Oracle Expands Sales to SMBs

Oracle has reported that its VAD Remarketer program and 1-Click Ordering system, launched together last July, have resulted in about 1,000 orders from small and midsize businesses, with an average order value of $5,000.Judson Althoff, vice president of global platform and distribution sales and head of Oracle's technology channel program office, said "That's exactly what we were targeting." The programs have also brought in 26 distributors and more than 250 new resellers.

Oracle started the programs as a way to compete against Microsoft in the SMB market by making it easier for solution providers to fill small orders for Oracle software. Before the programs, solution providers had to join the Oracle PartnerNetwork, at an annual fee of $1,995, and deal with lots of paperwork. The VAD Remarketer program enables resellers to buy Oracle software from distributors without first establishing a contract with Oracle--"It's designed to be a zero-barrier-to-entry solution for new resellers," said Judson Althoff, head of the Oracle SMB Technology Program Office, at the time of the program's launch last July. The 1-Click-Ordering system, in turn, allows distributors and resellers to easily buy small volumes of Oracle software.ChannelWeb