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February 7, 2000

Oracle's Talking: Should You Be Listening?
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Another strong point is Oracle's much-touted application architecture, which hosts applications on centralized servers and lets users access them via Web browsers. Oracle started converting its applications to a thin-client model in 1998, using Internet protocols for its technology underpinnings. That makes its architecture more open and easier to integrate with third-party applications, says Andrew Kass, director of technology at Living.com. The Austin, Texas, Internet furniture company is using a Web server from Art Technology Group Inc. but was able to integrate it with Oracle's ERP applications.

Oracle 11i, designed to let users around the world access the application with a Web browser, marks the last stage in the company's Internet evolution. "Because of 11i and the Internet applications, we'll be able to support all our users from a single place," says Ron Pollard, CIO of Specialized Bicycles Inc., a bicycle maker in San Jose, Calif. Web access also opens the application suite to more users.

Oracle's application success is all the more surprising given the distance the vendor has traveled to match its vision with its products. Just two years ago, the words Oracle and troubled seemed to move in tandem, particularly in regard to the vendor's application division, which was losing momentum and bleeding talent, with several high-profile defections. Then Ellison took charge of all application development activities.

In 1997, Oracle began its first real efforts to deliver front-office applications, with a handful of unimpressive tools and 25 developers. Two years, several acquisitions, 900 new developers, and a third of Oracle's near-billion-dollar research-and-development budget later, the front-office strategy has paid off better than anyone could have predicted. Oracle said in December that in its most recent quarter, sales of customer-relationship management software were up 248% from the year-ago quarter, putting the company on pace to be the No. 2 CRM vendor behind Siebel Systems Inc.

This month, Oracle will unveil Oracle CRM 3i release 2, which features new partner-relationship management functions to help companies distribute sales leads to partners. Oracle will also introduce Salesonline. com, a sales-force automation Web application that can help small sales groups quickly get up and running on the Internet.

Ray Lane Photo by Richard Morgenstein With Oracle 11i, the vendor's CRM and ERP products will merge into a single suite. Oracle's front-office software is also expected to be more mature in this release, with new functions such as order management and pricing management. "Oracle, in my opinion, is going to leapfrog the CRM industry," says Staff Leasing's Harris.

Other customers agree that Oracle 11i looks promising. When Nantucket Nectars Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., manufacturer of beverages and juices, started the search for applications last year, it looked at software from ERP and CRM vendors. Oracle won, says IS director Drew Farris, "because Oracle 11i is going to be as strong, if not stronger, than anything else."

Integrating the front office and back office, Farris says, makes the applications easier to deploy and manage because the company has to implement only one integrated package. More important, it links a company's marketing and sales efforts to financial information. "You can survive without having 100% visibility in your enterprise, but you're shooting yourself in the foot," Farris says. "You have to have your numbers tied front to back."

The integration will give Nantucket Nectars' salespeople a view into product inventory and delivery schedules, critical for dealing with the company's roughly 170 distributors. Those distributors are also selling drinks from competitors, and Nantucket Nectars has to build close relationships to get maximum distribution and product placement. The best way to do that is to give distributors accurate information about product availability, shipping dates, and consumer buying patterns.

Last summer, for instance, Nantucket Nectars had a delivery shortage and suffered because it couldn't tell distributors exactly when its product would ship. With Oracle, Farris hopes, not only will salespeople have that data, but each distributor will have a personalized Web page with inventory data as well as suggestions on product mixes that would work best for them.

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