeremy Coote, president of SAP America. Meanwhile, the company is moving toward a "risk-reward relationship" with customers that provides incentives to SAP for meeting deployment deadlines-and penalties when it doesn't.
Such moves are helping SAP become a strong presence in midsize customer accounts. In 1995, 90% of its applications business came from large global companies and 10% from the midmarket. This year, the company expects to generate 50% of its revenue from the midmarket.
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racle is aiming to make it easier for medium-sized companies to roll out its client-server applications software quickly and at a predictable cost. The software developer this week will announce a program designed to get as many as 100 users up and running on its financial or manufacturing applications within three to eight months.
