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Editor's Note
Bigger and Better
It's hard to believe that only two years ago, Oracle was beginning its acquisition of PeopleSoft. Up to that point, Oracle's acquisition strategy had been fairly low-key. And now look at Oracle—proud to have completed the acquisitions of G-Log, Innobase, Oblix, PeopleSoft, ProfitLogic, Retek, and TimesTen—with the acquisition of Siebel Systems on the horizon and possibly complete by the time you read this. But there's more to it than just a mad flurry of activity. It's a fact in the industry right now that bigger truly is better. Major customers don't want to deal with dozens of vendors—they want one place to go with questions, suggestions, and complaints. They don't want to play "pass the customer," as one vendor blames another for a problem and that second vendor sends the customer on to a third or back to the first. Size does matter, and we're seeing that especially in the impact the Oracle name has on the fortunes of the companies we acquire—as soon as word gets out, sales opportunities at the acquired companies increase because they've become part of a larger ecosystem.
There's another way this trend is showing itself—with the growing interest in Oracle On Demand. Although large companies are using Oracle On Demand, this service provides a way for midsize companies to benefit from all the IT functionality that a major corporation can create and maintain. Our cover story focuses on a venerable manufacturing company with a decidedly modern take on IT strategy. Thermos CEO Alex Huang talks about the benefits of outsourcing his basic IT functions to the Oracle data center in Austin, Texas, and also about the ways outsourcing has allowed him to use his IT staff for more-valuable activities—ones that promise better ROI and strategic value than the routine performance of database tuning and systems administration tasks. And you can learn about future plans for Oracle On Demand in our in-depth interview with Oracle Executive Vice President Juergen Rottler on page 59. What's fascinating to me is the impact on-demand software is having on individuals within the enterprise, and how their roles are changing as tasks are offloaded. If you have a story to tell about real value-add projects you've been able to take on in your data center—whether or not you're using an outsourcing service—I'd love to hear about them for possible inclusion in our next issue.
Margaret Terry Lindquist
margaret.lindquist@oracle.com
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