Larry Ellison’s acquisition tear over the last few years is well documented. The bitter, but ultimately successful takeover of PeopleSoft. The Siebel acquisition. And, last spring, Hyperion, at the time one of the five, large independent players in business intelligence. The Hyperion buy put pressure on SAP to make a move against type and go for a big purchase. And buy big SAP did with Business Objects. While that blow-by-blow between SAP and Oracle can be (and indeed thoroughly was) parsed as attack-counterattack, analysts say what’s going on in these transformations is more than meets the eye. For years SAP and Oracle caricatured one another: Oracle was the “database company” and SAP was the “inflexible, large-footprint applications company.”
But both firms have labored mightily to remake themselves. One element is to build far-reaching suites of integrated or modular products and functionalities: not exactly a one-stop shop, given differing core competencies, but at least something resembling a department store. The other element is gaining new and multiple points of access to key decision makers. And to move from the back to the revenue-producing front office. With PeopleSoft, Ellison bought a sales army with access to the high-level human resources executives that use the software. With Siebel came access to svps of sales and marketing, and a nice base in the financial services industry. With Hyperion, Oracle opened the door further to the CFO’s office. Though the volume isn't where it needs to be year, Oracle has core banking capabilities in Oracle Financial (formerly i-Flex). As for SAP, it follows a less-acquisitive path—though that's changed in recent years—relying on its NetWeaver platform. NetWeaver can slot everything from core banking to business optimization software.
At the same time, SAP is pouring resources into Business ByDesign, its foray into software as a service (SaaS) for smaller and mid-size customers. If it successfully integrates Business Objects, SAP gains entree to clients with a market-leading business intelligence offering. Though service-oriented architecture has its skeptics, Business Objects is being sold as “open and agnostic” to any technology. Business Objects has thousands of partner-sellers, says Jonathan Becher, the company’s svp of marketing. “That network is one of the key assets Business Objects brings in the U.S.”
