After the notoriously buggy technology shift of Oracles 2000 move from client/server to Web-based applications with its E-Business Suite 11i, the company isnt taking any chances with its next big development undertaking.
Oracle, in Redwood Shores, Calif., has implemented a zero-defect policy for Fusion Applications, its next-generation suite of ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications, expected in 2008.
“We dont think any bugs are acceptable,” said John Wookey, the senior vice president at Oracle in charge of application development. Fusion came about as the result of a confluence of events: Oracles need to merge the “best of” functionality from the PeopleSoft and JD Edwards suites (and later Siebel Systems) after an intense 18-month battle to acquire PeopleSoft, which was itself in the process of digesting its JD Edwards acquisition; and the emergence of SOA (service-oriented architecture) as the next big technology trend.
After wrangling PeopleSoft from the hands of company executives, Oracle began planning Project Fusion, which will not only include functionality from Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Siebel and other acquisitions but is also built on SOA concepts with foundations in Oracles Fusion Middleware platform.
Wookey took to the road in the dwindling days of August to talk to press and analysts about the IT sectors move to SOA and what that means for Oracle and its customers.
For vendors, the difficulty is in finding the right time to move investments from one technology generation to the next. Timing is everything, and a vendor can hit the marketplace either too early or too late with new technology. A slip one way or the other and vendors find themselves at a disadvantage, according to Wookey.
On the flip side, users also are looking for the right time to invest in new technology that will help the bottom line rather than hinder it, but they rarely have the opportunity to wait for a good time to move. “We get constant feedback that customers feel like they were never given any choice [about whether] they wanted new functionality,” Wookey said. “They had to move whether they were prepared or not.”
Oracle is out to set the record straight: How and when customers move to Fusion is up to them, Wookey said. “I dont think we emphasized that concept of choice,” he said.
At the start of Oracles bid to acquire PeopleSoft back in 2003, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison gave the impression that “choice” for PeopleSoft and JD Edwards users was not part of the equation, saying that once Oracle acquired its rival it would kill the software, forcing customers to migrate to Oracles E-Business Suite.
It seemed a huge customer defection was imminent. There was some talk of customer lawsuits in the event of forced upgrades. As well, Oracles biggest competitor, SAP, started its Safe Passage program to help customers transition from PeopleSoft and JD Edwards to SAP. It has since gained more than 300 converts, according to SAP.
Yet, despite the hostile takeover of PeopleSoft, Oracle has gone a long way toward easing customer concerns. The company several months ago launched its Apps Unlimited campaign, which promises individual product line enhancements for PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel applications, even after Fusion Applications arrives on the scene.
Oracle also introduced its Lifetime Support Policy, which provides access to technical experts for as long as a customer licenses Oracle products acquired from other vendors. (Oracle has acquired a total of 23 applications, middleware and database-specific companies over the past two years.)
Oracle is being more specific in terms of support and development plans: In January 2006, at a Halfway to Fusion event, the company revealed that Fusion Applications will be based on the Oracle E-Business data model.
But questions remain: What functionality will be included in the Fusion Applications suite—and from where? Will the suite be optimized for Oracles database only, causing many PeopleSoft and JD Edwards customers sitting on IBMs DB2 to migrate? And, perhaps more importantly, are PeopleSoft and JDE users looking at a migration or an upgrade when it comes to Fusion?
Time will tell.