One of the things that amuses me about the IT industry is that whenever it looks like things could get boring, someone starts a turf war with somebody else. Are the vendors gushing about cooperation and slapping each other on the back? That's when I start looking for the knives to come out. It's like watching the Jets and the Sharks rumble in West Side Story.
I've been humming the tunes from that play over the last couple of weeks because they have been particularly juicy ones for technology scuffles. Let's start with the juiciest one of all...Oracle's lawsuit against archrival SAP.
The Jets Are Gonna Get It Tonight
A little over a week ago, Oracle filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court that charges SAP and its TomorrowNow subsidiary with stealing thousands of copyrighted documents and software from its password-protected Customer Connection Web site. Oracle alleged that SAP stole the materials so that TomorrowNow could offer inexpensive third-party support services to customers who use Oracle software and attempt to lure them to SAP's applications.
According to the lawsuit, Oracle noticed at the end of November 2006 that there were unusually high levels of downloads taking place from the Customer Connection Web site. As all JD Edwards users who are on Oracle software maintenance know, Customer Connection is a central repository for updates, bug fixes, patches, and a wealth of technical tips and higher-level information.
In the suit, Oracle alleges that TomorrowNow accessed Customer Connection by lifting the user IDs and log-ins of Oracle customers with expired or soon-to-expire support rights. According to Oracle, all of these customers had one thing in common: They either had switched to TomorrowNow for maintenance on their Oracle products or were about to switch. SAP acquired TomorrowNow in January 2005 and immediately turned the company into a weapon in its "Safe Passage" campaign to convince JD Edwards users to get off Oracle maintenance and switch to SAP applications. Since then, TomorrowNow has expanded its services to include support for PeopleSoft and Siebel applications.
As this article is going to press, SAP is denying that it did anything wrong. Some third-party service providers are also speaking in defense of TomorrowNow by noting that many of their customers authorize them to download materials from the Web sites of their vendors. However, Oracle alleges that TomorrowNow's downloads were far from being reasonable and customary. Indeed, the software giant alleges that TomorrowNow downloaded over 10,000 items from its Customer Connection site between September 2006 and January 2007.
While it will take months to determine if Oracle's allegations are true, one thing is clear from the lawsuit. Oracle wants to discredit and shut down TomorrowNow. That is because in a time of shrinking revenues from new application licenses, support contracts have become the lifeblood of nearly all software vendors. As a result, I expect there will be increasing friction and more lawsuits between software vendors and third-party service providers in the coming years.
If SAP and TomorrowNow crossed the line in their competition with Oracle, they deserve whatever punishment they get. However, I for one will hate to see that happen, as it will only encourage more software vendors to sue third-party service providers. That, in turn, could reduce the number of service options available to customers and lead to increased support costs. Let's hope that in this particular turf war, customers don't end up being the ones who get hurt.
By the way, I am providing further analysis of the Oracle/SAP lawsuit on The JD Edwards Advisor, a new Web site from Andrews Consulting Group that covers a variety of JD Edwards and Oracle topics. Feel free to drop by to see what we're offering.
There's a Place for Us
In another corner of the software world, Salesforce.com has just staked a claim to territory that has traditionally belonged to portal software providers. The company announced Salesforce Spring '07, a new release of its hosted customer relationship management platform. The release features AppSpace, an online environment where companies and their customers can meet to collaborate, share documents, and jointly manage projects. Salesforce.com claims that AppSpace takes customer self-service via the Web to an entirely new level by injecting it with Web 2.0 technologies and concepts from social networking.
Whatever the claims may be, AppSpace poses a clear challenge to portal solutions from providers such as BEA, IBM, Microsoft, and ERP system providers. By delivering customer-facing portals as an online service, Salesforce.com could take away business from the on-premises solutions of these vendors. Of course, the old guard is already planning its response. The first assault on AppSpace will probably come from Microsoft's CRM Live, a hosted version of its CRM offering that could ship in the third quarter of this year.
Speaking of Microsoft, the software giant is making big moves into the unified communications turf that Cisco, 3COM, and other telecommunications vendors dominate. At its recent Small Business Summit, Microsoft offered a preview of Response Point, a phone system that combines VOIP-based software from Microsoft with hardware from D-Link Systems, Quanta Computer, and Uniden America. Response Point will integrate phone systems with Microsoft's office productivity software, such as Outlook contact lists. It will also work seamlessly with Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft's server-based platform for unified communications that is due to ship later this year. Expect Response Point to put significant competitive pressure on similar offerings for small and medium-sized businesses, including 3COM's VOIP solution for IBM's System i.
Something's Coming
In a world where Microsoft often takes whatever territory it wants, the System i seems to be the scrawny kid that gets picked on by the big boys from Redmond. However, something is coming to the System i that could make the rival gang take a couple of steps back. That, my friends, is all I can tell you for now. Be sure to read my next article to learn all of the details.
Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at
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