Kate Gibson writes about, Oracle's discussions to buy Siebel - Looks a little too radical to say the least - how easy it is for laggards in the CRM space to monopolise stack elements and unleash financial power in a tight situation to acquire new companies -in the process cannibalising and killing their own half grown babies.I am increasingly beginning to feel that Siebel may go the i2 way before running the risk of fading away– I that Siebel missed out on opportunity to make acquisitions of the basic stack elements to strengthen itself – even now there’s a chance for Siebel to make whole range of judicious acquisitions and actually get stronger(may be a tough journey but still feasible). Earlier, I wrote, about Oracle's recent acquisitions
New Peoplesoft = Peoplesoft + JDE
New Oracle = Oracle + New Peoplesoft
New-New Oracle = New Oracle + Retek
The challenge for new-new-oracle is the roadmap for integration.There are now four code designs and schema to be harmonized. Different classes of cutomers and multiple varieties of implementations to be supported and upgraded. Customers need to be convinced of the integrated roadmap.The transition challenges are indeed phenomenal in the design of the new platform and less said the better about the migrations that customers need to spend on. Would this be a good opportunity for external service providers and oracle consulting – some may think that this may cause nightmare to service providers.The appaling casual approach towards integrating multiple major applications – evolving from data, xml level integration, overlooks the complexities in process level integration is a whole new ball game – the very basis of having integrated applications are to master the complexity of integrating process and data.Come to think of it – there are not many companies in the world who have succeeded in integrating products with huge customer base all that well. During the acquisition proceedings of Peoplesoft, Oracle was predicting huge maintenance revenue stream – irritating some customers. Microsoft’s acquisition of Great plains and performance of companies like CA/DIVINE which acquired a lot of product companies have not been anything to write home about. More clarity may emerge after May 5 when Siebel will meet with financial analysts at which further details on Shaheen's turnaround plans are anticipated.
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