Oracle Corporation, an enterprise software company, engages in the development, manufacture, marketing, distribution and servicing of database and middleware software as well as applications software.
Software and Services
The Company organized its business in two businesses, software and services, which are further divided into five operating segments. The Company’s software business is comprised of two operating segments: New software licenses and Software license updates and product support. The Company’s services business is comprised of three operating segments: Consulting, On Demand and Education.
Software Business
New Software Licenses
New software licenses include the licensing of database and middleware software, which consists of Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware, as well as applications software. The Company’s technology and business solutions are based on an internet model comprised of interconnected database servers, application servers, web servers and computers as well as mobile devices running web browsers. This architecture enables users to access business data and applications through an adopted web browser interface. Oracle technology operates on single server or clustered server configurations, and supports a choice of operating systems including Linux, UNIX and Windows.
Database and Middleware Software
The Company’s grid software provides a platform for running and managing business applications for small and midsize businesses to large global enterprises. Oracle grids are designed to accommodate demanding business environments, while providing the ability to assign and reassign computing power to various applications.
Database
The Oracle database management system is a key component of a grid infrastructure enabling the storage, manipulation and retrieval of forms of data including traditional relational data, XML data, OLAP cubes and unstructured data such as documents, spreadsheets and images. Oracle Database 10g, which is designed for grid computing, is offered in four editions: Express Edition, Standard Edition One, Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition. Additional options to the Oracle Database are offered, including Real Application Clusters, as well as other products including Collaboration Suite, Enterprise Manager and Secure Enterprise Search.
Real Application Clusters: The Oracle Database runs applications across multiple computers clustered together. This is achieved by using Oracle Real Application Clusters, a clustered configuration of the Oracle Database.
Collaboration Suite: Oracle Collaboration Suite is a single, integrated suite that manages email and voicemail messages, facsimiles, calendaring, conferencing, instant messaging, file sharing, search and workflow. The Oracle Collaboration Suite is built on the Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware, supports enterprise-scale implementations.
Enterprise Manager: Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g is designed to monitor and manage the Oracle software infrastructure as well as applications and business services in diverse IT environments. Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g is designed to monitor service levels and performance, automate tasks, complete backup and recovery, among other things, in a way and across groups of computers, or grids.
Secure Enterprise Search: Oracle Secure Enterprise Search indexes and searches public, private and shared content across internal and external web sites, databases, file servers, document repositories, enterprise content management systems, applications and portals. Additionally, users can access the search engine through web-based user interfaces and perform traditional keyword searches that provide results in a format similar to conventional web searches.
Middleware:
Oracle Fusion Middleware is the brand for Oracle’s portfolio of middleware products, which include Oracle Application Server, Oracle Business Intelligence, Oracle Developer Suite and Oracle Service Oriented Architecture Suite.
Application Server: The foundation of Oracle Fusion Middleware is Oracle Application Server 10g. Designed for grid computing, Oracle Application Server 10g incorporates clustering and caching technology. Oracle Application Server 10g also provides an integration platform that is designed to improve business, application and data integration projects. Oracle Application Server 10g also includes Oracle Portal, which allows personalized portal sites to be developed and deployed, with single sign-on and security.
Business Intelligence Suite: Oracle Business Intelligence Suite is a family of enterprise business intelligence products that unites Oracle’s existing business intelligence and middleware technology with Siebel Business Analytics to offer customers enterprise-wide business intelligence infrastructure and tools. These products deliver a spectrum of business intelligence requirements, including interactive dashboards, ad hoc query and analysis, proactive intelligence and alerts, enterprise reporting, real-time predictive intelligence and mobile analytics. The editions of the Oracle Business Intelligence Suite include the Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition and Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Standard Edition. Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition is open to enterprise data source and optimized for Oracle or non-Oracle databases, allowing customers to integrate data from their enterprise applications, including third party and customer applications. Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Standard Edition is optimized to work with Oracle data and applications.
Developer Suite: Oracle Developer Suite is an integrated suite of development tools designed to facilitate development of internet database applications and web services. The Oracle Developer Suite contains application development and business intelligence tools and is built on internet standards such as Java, J2EE, XML and HTML.
The Oracle Developer Suite includes Oracle JDeveloper, a Java development environment for modeling, building, debugging and testing enterprise-class J2EE applications and web services. In addition, the suite contains Oracle Designer, a tool that allows developers to model business processes and automatically generate enterprise database applications, and Oracle Forms Developer, a development tool for building database applications that can be deployed unchanged in both internet and client/server based environments.
The Oracle Developer Suite also includes Oracle Warehouse Builder software that consolidates fragmented data and metadata pulled from packaged applications, custom applications and legacy applications. Oracle Warehouse Builder enables developers to graphically design the multidimensional database schema and to automatically generate and load the data warehouse.
Service-Oriented Architecture Suite: Oracle Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Suite is a set of service infrastructure components for creating, deploying, and managing SOA’s, including Oracle Developer 10g, Oracle BPEL Process Manager, Oracle Web Services Manager, Oracle Business Rules Engine, Oracle Business Activity Monitoring, and Oracle Enterprise Service Bus. Oracle SOA Suite enables services to be created, managed and orchestrated into composite applications and reconfigurable business processes.
Applications Software
The Company’s four enterprise software lines inlcude Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne | JD Edwards World and Siebel Business Applications. The Company’s applications can be tailored to offer customers various industry-specific solutions. With the acquisition of Siebel Systems, Inc., the Company is serving in the vertical markets in which Siebel offered industry solutions. In addition, the Company expanded its offerings in certain industries, notably in retail with its acquisitions of Retek, Inc. and various other companies; in banking with its majority interest in i-flex solutions limited; and in telecommunications with its acquisition of Portal Software, Inc.
The Company also offers a set of analytic applications. The Company’s analytic applications include capabilities, such as corporate performance management, interactive dashboarding, embedded analytics and actionable intelligence for each business function and user role.
Fusion Applications: Oracle Fusion Applications represent the next generation of Oracle Applications, based on a service-oriented platform.
Software License Updates and Product Support: The Company offers lifetime support, product enhancements and upgrades. Software license updates provide customers with rights to unspecified software product upgrades, maintenance releases and patches released during the term of the support period, which is typically one year. Product support includes internet access to technical content, as well as internet and telephone access to technical support personnel.
Services Business
Consulting
Oracle Consulting assists customers in accessing the business value in its applications and technology using business requirements analysis, design, configuration as well as support and other services, such as preconfigured business flows. The Company deploys professionals globally through various blended delivery capabilities, including use of personnel from offshore delivery centers and applications solutions centers.
On Demand: It includes Oracle On Demand and Advanced Customer Services. Oracle On Demand provides multi-featured software and hardware management and maintenance services for its database, middleware and applications software. The Company expanded its Oracle On Demand offerings with the addition of Siebel’s CRM On Demand. Advanced Customer Services consists of configuration and performance analysis, personalized support and annual on-site technical services.
Education: The Company provides training to customers, partners and employees. The Company’s training is provided primarily through public and private instructor-led classroom events and also made available through various online courses and self paced media training on CD-ROMs.
Significant Events
In April 2007, Emulex Corp., LSI Corp, Oracle Corp. and Seagate Technology announced the Data Integrity Initiative (DII), a technology collaboration that leverages and extends the T10 DIF standard to enable end-to-end data integrity for enterprise storage systems. The DII technology employs standardized data checking mechanisms that allow each storage component to continuously monitor the integrity of data both in-flight and at rest. This technology allows rigorous data checking to occur, starting with the software application, all the way through the storage and file system, and ending on the disk drive. The technology not only detects, but also isolates and reports the sources of error and data corruption, helping data centers avoid lengthy downtime and associated costs.
The company and Satyam Computer Services Ltd. formed a strategic alliance that would help enterprises in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region jumpstart business intelligence (BI) implementations-faster, for less money, and with greater ease of use.
In March 2007, the company announced the Oracle-Sun Information Appliance Foundations that allow joint Oracle and Sun customers to reduce the risk and deployment time of data warehousing solutions based on Oracle Database 10g and Sun servers, storage and the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS). The Oracle-Sun Information Appliance Foundations are reference configurations that provide a recommended database, server, and storage mix for a customer's specific requirements. Implementing an Oracle-Sun Information Appliance Foundation-based data warehouse solution can decrease customers' buying cycle by weeks and streamline data warehouse implementations.
Day Software Holding AG has entered into an agreement with Oracle Corp. to develop JSR 170 compliant components within a strategic technology partnership.
Oracle Corp. and Adobe Systems, Inc. have entered into collaboration to enable developers to create Web 2.0 applications for the enterprise. Enterprise applications would be able to include animations, charts and graphs in Adobe Flash combined with other AJAX content surfaced in a Java- based portal such as Oracle Portal, which is part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware product family. These solutions, called Enterprise Mashups, would mix technologies and interactive user interface features to incorporate real-time animated graphs and visualizations based in Adobe Flash, HTML, or other AJAX-based components.
Alien Technology Corporation has collaborated with Oracle Corp. and Intel Corp. to develop an integrated, end-to-end Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) business solution for the transportation, automotive and aerospace industries.
The Chilean unit of Oracle Corp. has entered into an IT collaboration agreement with state copper company Codelco. Under the terms of the agreement, both companies would generate new applications with new technologies for the mining industry globally. Both companies would also work together to identify and promote practices in the implementation and administration of new IT projects, particularly in the area of change management, the process of developing a planned approach to change in an organization.
Oracle Corp. and Servigistics, Inc. formed a joint alliance to enable companies to transform their service business. The Service Parts Management solution integrates with Oracle's comprehensive suite of discrete, flow and process manufacturing management applications. These tools would enable companies to process existing data and utilize the decision making system.
Oracle Corp. has entered into a strategic alliance with UNICON, Inc. in connection with the delivery and support of an academic enterprise environment for the higher education and K-12 markets worldwide.
Marketing and Sales
Sales Distribution Channels: In the United States, the Company markets its products and services primarily through its own sales and service organization. Outside the United States, the Company markets its products and services primarily through its subsidiary sales and service organizations. The Company’s subsidiaries license and support its products in their local countries as well as within other foreign countries where the Company does not operate through a direct sales subsidiary.
The Company also markets its products worldwide through indirect channels. The companies that comprise its indirect channel network are members of the Oracle Partner Network. The Company’s partners resell its products or combine its database, development tools and applications with computer hardware, software application packages or services for subsequent redistribution and/or implementation. Partners in the program include consultants, education providers, internet service providers, network integrators, resellers, independent software vendors and system integrators / implementers. Partners can also participate in the Oracle Technology Network. The Company sells its products and provides services worldwide.
Customers
The Company’s customer base consists of various businesses of many sizes and industries, government agencies, educational institutions and resellers.
Competition
In the sale of database software and related tools, the Company’s competitors include International Business Machines Corporation, Microsoft, Sybase, Inc., NCR Corporation’s Teradata division, SAS Institute, Inc., Informatica Corporation, and the open source databases, MySQL and PostgreSQL.
In the sale of middleware products, the Company’s competitors include IBM, Microsoft, BEA Systems, Inc., SAP Aktiengesellschaft, Sun Microsystems, Inc., Sybase and open source projects such as Red Hat / JBoss, Apache Geronimo and ObjectWeb, as well as other competitors in each element of its packaged functions.
The Company's business intelligence competitors include Actuate Corporation, Business Objects S.A., Cognos Incorporated, Hyperion Solutions Corporation, MicroStrategy, Inc., SAS Institute, open source Netezza Corporation, and others. Application server competitors include Borland Software Corporation, Fujitsu Software Corporation, Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd., Adobe Systems Incorporated and others. Enterprise Application Integration competitors include webMethods, Inc., TIBCO Software, Inc., IONA Technologies PLC, Sonic Software Corporation, Sun Microsystems and others. BPM competitors include Lombardi Software, Inc., Savvion, Inc., Pegasystems ,Inc. and others. Enterprise portal vendors include Vignette Corporation, Novell, Inc., Fujitsu, and others. Identity management vendors include IBM, CA, Inc., Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett-Packard Company, among others.
In the sale of collaboration products, the Company competes primarily with Microsoft (Exchange/Outlook), IBM (Domino/Notes), Novell (Groupwise) and WebEx Communications, Inc. In addition, the Company competes in the related content management markets with EMC Corporation (Documentum), FileNet Corporation, Percussion Software, Inc. and Vignette.
In the sale of development tools, the Company competes against IBM (WebSphere Studio), Microsoft (VisualStudio.NET), Sun Microsystems (Sun Studio), Sybase (PowerBuilder), open source Eclipse and others.
The sale of applications software, the Company competes against SAP, Lawson Software, Inc., Infor, Microsoft Dynamics (Great Plains, Solomon, Axapta, Navision), Sage, Inc., SSA Global Technologies, Inc. and various other application providers. These include various point solution providers, such as Epicor Software Corporation (accounting), SunGard Data Systems, Inc. (treasury), Kronos Incorporated (time and attendance), Taleo Corporation (recruitment), Callidus Software, Inc. (compensation), Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (HR, payroll, and BPO), Ariba, Inc. (procurement), i2 Technologies, Inc. (supply chain management), MRO Software, Inc. (enterprise asset management), DSCI Corporation (logistics), Extensity (ERP), Broadvision, Inc. (marketing), Kana Software, Inc. (analytics), salesforce.com (sales force automation) and Amdocs Limited (customer service).
With SOA, the Company’s packaged applications also compete with custom solutions either developed in-house or by systems integrators, such as Accenture, Ltd. or IBM Global Services. The Company’s pre-packaged applications also compete against business process outsourcers including ADP, Fidelity Investments, Ceridian Corporation, Hewitt-Cyborg Limited and others.
In the sale of consulting and systems integration services, the Company both partners with and competes against Accenture, Ltd., Electronic Data Systems Corporation, IBM Global Services, Bearing Point, Inc., and CapGemini Group.
History
Oracle Corporation was founded in 1977.
