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Technology Stocks : Oracle Corporation (ORCL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HammerHead who wrote (7354)	6/9/1998 8:52:00 AM
From: Michael Olin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19080

A new Server version launch, successful or not, does not really drum up too much business for Oracle. Existing customers with maintenance agreements get the new version for free. They upgrade at their leisure, usually when the x.1 release comes out. I don't see new customers waiting around and saying, "Wow! Oracle8 has all of these neat features that I really need. Oracle7 didn't do it for us, but Oracle8, let's go buy some server licenses!" If a customer is going to buy an Oracle server, they will take whatever version is currently shipping (or one version back). A new tools release can increase revenues as new features and less bugs attract new customers. In either case, Oracle's 4th quarter (which ended May 31) is traditionally their strongest because the sales reps will do whatever it takes (read: big discounts) to book the last few sales and make/exceed their quotas for the year. -Michael

To: HammerHead who wrote (7354)	6/9/1998 11:09:00 AM
From: treetopflier	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19080

Oracle 8 revenues. There are two kinds of Oracle 8 prospects, those with Oracle7 installed and those with some other or no database product at present, i.e. new customers. For current Oracle7 customers, the jump to 8 usually requires some business justification for the move. Oracle ships point releases every 8-12 months. Chasing these gets expensive. Customers are still moving to 7.3.4 before leaping to 8 and other pressing business issues, e.g. Y2K tend to delay the move further. Moving to 8 also entails replacing existing product methods for handling security and middleware administration that take time, testing and cost $$$. Oracle doesn't derive additional revenues when customers move to 8 so they aren't is a rush to have them migrate. New customers can get O7 or O8. If they are new to O8 they should start there. No reason not to. The issues I have with O8 aren't likely to impact them out of the gate and it saves them an upgrade later. Don't construe my comments as to mean that a new Oracle customer should avoid O8 because of bugs. I strongly recommend that a new Oracle shop start with O8 and build their expertise at that level. ALL software has bugs and O8 isn't any better or worse in that sense than the last release of O7. Oracle has done a LOT with O8 and anytime you incorporate LOTS of new features, the core product undergoes some amount of destabilization. For an existing customer they might be better served to wait for O8.1 and let the product settle down a bit. Whether they wait or not doesn't change the revenue picture for Oracle much at all. Fly low, sell high...