The Game Is Afoot!

Two interesting events have happened over the past few days that convince me that the game is afoot in the market for support of the Oracle E-Business Suite.

Oracle has sole possession of a very lucrative market when it comes to support for the E-Business Suite. Customers pay their 22 percent of list annually for support of EBS. And support is a low-cost, high-margin business. When you contemplate the math for a minute, you'll see that Oracle's business model for apps maintenance is essentially one of the biggest and highest-returning annuities in modern history. Unfortunately, due to today's challenging economy, this model has become more than a little burdensome for Oracle customers. For more info, see some of the articles written by Vinnie Mirchandani and Dennis Howlett on the subject...both explain things much better than I can. While Oracle has faced some competition for support of recently acquired apps suites (Rimini Street is an outstanding example), they're pretty much had the EBS support market to themselves. But now it seems there is some pressure for change starting to build up.

Information Week's Bob Evans recently wrote an open letter to Larry Ellison. You can read the letter for yourself, but the upshot is a call to lead the way in reducing annual applications support fees. Whatever else I may think of the letter aside, Mr. Evans does a great job of describing the current challenges facing EBS customers (as well as customers of other Oracle products) and how some players may enter the market by turning those challenges into opportunities.

On January 27, DAZ Systems announced the offering of a comprehensive help desk, both in the U.S. and India, for the Oracle E-Business Suite as well as Oracle CRM, Hyperion, Demantra and Agile. The DAZ help desk is offered as a supplement to the traditional Oracle maintenance contract rather than as an alternative. Still, it's not too difficult to see how the idea of using support to create a sales channel might evolve for implementers and integrators in the EBS market. In the current economic environment, I'll wager DAZ will be getting more than a few inquiries from Oracle apps customers hoping to somehow lower their current EBS maintenance costs.

The common thread between these two events? They both revolve around Oracle EBS maintenance. I get the sense that this may be the beginning of some poking and testing of the traditional maintenance model in the EBS domain...could be the beginning of something bigger. Change may be coming to the world of Oracle EBS support. Could it be that the game is afoot?

Ship Without A Rudder

Now I'm having a big problem with my present day career
My ship, she has a rudder, but I don't know where to steer.

- From Jimmy Buffett’s “Simply Complicated”

This past week has been pretty interesting. I’ve been sick with a virus all week, bed-ridden and counting the pock marks in the bedroom ceiling. Could be the drugs, but I’ve been doing some intense self-analysis about my career.

I’ve had the phrase “manage your own career” (ran across the idea some time ago on the highly-recommended Talented Apps blog) bouncing around in my head lately. When the economy gets bumpy, I always feel better about my own situation if I’m in a situation that allows for a little more independence. I always have more faith in a good outcome when I feel as though I’m depending more on my own abilities than those of somebody else. Consulting, contracting, free-lancing, employment in a meritocracy type of company; those things make me feel like I can steer my ship through the storm. Unfortunately, that’s not the situation I’m in at the moment. I’m in a good situation, but it does not seem like the meritocracy I enjoy most. I may have gotten a little lax about managing my own career.

Coupled with the idea that I’m happier and more secure in a meritocracy, I’ve also been looking at a fork in the road in regards to my own skill set. I really enjoy project management. I relish in leading a small project team facing a tight deadline…not so keen on long projects or big teams. But I also like working hands-on with Oracle technology: be it writing SQL queries, building a quick app in APEX, working with OBIEE, building a business process with BPEL or trouble-shooting issues in the E-Business Suite (my personal favorite!), I’m not really happy with my day unless I can get in some hands-on work. I like the hands-on stuff so much, I’m actually thinking about attempting to develop a DBA skill set. But then there is that fork in the road: the more project management work I do, the less I get to do the hands-on stuff…and vice versa. I’m at the point where I need to make a choice between doing the project work and managing the project work. I have to figure out which path to take.

So between the “manage your own career” thoughts and my "fork in the road" paradox, I’ve been having thoughts lately about whether I’m currently the captain of this figurative ship I’m on or just a passenger. And if I have become more of a passenger than a pilot, I’m not quite sure how to take back the rudder or where to steer when I do get it back…

So am I the only one who is a little confused about their career direction? Or am I the only one who doesn't know where to go next? Find the comments and tell us your story.

I Have Been To The Summit

I had the good fortune to spend three days last week at the IOUC Summit at Oracle HQ in Redwood Shores. Althought this summit has been an annual event for a few years now, this is the first time I’ve been able to attend. Personally, I left on Friday with several “take-aways” and highlights worth sharing:

• Wednesday’s highlight was a brief tour of Oracle’s Usability Labs. Oracle’s Jatin Pinakin Thaker and Alisa Hamai did a great job in teaming up to guide my group through some pretty neat initiatives (the new eye-tracking technology has some serious geek appeal). Oracle’s taking a pretty exciting approach with usability. The rallying cry is: “It’s not the number of clicks; it’s how you work”. We’re seeing some of this work in the most recent iterations of Fusion Applications, and I expect we’ll see more in future releases of Apps Unlimited products. I’m hoping to make arrangements with to spend a full day in the User Experience Lab…I’ll keep you posted.
  

• It seems to me that we’re very close to the general availability release of E-Business 12.1. The Release Content Documents (RCDs) are already available on Oracle MetaLink, and I expect we’ll see some documentation on the value proposition for Release 12.1 (which will be a new thing for Oracle EBS customers) appearing in the next few weeks. I feel comfortable in speculating that the 12.1 release is very close at hand.
  

• Speaking of Fusion Applications, I’d be surprised to see a generally available release anytime in 2009. Oracle is in the early stages of building a list of early adopters or pilot testers. Considering the extent of pilot testing Oracle plans on doing, it appears to me that this phase of Fusion Apps development will take at least a year.
  

• There will be another round of Fusion Middleware's Oracle Excellence Awards this year to recognize Apps Unlimited customers extending functionality with Fusion Middleware in innovative and creative ways. This year, nominations will probably kick off at Collaborate 09 and award winners will be honored at Oracle OpenWorld 09.
  

• A new developer career track is beginning to take shape, the Fusion Developer track. As both customer development and apps development utilizes the same tool set, there is no differentiation between custom developers and apps developers here – there are only Fusion Developers. You’ll see take a little more shape at Collaborate 09 and at Oracle OpenWorld 09.

• Oracle intends to leverage their ACE Directors to conduct hands-on workshops for extending Apps Unlimited functionality with Fusion Middleware. So, if you’re looking for a low-cost, hands-on workshop, track down your local ACE Director (I’m taking my training and receiving my materials sometime in February…I hope).
  

• The migration from MetaLink to MyOracleSupport continues. One of the best things I saw last week was the introduction of support forums as part of MyOracleSupport. These will be product-specific discussion forums where users can share information with each other. In the time since I left Oracle’s employ almost 10 years ago, I’ve always missed the ability to check my issues against the experiences of other customers. Introducing these forums has the potential to restore that information sharing capability. Could turn out to be a very cool thing, especially if the MyOracleSupport forums manage to differentiate themselves from the forums currently found on the Oracle Technology Network.
  

Not a bad collection of highlights and tidbits over a three day period. My thanks to Oracle's Mary Lou Dopart and everyone on her team who helped put this summit together. I’d also like to send out a special thanks to my new friend Vashima Goel, a manager in Oracle’s Global Customer Programs organization. Even though over 100 people attended the summit, Vashima made me feel as though she came all the way from India specifically to make me feel welcome from the moment I arrived at the summit until the minute I left…all too rare a customer experience in this day and age.

Overall, a very interesting week and a great way to start off 2009. I can’t wait to see how this all plays out.

Five Wishes For 2009

Well, it’s a couple of days into 2009. However, I’m just now starting to admit to myself that we’re into a new year…mostly because I’m headed back to the office in the morning. As I’ve gotten older, I haven’t been much for New Year’s resolutions other than resolving to enjoy the next trip around the sun a little more than the last one. My enthusiasm for New Year’s resolutions waned once I realized that the events that usually require my resolve don’t all pop up on New Year’s day…I adapted once I got over the inconvenience.

Even with my sour-puss attitude toward New Year resolutions, there is still excitement of anticipation in wondering and wishing what the new year will bring. In that, I’m no different from most. Here are a few of the things I’m wishing for in 2009 (other than a huge raise and the instance resurrection of hair on my head):

1) A clear value proposition to the enterprise for social networking. There’s plenty of buzz about social networking from the apps on the ‘tubes (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Social networking has also delivered or ramped up some neat functionality (meshes in HR apps, widgets, etc.). In addition, most of us harbor the belief that, at least most of the time, better results come from a group of minds than from a single thinker. But I still can’t explain to my CFO how implementing social networking apps behind the corporate firewall will help us increase sales, maximize profits, reduce costs or provide any other tangible, measurable benefits. Maybe 2009 is the year I’ll be able to answer that question.

2) A compelling business reason to upgrade to E-Business Suite R12 other than regulatory compliance features and the impending end of Premier Support for 11i. The combination of SarOx features, the approaching end of life for 11i, and even the middleware upgrade to a better configuration of Fusion Middleware have yet to build up a critical mass or an urgency among EBS customers. From my perspective, my business can run just as well (measured by sales, profits, efficiency, etc.) on 11i as on R12. Let’s hope that changes with the upcoming 12.1 release.

3) A realization by customers that Open Source does not equal “free” or even “cheap”. What you don’t pay for in licensing costs is spent in training, research, and consulting fees while you get up to speed on the product. It’s simply a matter of “pay me now or pay me later”.

4) The first release of an integrated Fusion Applications Suite, at least to a carefully select set of “pilot test” customers. I’ve written plenty about this recently…’nuff said.

5) The arrival of the “Next Big Thing”. Be it a rush for supply chain applications, a dot.com bubble, green IT, tulip bulb mania, or whatever…just bring it on quickly. And make it easily recognizable for me early on, so I can make a bundle. Then I can retire to cook BBQ, take great pictures, and take on the occasional consulting gig for big bucks. Sounds like a great way to close out 2009, doesn’t it?

OK, my vacation daydreaming is now over…back to the salt mine!