Friday, September 29, 2006

Dateline Berlin: On the Road With Agile Software (AMR)

This week’s travels took us to Germany, specifically Berlin, Walldorf, and Munich. We started at AGILITY Berlin 2006, Agile Software’s annual European customer conference, then flew to Mannheim to meet with SAP executives, and ended in Munich for a PLM conference hosted by Siemens Business Services. It was strictly a coincidence that the Siemens event occurred during Oktoberfest.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Making sense of Oracle's acquisition spree (SearchOracle.com)

Oracle has been on an acquisition tear in recent years, picking up more than 20 companies and upping its ownership stake in several others. In the midst of this buying spree -- which included the purchase of customer relationship management (CRM) giant Siebel Systems, a bloody battle for CRM mainstay PeopleSoft, and the purchases of a host of smaller applications companies that opened Oracle up to new industry verticals -- Oracle announced Project Fusion, a bold plan to enable all the spoils of its acquisitions to run seamlessly on the Oracle Fusion Middleware platform.

QAD Aims to Strengthen Its Position in the ERP Midmarket

QAD's purchase of Precision Software demonstrates its goal to strengthen its position in the global enterprise-resource-planning midmarket by offering more functionality in support of some global supply chain processes.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Oracle’s resurgence boosts shares (FT)

Oracle’s shares soared more than 11 per cent in early trading in New York on Wednesday after the US business software company continued to show a resurgence of growth in its core database business and a recovery in applications software.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

SAP dämpft Oracles Euphorie (FTD)

Der US-Softwarekonzern Oracle hat Gewinn und Umsatz im ersten Geschäftsquartal deutlich gesteigert. Der schärfste Konkurrent SAP sieht trotzdem seine Marktführerschaft nicht in Gefahr.

"SAP hat gezeigt, dass seine Wachstumsstrategie aufgeht", teilte der Walldorfer Konzern mit. "Wir sehen keine Veränderung in der Wettbewerbslandschaft." SAP habe in den vergangenen zehn Quartalen vorrangig aus eigener Kraft jeweils Zuwächse beim Software-Lizenz-Verkauf um zweistellige Prozentsätze realisiert und keine kostspieligen Übernahmen getätigt.

Der Branchenprimus reagierte damit auf die unerwartet guten Geschäftsergebnisse des US-Konzerns Oracle, der sich in den vergangenen Jahren mit milliardenschweren Übernahmen zu einem ernsthaften Konkurrenten von SAP aufgeschwungen hat.

Das Unternehmen gab am Dienstag nach US-Börsenschluss einen Nettogewinn von 670 Mio. $ oder 13 Cent pro Aktie bekannt. Das entspricht einem Anstieg von 29 Prozent zum Vorjahr. Der Umsatz kletterte ebenfalls um fast 30 Prozent auf 3,59 Mrd. $. Vor Sonderposten wies das in Redwood Shores in Kalifornien ansässige Unternehmen einen Gewinn je Aktie von 18 Cent aus. Von Reuters befragte Analysten hatten hier im Schnitt mit 16 Cent gerechnet. Oracle-Aktien sprangen nachbörslich um fast 13 Prozent nach oben auf 18,20 $.

Oracle wirbt für Einkaufsstrategie

Oracle-Chef Larry Ellison sagte, durch die gut 20 Mrd. $ schweren Zukäufe habe sein Unternehmen SAP in einigen Branchen überholt. Oracle erwarb unter anderem Peoplesoft, Siebel und JD Edwards und wächst nun kräftig. Der Großteil der Oracle-Erlöse stammt jedoch weiterhin aus dem angestammten Datenbank-Geschäft. Auf den Verkauf neuer Software-Lizenzen für Geschäftsprozesse - die Domäne von SAP - entfielen im jüngsten Quartal 228 Mio. $. Dies entspricht einem Zuwachs von 80 Prozent zum Vorjahresquartal.

SAP hat in den vergangenen Monaten immer wieder seine überlegene Marktstellung unterstrichen. Allein für die Monate April bis Juni reklamierte SAP für sich, 70 Kunden von Oracle gewonnen zu haben. Kundenabwanderungen zu Oracle habe es dagegen nicht gegeben. Der Marktanteil von SAP am rund 16 Mrd. $ schweren Geschäft mit Unternehmenssoftware sei daher bis Ende Juni um 0,3 Prozentpunkte auf weltweit 21,7 Prozent gewachsen.

Oracle habe mit einem Plus von 1,2 Prozentpunkten zwar mehr Marktanteile gewonnen, verkaufe jedoch nur knapp halb so viel Software wie SAP, teilte SAP mit. SAP-Aktien legten in einem freundlichen Markttrend um 1,4 Prozent auf 153,31 Euro zu.

Oracle/SAP (FT)

Don King, the uniquely coiffured boxing promoter, may want to consider turning his skills to an area he has previously overlooked: enterprise software. An industry more famed for its jargon is letting rip with the rhetoric. Oracle’s latest quarterly results announcement came with a pointed attack on arch-rival SAP’s performance and strategy. Shai Agassi, SAP’s president of products and technology, was quoted in Forbes recently comparing software acquisitions, Oracle’s strategic hallmark in recent years, to tying a dying horse to another dead horse to “see if it’ll go anywhere”.

Oracle Posts Its Best First Quarter in Years (AMR)

Oracle posted outstanding results for its first fiscal quarter, which ended August 31, 2006. All software segments of Oracle’s business, including database, middleware, and applications, reported very strong growth. The total revenue for the quarter increased 30% to $3.6B, and net income and software revenue each grew 29% over the prior year.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Top 10 Free Enterprise Apps (Line56)

Here are links to the most downloaded free enterprise applications on Sourceforge

Friday, September 15, 2006

Procurement and Sourcing Technology Celebrates a Decade of Growth (AMR)

In the decade since Ariba first launched, procurement and sourcing technologies have matured from point products offering business process enhancements to suites of integrated supply management functionality. And Ariba was the early mover and market leader in this procurement and sourcing market. Here we look at the market evolution, the current state, and the future direction of the supply management market.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

New mySAP Plans Enhance SAP Strategy but May Add Complexity (Gartner)

SAP will stabilize mySAP ERP at the 2005 version and limit changes to smaller releases. This helps validate SAP's service-oriented-architecture plans, but may increase users' need to govern their environments diligently.

SAP Fleshes Out Its GRC Position (AMR)

When SAP acquired its partner Virsa Systems in 2Q06, we knew it was more than just a tactical purchase (see, “SAP Snaps Up Virsa Systems To Enhance Compliance Story”). Starting at SAPPHIRE 2006 in Orlando, the company made introductory rumblings about its plans for Virsa and the role it would play in a broader story of governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) for enterprises of all sizes in all industries in all geographies.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Cisco Partnership Shows SAP's GRC Plans Are Still Evolving (Gartner)

SAP will offer more governance, risk and compliance solutions and will partner with Cisco to manage IT infrastructure risks. The SAP-Cisco offering is conceptually innovative, but it won't add any new capabilities to the market.

Monday, September 11, 2006

SAP targets business process experts (InfoWorld)

Emerging worker category act as bridge between IT and business sides of organizations

SAP AG is taking its Business Process Expert (BPX) Community initiative mainstream after several months of more limited operations with the aim of creating an online forum for business analysts and consultants to exchange information and access software from SAP and some third parties.

SAP's New Expert Blog (InternetNews)_

SAP (Quote, Chart) is launching a community site that it hopes will extend its footprint in the enterprise.

The new business-process expert community is geared to relatively non-technical users and reflects the growing importance of business process management and business process optimization within enterprises.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Enterprise DRM: Have Your IP and Collaborate on It, Too (AMR)

You’ve got to collaborate more effectively to foster innovation for your business. You’ve got to create an environment that makes it easy for you and partners to freely share ideas. But you’ve got to protect your IP, and the pressure is higher with easier access to information for competitors and recent events that indicate you have little recourse once it’s exposed. It’s time to inject enterprise digital rights management (EDRM) into your security and content management strategies.