ORCL was the RDBMS platform of choice for ERP, and ORCL lost that market to SAP and PeopleSoft, even with what I think is a big initial advantage. I think that ORCL has the inside track at establishing themselves as the platform of choice for internet enterprise applications, but they will have to handle this better than they have in the past (I don't see the situations as exactly the same, but I think that they can screw it up in similar ways).
First, I think that ORCL is probably too late to dominate CRM, although I hope that they can give SEBL some serious competition. However, CRM isn't the last word in enterprise applications, and if ORCL is the default platform for apps startups (due to market penetration and ease of development), and if ORCL does a better job than they have historically of buying emerging leaders, then I think that the sky is the limit. However, if they insist on doing everything themselves and they don't manage their apps division a lot better than they have in the past, they can wind up being a database company with a lot of second and third tier applications.
However, it's clear that Ellison is both engaged and very concerned about ORCL's apps division, so I don't believe that he will let the worst case happen. |
