SMB IT | Curtis Franklin » A Conversation with Oracle on SMB

May 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)

A Conversation with Oracle on SMB

TAGS: SMB Applications

So if it's one company I simply never associated with the SMB space, it's Oracle. Might have something to do with having to sit through several Oracle purchasing meetings and always starting off somewhere in seven figures. Well, Oracle has changed and to help me change with it, the company put me on the phone with Lenley Hensarling (vice president, application product strategy group) and Willie Hardie (senior director of database product marketing). And we talked SMB.

SMB IT: Why is your SMB marketing message so quiet?
Oracle Guys: We need to work on the strength of our marketing message. We'll own that. But the fact is that Oracle has been focusing tightly on the SMB market not just with product announcements but with new initiatives with our partner channel, too. And we're not taking our foot off the gas here anytime soon.

SMB IT: How do you define SMB?
OG: We generally think of them as $500 million or less.

SMB IT: $500 million in annual revenue?...!
OG: Yes.

SMB IT: Okay. [swallows a shot of Cuervo] So what's your SMB roadmap?
OG: We put out Oracle 10g back in January of 2004. A few months later we announced a co-marketing deal with Dell [ed: a big SMB channel partner] and also put out the new Oracle Application Server 10g vesion 1 to give the product line a standard set of middleware. That takes us into 2005. Then, a few months ago, we introduced a low-cost bundle of the database and app server that sells for a base cost of $238. Certainly of interest to SMBs. And this summer, we're putting out a business intelligence product suite, which will have a specific SMB version available at the same time.

SMB IT: Well that's SMB. So what are the specs on this lowcost version of 10g?
OG: For one thing, the $238 is for the bundle. If you just want the 10g database you can get it for as little as $149. That's for a fully functional version limited to two CPUs. But we've not only kept the full product functionality, we've added significant ease of installation. Instead of needing an expert to install your database, you now just have to answer a couple of parameter questions and then click "Start". 10g will install itself.

And if the $149 two-CPU version is still too expensive, we also came out with 10g Express Edition earlier this year. This is a fully-functioning single-CPU version that's completely free. It's not really aimed at businesses, however, more at developers and education.

SMB IT: Sounds like you really have done some product-side work on attracting SMB customers.
OG: Yeah, and you can tell. According to our numbers, fully 60% of standard edition 10g customers are new customers.

SMB IT: Okay. But I still have a gut reaction that always equates you guys with enterprise. Especially, your associated applications.
OG: Well that's a three-to-four yeear old market perception, and we need to work on changing it. But I think we definitely already have on the technology side. We think it's actually significantly easier to install and run ERP applications on our platform than on Microsoft's. With them you need BizTalk, AD, SharePoint, IIS, Identity Server and more. With us, you just need the database, the app server, a compatible Web server and that's it. We do ID management through LDAP and a BPAL solution to talk to third-party applications.

We've even added an eBusiness Suite for installing the ERP products, which is spcifically aimed at smaller customers with less in-house IT expertise. The new Suite uses accelerator technology for deployment--JD Edwards uses a similar thing. Deployment is based on answering a series of business questions and then runs mostly automated. We've had customers go live with this Suite in around 90 days start to finish.

SMB IT: Well, it sounds like you've done real work on the SMB technology goods, but you need to work on the marketing message.
OG: And we're doing that. You'll see a highly targeted ad campaign beginning in the next couple of months. We're aiming it at companies below $100 million in revenue, so right in the SMB area.

SMB IT: [Thinking while drinking] Wish my SMB did $100 million.

Posted by Oliver Rist on May 24, 2006 10:03 AM

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