because Oracle will be releasing its SaaS CRM product squarely aimed at stopping Salesforce’s ascendancy in the enterprise market.

At first it looks fantastic – bringing a real Web 2.0 feel to CRM, mashing up internal and external operatives and data from multiple sources to manage the sales pipeline.

I’ve said previously that Salesforce’s strong position is more first mover advantage than the compelling-ness or otherwise of its product. This offering from Oracle could well be the key to returning Salesforce to a level more “deserving” of its product offering.

There’s going to be carnage out there one way or another…

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

2 Comments
  • I hope this indicates Oracle is serious about SaaS strategy rather than it just being in response to salesforce.com enterprise threat.

    Microsoft Live CRM looks pretty good in the browser too. Looks like some healthy competition in the works.

    Troy.

  • Salesforce is the CRM market leader for many good reasons. It already has plenty of competition.

    Oracle has indirectly had an interest in NetSuite via Ellisons personal shareholding so maybe they have some leverage there. All ERP and other application vendors will be looking to extend into SAAS space at some level.

    SAP is targeting mid market with their new Business by Design but not for a while in this part of the world. It is aimed at companies with more than 100 users – which means it is on the large companies scale for NZ. Business by Design was Launched September 19: United States, Germany and since October 1: available in the China, UK, and France as well.

    Lets not forget that SugarCRM Enterprise version runs on Oracle. You can even check it out yourself.

    http://demo.sugarondemand.com/sugarcrm_ent/index.php?action=Login&module=Users

    These numbers are very respectable (across 3 editions)
    Downloads: 3,823,766 | Developers: 11,461 | Files: 2,742 | Projects: 450

    Almost no one has that level of active engagement with the product. Just as there are ERP vendors getting serious about CRM some of the CRM players are looking more at ERP.

    Oracle is not the really a big threat in the SAAS market.

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