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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Boplicity who wrote (30334)	8/23/2000 10:51:15 AM
From: johndelvecchio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Hi, I read the Lehman note. Personally, I think that Lehman should stick with their bread and butter...BONDS. Anyway, they had dinner with the head of Oracle's CRM R&D. A person that came from Scopus. Basically, Oracle is going to give away the SFA product with 70 other modules around it which should increase their revenue if the product is adopted (the 70 modules are NOT free). I personally do not feel that this alone will unseat SEBL as the CRM leader. Lehman says that ORCL is number two in the space (but in reality they could be three). However, they are waaaaay behind. Software products exhibit increasing returns, so it will be very, very difficult to get anyone in SEBL's installed base to switch. For new customers... I personally like SEBL's best-of-breed approach and using IBM as a lever into broader markets. I have read conflicting things about what customers prefer (end-to-end solution or best-of-breed). The market potential is so vast that there is room for a few players and I personally do not feel this is a blow to SEBL. It's only one SFA application after all. ORCL is not committed to free CRM. Best, John Del Vecchio

To: Boplicity who wrote (30334)	8/23/2000 12:13:53 PM
From: StockHawk	Respond to of 54805

>>Lehman note out this morning discussing Oracle's (ORCL) planned launch of a free, hosted version of its Sales Force Automation offering.<< >>Will this stop SEBL in it's tracks. << My guess, no way. Certainly this is an interesting strategy that we are seeing more and more - can't beat the leader, relegated to a small share of a market that is not your primary one, then give your product away. If we are talking about a simple whole product for a consumer (web browser)it can badly hurt the market leader. But in the case of a partial give-away of a product that will likely cost plenty to customize and support on an ongoing basis, I think the impact will be much less. It may even backfire. Selling to corporate clients, where performance is vital - perhaps some will reason that you get what you pay for. Can you envision the meeting after something goes wrong and a manager has to stand up and say "yeah, but, I saved us some bucks - I got the software for free." As opposed to the meeting where something goes wrong with the SEBL product and the manager gets to say "Look, I bought us the market leader. The premier, most expensive product in its class. I'm sure the vendor will support us on this." Which manager would you want to be? Let the market overreact for a day or two. Could be a good entry point. StockHawk

To: Boplicity who wrote (30334)	8/23/2000 12:19:08 PM
From: mtnlady	Respond to of 54805

Gosh... I heard Oracle pretty much already gave away their CRM products.. Not too many folks want to pay anything close to full price for them.. Maybe Oracle is just now openly admitting they use this strategy to a) try and gain market share (they haven't had much luck yet against SEBL) and b) make the money selling the rest of their modules and services (actually a very steep price to pay for a sub par CRM product). I think this will, and is, impacting SEBL's price short term but I view it as nothing but a buying opportunity. For SEBL that is..