Oracle to Launch On-Demand CRM

Oracle will launch an on-demand CRM service later this year but did not divulge details on how the service will incorporate tools from acquisitions like Siebel or PeopleSoft.

In a briefing held in Singapore last week, Oracle announced it will launch Oracle CRM On-Demand in August or September.

“This is basically a software-as-a-service scheme which should interest the mid-market and basically anybody who has got a sales force,” said Mark Gibbs, senior vice president for the applications and industries division at Oracle Asia Pacific.

Gibbs, however, declined to give further details about the new service, only adding, “In the future, all software will be sold as a service, but it is the customer who will decide when.”

“We will, however, definitely see greater and greater rollout of these,” he said.

Oracle reported 80 percent growth in application license revenues for its recent fiscal year, and attributed most of this growth to the midsized market. According to the company, approximately 40 percent of its applications customers are small and mid-sized companies.

Oracle said it is currently focusing on four main industry sectors: government, education and health; communications, media and utilities; financial service institutions; and manufacturing, retail and distributions.

According to Gibbs, this proves that companies belonging to this segment also want industry-leading software “as long as the price is reasonable for the value they would get.”

“The mid-market is the extended supply chain of the enterprise customers; it is the glue of our economy,” said Gibbs, adding that the mid-market segment is part of the company’s four-pronged strategy for the next fiscal year.

-Jenalyn M. Rubio, Computerworld Philippines

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