As someone associated with Oracle, I couldn't help but poke fun at the recent SAP results. SAP's application business grew at a meagre 8% whilst Oracle grew at 83% during the same period. I know some of you would argue that most of Oracle's growth is inorganic but if you compare the growth by the individual constituents, it is still higher than what SAP managed to achieve. So what do you make out of this. Did SAP lose business to Oracle? Did some of the big deals slip into the next quarter as their CEO pointed out or is it that Companies have realised that Oracle just makes better applications?
I for one think that people around the world are realising that SAP's apps are too difficult to implement and upgrade. The worst part is that, during upgrades, customers have to buy the same features that they already have. (I mean upgrades to mySAP ERP etc). As a testament to this, only a few percentage of their install base are on their latest versions which is a shame. The world has also started believing in open standards and the value that brings to them. SAP's apps are these huge monolithic, fragmented ones built on propreitary technologies like ABAP. It costs a lot to hire such skilled professionals from the market. At the same time, Oracle's apps are standards based and even a kid out of college can code in Java.
Where do we go from here? I think if Oracle could manage to string one more strong quarter, it will set a trend and momentum for them. It will be a huge psychological advantage and we can see Oracle stealing more deals from SAP. As one of Oracle's top executives pointed out, 'if Oracle Fusion works in it's very first version, we will be the numero uno in this industry..period..'.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Thursday, July 06, 2006
The Class
I just finished reading Erich Segal's 'The Class' and honestly, it blew me away. It was a 'Class' apart and one of the best novels that I've ever read (Believe me, I haven't read many). What amazed me was how the author could string the lives of five Harvard men into a page turner. There was not even a single moment when I felt bored. The novel teaches us how important love, family and friendship are important in our lives. We are ceratin to pay for our successes in one way or the other. We will grow old and no matter how much we achieve these things are the ones that will count in the end. I am certainly gonna keep this in my mind. Let me see if the novel has taught me one of the secrets of life.
Merci,
Don
Merci,
Don
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Impatient
I am very impatient as I am writing this. I am very much waiting for tommorrow morning. I have my 3rd Java certification exam(SCBCD) tommorrow. I am not nervous but just want to finish it off. I am aware it is not that tough but I am looking forward to achieving a great score, at least a score that could beat that 14 yr guy, Afsah Shaufqat. Need to skim through some notes but I had been delaying that sice afternoon. just watched Schumi win the GP and felt very happy abt it. To divert my attention of that victory I logged on but hey what am I doing!!!talking abt it. OK.. I need to get back to my notes and kill the exam tommorrow.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Mon Blog
Bird Flu, Fear and Oprah!
I am writing this as my application is compiling and about to run which generally takes around 5 mins on a monday morning. Nevertheless my mood is upbeat today as I reached office in a record 50 mins. It generally takes me around 2 hrs. The secret?? well I started early today at around 7:15AM while Hyderabad is till sleeping!!! Lazy city is mine.
Well..yesterday was the day that the bird flu fear took over India. There had been many news reports handing out bunch of data but none comprehensive. It made me nervous as I didn't know what to do as an average citizen. The only precaution I took was not to eat chicken on a Sunday. As I kept wondering and zapping the TV channels, I came across Oprah's show. The guest was Dr Michael Osterholm, a renowned 'Communicable Disease Specialist' itseems.
Key points from that discussion:
1 There is every chance that the flu can mutate in a human body into a form that can transmit between the humans easily.
2 This is no vaccine available to counter this.
3 The world economy could cripple as each country takes measures to keep the disease off it's shores.
4 Each country is on it's own..so the lesser developed countries could suffer a lot.
5 People should think abt stacking up food supplies right now.
And many more scary things. I am not sure if this guy is gone over board but he looks very confident and his past record suggests that he is more or less accurate.
Only the next few months could tell if we are again to face a situation like the one in 1918.
I am writing this as my application is compiling and about to run which generally takes around 5 mins on a monday morning. Nevertheless my mood is upbeat today as I reached office in a record 50 mins. It generally takes me around 2 hrs. The secret?? well I started early today at around 7:15AM while Hyderabad is till sleeping!!! Lazy city is mine.
Well..yesterday was the day that the bird flu fear took over India. There had been many news reports handing out bunch of data but none comprehensive. It made me nervous as I didn't know what to do as an average citizen. The only precaution I took was not to eat chicken on a Sunday. As I kept wondering and zapping the TV channels, I came across Oprah's show. The guest was Dr Michael Osterholm, a renowned 'Communicable Disease Specialist' itseems.
Key points from that discussion:
1 There is every chance that the flu can mutate in a human body into a form that can transmit between the humans easily.
2 This is no vaccine available to counter this.
3 The world economy could cripple as each country takes measures to keep the disease off it's shores.
4 Each country is on it's own..so the lesser developed countries could suffer a lot.
5 People should think abt stacking up food supplies right now.
And many more scary things. I am not sure if this guy is gone over board but he looks very confident and his past record suggests that he is more or less accurate.
Only the next few months could tell if we are again to face a situation like the one in 1918.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
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