INTERVIEW-Oracle to launch campaign on e-trade
May 24, 1999 09:03 AM
By Y.P.Rajesh
BANGALORE, India, May 24 (Reuters) - Database software giant Oracle Corp ORCL
plans a marketing campaign to compete with IBM Corp's IBM Internet solutions, a
senior company official said on Monday.
"We have great products but poor marketing," Mark Jarvis, Oracle's senior vice
president for marketing, told Reuters in an interview.
"All we need is marketing campaigns, and you'll see that coming soon. Our goal for the
next 12 months is to really focus on e-business," he said in the southern Indian city of
Bangalore, where Oracle is hosting a conference for Internet software developers.
Jarvis did not give details of the planned campaign.
Oracle and International Business Machines Corp (IBM) have been pitted against each
other in the database software business during a revival of growth in the sector in the
last 12 months.
Analysts say IBM has done a better job than Oracle in selling itself as a full-service
Internet company. U.S.-based Dataquest recently reported that IBM surpassed Oracle
as the biggest database software provider.
Analysts also said that Oracle's financial results for the three months ending February
1999 were lower than expectations in Oracle's main businesses of database and
applications software.
Jarvis said Oracle would introduce a global promotion programme -- currently being run
in the United States -- that guarantees converting a firm's business into
electronic-business or Internet-based business in just 25 days.
Sixty-five percent of Fortune 100 companies use Oracle software for their e-business,
he said.
REUTERS |
