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Oracle SVP Tony Kender Explains Why Analysts Are Abuzz over Oracle Accelerate
Just back from an analyst tour, Tony Kender, senior vice president of Oracle's Global Oracle for Midsize Companies Unit, explains why the recently launched Oracle Accelerate program is generating positive reviews from analysts and customers alike.
Oracle Accelerate, launched in October at Oracle OpenWorld, brings together four main elements: Oracle's applications; its extensive partner ecosystem; Oracle Business Accelerators, which are industry-specific, rapid-implementation tools and methodologies; and a new, more competitive pricing structure.
As a result, says Kender, midsize companies can "have their cake and eat it too"—that is, gain the same benefits from Oracle enterprise applications as their larger competitors do, while enjoying low implementation and acquisition costs.
Q. What special resources and experience does Oracle bring to the table as it launches Oracle Accelerate?
Tony Kender. Oracle has more than 190,000 SMB customers, including both businesses and government organizations. We also have 19,000 SMB business applications customers, who represent more than two-thirds of our applications customer base. In short, we—together with our partners—have unparalleled know-how and experience working specifically with this market.
Q. How does Oracle Accelerate differ from competitor SMB offerings?
TK. Very often midsize companies are forced to buy watered-down versions of business applications because they can't afford the same offerings as their larger competitors. The problem is, midsize companies face exactly the same business challenges and require exactly the same level of sophistication—they just can't devote the same level of resources.
Oracle Accelerate addresses this challenge. We offer the very best of all our software—and that includes Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle's Siebel, Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise, Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, and Oracle's JD Edwards World. But we've made these products easier to acquire with new, more competitive pricing. And we've also make them easier to implement and maintain thanks to Oracle Business Accelerators—more than 1,000 preconfigured, industry-specific solutions—as well as carefully cultivated relationships with industry-leading implementation partners.
Q. Midsize companies often quickly outgrow watered-down, less-sophisticated SMB-specific software. How does Oracle Accelerate address this problem?
TK. Midsize companies often find they have to rip out watered-down solutions and begin all over again as they grow and face new business realities. The cost and disruption to their business is huge. But with Oracle Accelerate, midsize companies are already using the same applications as Oracle's larger customers. That means as their business grows, the software can grow with them. Maybe they need to expand, enhance, or upgrade, but they don't have to start over from scratch—avoiding the tremendous costs that entails.
Q. Explain the role of partners in Oracle Accelerate.
TK. The partners are the most important component of Oracle Accelerate. They take their experience, expertise, and intellectual property and add it to Oracle Business Accelerators, delivering preconfigured, industry-specific solutions, often at a fixed price.
For example, we may have a partner who is an expert in high-tech manufacturing and is reselling Oracle E-Business Suite. The partner combines its intellectual property and know-how with Oracle Business Accelerators and Oracle Applications. The result is a preconfigured, industry-specific solution that can be implemented in a matter of weeks rather than months.
One of our implementation partners told me recently that by using Oracle Business Accelerators, they literally had a system ready for transaction processing in less than a week—something that typically takes months. The benefit to our customers is using the best software in the world, with the industry solution they need, all with rapid implementation at a low cost.
And we have a truly remarkable partner ecosystem, representing 70 different industry verticals, every region of the world, and all of our product lines—Oracle, JD Edwards, Siebel, and PeopleSoft.
Q. What are you hearing from analysts about Oracle Accelerate?
TK.We just did an analyst tour, and Oracle Accelerate was received very favorably. In fact, the thing we heard most was, "You've got a great solution here and a large SMB customer base. You just need to get the word out."
They also told us that our Oracle Business Accelerators are a big differentiator for us, because none of our competitors are doing this. And they singled out our partner ecosystem, which is the key to making this happen.
NOTE:
Read analyst reports about Oracle Accelerate by
IDC and
AMR Research.
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