Thursday, November 01, 2007

What I Need From OpenWorld

Dont try to describe the ocean if youve never seen it
Dont ever forget that you just may wind up being wrong

- From "Manana" by Jimmy Buffett

I need one thing from Oracle OpenWorld above all others: information on Fusion Applications. Oracle hasn't shared much on Fusion Apps up to this point in time and, as I've written in the past, they have understandable reasons for playing their cards close to the chest.

Now, however, we're getting relatively close to the planned 2008 releases. Like many customers I've talked with, I'm getting frustrated over the limitations on my ability to plan due to the lack of available information on Fusion Apps. I've worked hard to read the tea leaves, search the Gartner reports, make projections bases on Fusion Middleware directions, guess on the basis of 10-second sound bites, and so on...it's not enough anymore. My management and my peers (both inside and outside of JPL) are growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of details. In working with both my own management and other customers, I feel like I'm in the position of trying to describe the ocean without having seen it.

So, what I need most from Oracle OpenWorld is an update on the development of Fusion Applications. Are the Functional Design Docs finished yet? Is there an estimated delivery schedule that might be just a little more specific than "2008"? Do what business applications or processes or functionality will be delivered first? Could we see some user interface prototypes? Could somebody please just throw me a freakin' bone here??!!

Will I get what I need? Probably not. I suspect I'm asking around a year too early. Still, it never hurts to ask...

1 comment:

APC said...

Given that John Wookey has left Oracle and the whole Fusion Apps thing seems up in the air, I would be quiet surprised if there was a definitive statement at Open World. On the other hand, they have to say something.

Perhaps it will turn out that senior executives are "hot pluggable" too :)

Cheers, APC