OracleAppsBlog

A day in the life of an Oracle Applications Consultant

SAP

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Oracle bid for SAP and Business Objects?

Feed surfing the other night, I came across a rumour indicating that Oracle could potentially take over SAP in this article - Oracle Bid Rumour boosts SAP shares. This would certainly turn Project Fusion in to Confusion. Personally I don’t see how this would get passed the monopolies and merger’s commissions in the various countries affected and I think it’s more likely that Microsoft will take over SAP, although Jeff Nolan has some thoughts to the contrary. Whatever the case, its looking more likely that Oracle will make a move to purchase another BI company as indicated in this article - Oracle Rumoured to be eyeing Business Objects. Great time to be an Oracle Consultant!!

I’m trying to get the polling module working again so cast your vote and let me know if you experience any problems.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Introduction to Project Mendocino

Last night I read an interesting article in the SAPInsider Magazine which described what’s happening with Project Mendocino.

SAP Insider is the premiere source of information on product and service initiatives coming from SAP and its partners. The magazine provides SAP customers with strategic direction and practical advice to make the most of their investment in SAP technology.

The article by Dennis Moore – General Manager, Emerging Solutions PTU, SAP Labs, LLC is entitled SAP as Easy as Opening E-mail? Introducing Project Mendocino 

It describes how Project Mendocino links mySAP ERP business functions to Microsoft Office Applications and how Desktop applications will trigger transactions in the ERP system.

The paper states that in its first release, Project Mendocino will support four common business scenarios:

1. Time and Billable meetings management – Transferring information from an electronic personal calendar to a company timesheet or accounting form is one of the most cumbersome tasks. With Project Mendocino’s Time Management Capability, information collected in Outlook Calendar can be directly fed into mySAP ERP.

2. Budget Monitoring – Tracking budgets and acting upon changes in status is one of the most powerful features for managers in Project Mendocino. Users can configure Outlook using Project Mendocino to alert them of financial conditions affecting a budget, but instead of getting a text e-mail with a link to another system, the user can get the context they need and access to the actual business processes that will enable them to act upon the alert in the e-mail itself.

3. Team and Organization Management Processes – Team Management, although not a replacement for SAP Manager Self-Service, will make many common HR tasks possible via Microsoft Outlook. Users can use Outlook contacts to retrieve up to date information about employees, open positions and organizational structures.

4. Leave Management Requests – Planning time off from work usually requires users to jump from one calendar to another, creating a paper chain that can leave calendars out of sync. With Project Mendocino’s Leave Management Capability, users can user their Outlook Calendar to schedule leave requests and the approval workflow can all be contained in Exchange.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

ERP Software Comparison - Oracle, SAP, Peoplesoft, Microsoft and Siebel

An article entitled ERP Packages Feature Comparison by Elisabeth Rainier of the ITtoolbox blog New Trends & Techniques in Managing CRM & SAP Projects, provides a useful comparison of the following ERP systems: -

• Microsoft Great Plains version 7.5 and previews of Microsoft Great Plains version 8.0
• Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.9
• PeopleSoft Enterprise 8.8 and 8.9 and EnterpriseOne 8.11
• SAP mySAP Business Suite R/3 4.6 and SAP R/3 Enterprise 4.7
• Siebel 7.5 and Siebel 7.7

For the players and software versions mentioned above, you’ll find a study which provides a comparative, multi-vendor assessment across the three major phases of the application lifecycle: implementation, application usage, and ongoing support and maintenance.

I haven’t come across many ERP software comparisons on the web so if anyone else knows of other comparisons available online please add your comments and links to this post.

Monday, June 20, 2005

Oracle Fusion for SAP R/3 Customers

An eye for an eye. Oracle recently announced an initiative named OFF SAP, the objective of which is to try and win over SAP R/3 customers who have to pay to upgrade to mySAP ERP or mySAP Business Suite. This seems to be in response to the SAP Safe Passage Programme, which is designed to lure PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Retek users away from Oracle.

Details of the programme are contained in an Oracle press statement, an excerpt of which states:

Under the new program, Oracle Fusion for SAP or “OFF SAP,” Oracle will offer SAP R/3 customers up to a 100% license credit, to switch from SAP to Oracle applications. Additionally, as part of “OFF SAP,” Oracle Consulting is announcing a new, free INSIGHT for SAP Migration offer, which includes a discovery workshop for R/3 customers that results in an assessment of the customers’ specific migration plan. With INSIGHT for SAP Migration, Oracle Consulting will provide customers with a clear understanding of the migration process and benefits. Oracle Financing will offer a two-year payment plan for the application license and support fees, with no interest and no payments for six months, followed by six installments. Together, these programs will allow customers to quickly begin receiving value from their Oracle applications, mapping payments to benefits over two years.

SAP requires customers who choose to upgrade from SAP R/3 to mySAP ERP or mySAP Business Suite to re-license and re-implement the applications, which can cost customers significant amounts of time and money. “Oracle has evolved customers with us for nearly three decades across multiple generations of technology,” said Charles Phillips, president, Oracle. “94% of Oracle E-Business Suite customers are running on the latest applications - Release 11i. SAP, however, seems to be requiring customers to re-license their applications to upgrade to SAP’s latest technology. Only 6% of SAP’s customers have upgraded to mySAP ERP, according to a leading analyst firm. Now they have a low cost alternative to stop paying for upgrades and get OFF SAP.”

Mmm…. I’m not convinced this will be enough to lure SAP customers away. Whatever the case, if you’re considering migrating either way, now would probably be a good time to do it.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Oracle to gain control of CRM software market by Siebel purchase?

Having recently purchased Peoplesoft, Oblix and Retek it seems that Oracle has now set it’s sites on a new software company, namely Siebel.

A recent article by InternetNews.com suggests that Siebel may be the target of a potential take over by Oracle for an estimated amount of US$5 Billion. If this is true, Oracle would stand to take control of the CRM software market and strengthen it’s overall position in the ERP market against it’s fiercest competitor, SAP. By taking over Peoplesoft, Oracle has effectively increased it’s market share in the CRM software sector from 5 to 10%. If they manage to successfully purchase Siebel their market share in the CRM software sector would theoretically grow to 35% compared to SAP’s 15%.

I think taking over Siebel would be an excellent move by Oracle and I’m going to keep a watchful eye on development’s in this area. If the buy out does go ahead, hopefully it won’t be a long and protracted process, although I’m sure merging the various software components into the Oracle E-Business Suite will!!

Tags
Oracle, Applications, Blog, Oblix, Retek, Peoplesoft, CRM, Customer Relationship Management, Software, ERP, SAP, InternetNews, Siebel