ORACLE CHALLENGES THE HIGH PRICE OF
MICROSOFT WITH
NEW ORACLE COLLABORATION SUITE
Provides Relief for Microsoft Pain
Points with Oracle Unbreakable
Software Infrastructure, Ultra Search and Integrated Voice Access
Hong Kong, July 11, 2002 - (http://www.oracle.com/tellmemore/?1400772)
— Speaking to hundreds of financial analysts, Oracle’s Chairman and
CEO Lawrence J. Ellison debuted Oracle’s latest suite of software, Oracle
Collaboration Suite, which is built upon Oracle’s unbreakable software
infrastructure. Challenging the high price of Microsoft’s collaboration
software, Oracle? Collaboration Suite is designed to provide relief from
Microsoft technology pain points – security, reliability, integration,
universal search and access through any device. It also will offer innovations
designed to improve individual and group productivity, and for the first
time, information technology (IT) productivity.
Oracle Collaboration Suite will include complete collaboration
software — calendar, real-time conferencing capabilities, email, file
system support, voicemail and workflow – centralized and protected in
a database with universal access through Microsoft Outlook, any Web browser,
voice, wireless devices and fax. Oracle is introducing a number of innovations
to collaboration software, including integrated voice access and voicemail
as well as Ultra Search capabilities, which gives users the unprecedented
ability to search in one place for any document, email, voicemail or other
communication using dates, words or phrases. Oracle’s centralized database
approach to collaboration combined with these innovative technologies
is designed to produce dramatic increases in productivity and cost savings
across the enterprise.
“Oracle Collaboration Suite is designed to deliver
cost savings by reducing the number of email servers needed to run most
email,” said David Ferris, president of Ferris Research, a messaging
and collaboration analyst firm. “The integration between different types
of communication, especially email and voicemail, is an attractive vision
to enhance individual productivity.”
Beta customers such as Emerson also highlight the benefits
of Oracle Collaboration Suite: “After a preliminary review of the Oracle
Collaboration Suite, we are impressed with its ability to seamlessly integrate
with the Microsoft Outlook client,” said Greg Carmichael, vice president
and CIO, Emerson. “Oracle’s centralized database architecture is consistent
with how we plan to deliver applications to users in the future, and we
anticipate it will enable us to greatly reduce server and administration
costs. In addition, the suite’s wireless functionality, voice integration
and Web interface have the potential to add significant value to our organization.
We are looking forward to further evaluation of the offering.”
Oracle Sows Seeds in An Emerging Market
Industry analyst firms are predicting significant changes in the collaborative
applications market, opening up an opportunity for rapid evolution and
increasing competition. In a recent report on integrated collaborative
environments (ICEs), IDC’s Collaborative Computing research vice president
Mark Levitt noted that “ICEs will succeed to a limited degree in serving
as the source for contextual collaborative components in the face of steep
competition from operating systems, Web application servers and other
broader platforms that provide integration of not only collaborative functionality
but also other business functionality.”1
Oracle is seizing this opportunity to enter the collaboration
market with a more advanced and integrated collaboration platform at a
much lower price, backed by Oracle’s unbreakable software infrastructure.
Oracle has made a number of investments in developing complete and integrated
collaboration software, including four years of research and development
as well as the recent acquisition of Steltor, a privately-owned company
in Montreal, Canada that offers the market’s best open-system time management
communication software for supporting all of the calendaring features,
including the advanced capabilities, of Microsoft Outlook. Oracle Collaboration
Suite customers can keep the Microsoft Outlook user interface while taking
advantage of Oracle’s integrated suite and unbreakable software infrastructure.
The Oracle Collaboration Suite will include the clustering
and high availability technology from the Oracle9i Database with Real
Application Clusters and Oracle9i Application Server. Oracle Collaboration
Suite will offer embedded Oracle database technology to store files, messages
and user information, and embedded technology from Oracle’s application
server to provide a Web server, directory services, and single sign-on
capabilities.
“Oracle Collaboration Suite is addressing customer
demand for a more integrated communication environment,” said Dr. Sara
Radicati, president & CEO of the Radicati Group, Inc. a market research
and consulting firm based in Palo Alto and London, UK. “Today, Oracle
is pushing the envelope on messaging and collaboration by meeting that
demand while also offering scalability and low cost of ownership.”
Oracle: Complete Productivity at a Significantly
Lower Price than Microsoft
Oracle is challenging the high price of Microsoft “productivity" with
a complete collaboration offering at a fraction of the price of Microsoft.
To support 5,000 employees, the standard price for a collaboration system
from Microsoft would currently cost $1.28M (USD), whereas from Oracle
a comparable system would cost $450,0002.
The introductory price for a perpetual license of Oracle
Collaboration Suite is $60 per named user, including voice support and
regardless of the number of devices an individual uses to access information.
Microsoft’s licensing policy requires that all PCs/devices used by an
individual be licensed via an Enterprise Agreement Core Client Access
License at $85 annually for three years, which can drive up license costs
dramatically. Oracle will also offer Oracle Collaboration Suite as an
annual subscription service at $15 per named user and as an outsourced
service for an additional $10 per month per named user.
“Collaboration has become mission critical for companies,
but software hasn’t kept pace due to lack of competition in the market,”
said Charles Rozwat, executive vice president of Server Technologies at
Oracle. “With the introduction of Oracle Collaboration Suite, we’re
bringing a strong value proposition at a low price point: complete, integrated
and unbreakable collaboration.”
Availability
Oracle Collaboration Suite is scheduled to be available in this calendar
year.
Oracle Collaboration Suite Services
Several services offerings from Oracle are now available to assist customers
with the implementation of Oracle Collaboration Suite to rapidly achieve
the benefits of an efficient, consolidated collaboration and communication
platform. Oracle Collaboration Suite Services include assessment of current
files, email, calendar, voicemail, fax, search and wireless infrastructure;
definition of a new consolidated architecture for hardware, systems, network,
and storage; and migration and implementation to deploy a new communications
environment quickly and efficiently. Business advantages include timely
access to information, simplified use and management of communication
options, and reduced cost of ownership of communication assets. Oracle
Collaboration Suite Services are immediately available worldwide.
About Oracle’s Acquisition of Steltor
On June 21, 2002, Oracle closed on the acquisition of Steltor, a 14-year-old
privately-owned company in Montreal, Canada, which offers the best open-system
time management communication software available on the market. The terms
of the deal were not disclosed. Approximately 100 people on Steltor’s
staff have joined Oracle as a result of the acquisition, including a majority
of Steltor’s development team and support staff, who will continue to
provide full standard support to existing customers such as Adobe, BMW,
Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Kellogg, Saritel, Texas Instruments,
United Messaging, Verizon, and 63 of the top 100 universities in the United
States including Cornell, Georgetown, Stanford, and the University of
California.
About Oracle
Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information
about Oracle visit our Website at www.oracle.com
###
Trademarks
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
1 Source: IDC's "Worldwide Integrated Collaborative
Environments Forecast, 2002-2006: The Chances for a Second ICE Age" published
in February 2002.
2 For 5000 desktops, one PC per named user, a comparable system from Microsoft
– Microsoft Enterprise Core CAL (client access license), comprised of
MS Windows Server, MS Exchange Server, MS Management Server and MS Sharepoint
Portal Server – would cost $1.28M available only as a three-year license.
In contrast, Oracle will support the same number of named users under
a perpetual license with three years of update Subscription for $450,000.
Source: http://www.softwarespectrum.com and http://microsoft.com
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