What is Applications Unlimited: A Q+A with John Wookey
by Aaron Lazenby, June 2007
As senior vice president of Applications Development at Oracle, John Wookey oversees the strategic direction and development of Oracle business applications and those of its JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel business applications and the next-generation Oracle Fusion applications. We asked Wookey about Oracle's Applications Unlimited strategy; how it works alongside Oracle's plan to introduce Oracle Fusion applications; and how it benefits customers that are interested in continuing to have their existing JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Siebel, or Oracle E-Business Suite systems supported and enhanced.
PROFIT Online: What is Applications Unlimited?
Wookey: At its core, Applications Unlimited is Oracle's commitment to the ongoing investments we're making in all the current product lines. Very simply, we will continue to enhance the product lines we have in the marketplace today. No forced migrations, no desupport deadlines. This is an unprecedented commitment—one that means that customers can make their decision about when to make the move to the next-generation applications platform based on what makes sense for their business.
PROFIT Online: How does the January 2007 launch of new applications product releases affect Oracle's customers?
Wookey: We announced major new versions of every Oracle Applications product line at that time. It was an impressive feat that showed that Oracle is serious about delivering on the promise we made when we acquired PeopleSoft—that we would continue to support and advance the products we gained through acquisitions.
All existing customers should be reassured by this announcement. These new versions show major progress, major new functionality. They aren't just baby releases or bug fixes. They are major enhancements in the business functions and capabilities that have made these products the market-leading solutions they are today.
PROFIT Online: How does Applications Unlimited fit into Oracle's long-term strategy?
Wookey: We're completely committed to bringing a great next-generation application suite into the marketplace, and we think customers will be very excited about that. But customers also have to determine when it's appropriate for them to make the shift from the applications they are running today to next-generation applications. They'll have to build a business case, which will be based on different factors for different customers, depending on their competitive pressures.
Meanwhile, they need to see continuing progress in the applications on which they're running their businesses right now. Applications Unlimited is not just about giving them great support but also about continuing to enhance the products to make them more beneficial to our customers.
PROFIT Online: How does Applications Unlimited prepare companies for Oracle Fusion applications?
Wookey: Part of Oracle's strategy is to bring Oracle Fusion technology into the current generation of applications—XML-based reporting and the Siebel business analytics framework, for example. We're bringing the foundational pieces of Oracle Fusion applications into existing applications where it makes sense to do so.
So even while customers continue to run their PeopleSoft or Siebel system or Oracle E-Business Suite, they will start being able to adopt some of those next-generation technologies well before changing their underlying systems. This incremental adoption of Oracle Fusion technologies will make the upgrade to Oracle Fusion evolutionary.
PROFIT Online: How exactly does this work?
Wookey: You typically think about an application in terms of "I'm entering information on a screen," but an application system is actually much more than that: It's reporting systems. It's analytics. It's an integration platform. It's systems management tools. Those are all key parts of an application ecosystem. We are delivering next-generation versions of that kind of functionality into the current product lines so customers can begin to familiarize themselves with Oracle Fusion technology. This allows them to start their path to Oracle Fusion without disrupting their core transactional systems. As they do this, their IT department gains the skills it needs for doing broader deployments and users start to see the benefits of Oracle Fusion: embedded analytics with Oracle Fusion Intelligence, adaptable business processes with Oracle Application Integration Architecture, and a superior ownership experience with Oracle Enterprise Manager.
We see Oracle Fusion not only as the next generation of enterprise applications but also as the next generation of the software industry. This shift enables us to adopt new models of business that we think will help us better serve our customers. Our dual strategy—continuing to invest in the existing offerings while delivering a next-generation suite—is unique to Oracle. We are the only vendor empowering our customers with the control to adopt technology at a pace that makes sense for their business.
