'Project Fusion' to dominate Ellison's calendar

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--With Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft complete, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said he's now free to focus on "Project Fusion," a combining of Oracle and PeopleSoft products.

Ellison has a lot riding on the success of the project, which he hopes will prove a viable weapon against applications archrival SAP and database competitors Microsoft and IBM. Oracle just spent $10.3 billion to acquire PeopleSoft in a contentious 18-month takeover battle to scoop up thousands of PeopleSoft customers as well as woo new business that would have otherwise gone to the former competitor.

"I think the merger integration is complete. I'm not concerned with the development of PeopleSoft 9, J.D. Edwards 8.12 or Oracle 12," Ellison said Tuesday at a press conference to launch the newly merged company. "My biggest focus is on Project Fusion. That is where my focus will be for the next several years."

Oracle-PeopleSoft launches CEO Larry Ellison lays out the future of the combined companies

With Project Fusion, Oracle will attempt to combine products from PeopleSoft with its own applications, application server software and relational database technology. The new product will be based on standard technology, rather than proprietary software, and should, according to Oracle, entice PeopleSoft customers to eventually migrate over to Oracle technology once support for their products expires in 2013.

"Our strength is in getting all of these technologies to play together," Ellison said.

Oracle is hoping to retain 95 percent of PeopleSoft's customers over the course of merging the companies and the various products.

"We will win in the applications business," Ellison said, noting that SAP has recently tried to compete with Oracle in its core database market by rolling out its own database server software, NetWeaver.

Other steps Oracle will take to appeal to existing PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards customers is to keep the cost of their licenses and support at or below the current levels they currently pay, as well as offer a published price list, Ellison said. Most software companies do not publish a price list.

[JRU62]

Oracle's Agenda

I thought the article that was written was very weak in details. I watched the entire presentation from Oracle and it seems CNETs coverage completely missed it. Once again a journalist would rather throw their opinion of something or darker side of a story rather than just presenting the facts. It doesn't seem to matter what the topic is the reporter always seems to miss the mark and those in attendance know this. What has happened to honest fact reporting journalists.

[JRU62]

Oracle's Agenda

I thought the article that was written was very weak in details. I watched the entire presentation from Oracle and it seems CNETs coverage completely missed it. Once again a journalist would rather throw their opinion of something or darker side of a story rather than just presenting the facts. It doesn't seem to matter what the topic is the reporter always seems to miss the mark and those in attendance know this. What has happened to honest fact reporting journalists.

Oracle just doesn't get it (still!)

15 minutes late starting with hundreds if not thousands of people online. Then nothing but CIOs in the customer panel. When will Oracle figure out that HR, Finance, Procurement, Production managers and executives are applications customers. Not CIOs!

As a happy PeopleSoft Enterprise customer, yesterday was scary. I felt good with their plans and even Project Fusion. I just get scared when Mr. Ellison and others suggest there are no culture differences between heritage Oracle Apps and PeopleSoft personnel, and then only have CIOs as representative customers. Did they invite HR VPs and get rejected? Did Oracle invite Plant Managers and get rejected? I just get really worried that Oracle is such a technology stack company that they believe CIOs are really their Enterprise Apps customers.

I assure you there are major cultural differences between the two staffs. Too bad heritage Oracle execs can't see the differences. I'm betting Oracle just made a bad $10B investment. Very sad. I now wish I had dropped out of the webcast due to late start.

Oracle just doesn't get it (still!)

15 minutes late starting with hundreds if not thousands of people online. Then nothing but CIOs in the customer panel. When will Oracle figure out that HR, Finance, Procurement, Production managers and executives are applications customers. Not CIOs!

As a happy PeopleSoft Enterprise customer, yesterday was scary. I felt good with their plans and even Project Fusion. I just get scared when Mr. Ellison and others suggest there are no culture differences between heritage Oracle Apps and PeopleSoft personnel, and then only have CIOs as representative customers. Did they invite HR VPs and get rejected? Did Oracle invite Plant Managers and get rejected? I just get really worried that Oracle is such a technology stack company that they believe CIOs are really their Enterprise Apps customers.

I assure you there are major cultural differences between the two staffs. Too bad heritage Oracle execs can't see the differences. I'm betting Oracle just made a bad $10B investment. Very sad. I now wish I had dropped out of the webcast due to late start.