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

To: Jesus A. Castillo who wrote (7784)	7/6/1998 11:54:00 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 19080

Jeff and Jesus, Well, first of all I was involved almost exclusively in Oracle Apps from the early 90s. So I think the Oracle problems seem more severe to me because I literally saw Psft and Sap come out of nowhere and kill Oracle Apps even though Oracle obviously had a major advantage in owning the engine. My background is, Im a development manager and was involved at Silicon Graphics and Dell recently. So, I guess you could say that I am not really qualified to critique Lane and Henley. Note this will not stop me from doing it! However it is absolutely true that Oracle did not in any way promote the apps in the mid-90s (when it mattered). There is absolutely NO awareness in the market that Oracle has a better architecture than Sap (Sap being, essentially a PORTED mainframe product) or that Oracle is more customizable, etc. These were things that needed to be EXPLAINED to the applications customer base, and were not. We all know Oracle knows how to sell complex technical products, what happened with the Apps? Honestly on the supply chain at Dell it was obvious that no one at Oracle had ever made an effective pitch to Dell as to how Oracle apps could be better than Sap for the extended supply chain (where you need an open architecutre). The only conclusion I could come up with was that the Oracle management DID NOT UNDERSTAND what their strengths even were in the apps area. BTW, I can assure you that our friend Jeff Walker understood how Oracle apps were different from Sap - oh but too bad hes gone. And as far as functionality problems, bugs etc in the apps well, heres what I think. I think Oracle has an NIH problem. And the development crew there is spread too thin because of it. And, they hire too many people right out of college and don't pay them enough, so they quit. This model does not work with applications, because you need experienced people, most of which are worth a lot of $$ on the open market. So heres what you have to do... cut back on the blanket development plans where you are going to be all things to everybody at any time. Work on the important things only. Backfill things you cant complete with acquisitions. And give everybody stock so they will want to work there. Whoa! Guess what? I just described the Psft corporate culture. Amazing what a coincidence. OK so the lack of awareness of the problems in apps and how to improve upon things is somebodys problem... if not Lane/Henley, then who? Michelle BTW I like the NCA apps stuff and I think customers will too. Thats a good move for apps at Oracle.

To: Jesus A. Castillo who wrote (7784)	7/7/1998 12:35:00 PM
From: Mark	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19080

Jesse, I was very successful at Oracle for 2 years but it is a hiearchical, political environment that causes complete inability to get a product defined and out to market. InterOffice, Sedona, Communications Apps (that Ray blasted everyone for not getting the requirements defined) are only some examples. The good thing about the viscious culture is that it drives sales in the short term. The bad thing is that egos get in the way of everything and ultimately Oracle has no long term relationhips built because many of us come to make good money than bolt. Comments?