In a surprise move Oracle Corp. Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison today announced a price reduction for the companys Oracle 11i E-Business Suite.
“Effective immediately, pricing is US$4,000 per power user and US$400 per casual user,” read a statement released by the Redwood Shores, Calif., developer.
Currently in the midst of its AppsWorld conference in Amsterdam, Oracle yesterday unveiled Version 11.5.6 of its E-Business suite. No mention of a price reduction was made then.
The timing of todays announcement was odd because Ellison provided little more price breakdown than power user and casual user; it was difficult to determine how much of a price break customers will really receive.
An example of the E-Business Suites pricing can be found at the Oracle Store online. The Oracle 11i Manufacturing module, which includes six separate applications, is listed at $15,970 per user, while the Human Resources module rings up seven applications at $275 users. The entire E-Business Suite has 15 modules.
Some analysts suggest lowering the price of its software is symptomatic of Oracles underlying challenge of making its software more competitive.
Oracle was under fire last year for releasing 11i with a lot of bugs.
Oracle competes heavily with software giant SAP AG and PeopleSoft Inc. in the enterprise resource planning software market and with Siebel Systems Inc. in the customer relationship management space.
The E-Business Suite helps companies automate their business functions via the Internet