A discussion about the software industry and their coders

This is my last post ( in a series of last 6 posts ) on Oracle Corp (ORCL), Red Hat (RHAT), and Novell (NOVL) : All eyes on Oracle’s next Acquisition, Red Hat hassles Oracle Corp's Boss, Oracle Corp Rethinking Alliance with Red Hat, Oracle Corp's interest in Novell, Is Oracle Corp. really interested in Novell?, and Why did Oracle Corp. talk about buying Novell?

Oracle Corp. in the past two years has spent close to US $ 19 billion in acquiring several firms to compete with one of its long-time top competitors, SAP AG www.sap.com, the German maker of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

Oracle Corp. acquired People Soft (for about US $ 10 billion) and Siebel Systems Inc. (for about US $ 5.8 billion) in its quest to become a single vendor that would offer enterprises both Database and ERP software.

Successfully melding several firms and their software together is still the biggest challenge for Oracle Corp. (ORCL).

Oracle’s SVP in-charge of Applications, John Wookey according to BusinessWeek has been given one of the toughest jobs in the Silicon Valley -- the leadership role of helping develop a software suite codenamed “Project Fusion” that is expected to provide enterprises the “best of Oracle” in an integrated package. Fusion would help corporates run all operations -- from accounting and sales to customer relations and supply-chain management.

Integration fears about Oracle and the fear of several corporates about being forced to buy everything from a single vendor (Oracle) has prompted  SAP AG to run a vigorous campaign titled "Safe Passage" -- heavily promoted on its home page. The campaign states:

If Oracle's options have you worried, consider another option: SAP. SAP provides solutions, technology, and maintenance services, backed by more than 30 years of experience. Learn about the Safe Passage program.

The cost of failure in Project Fusion, and customer retention will be extremely high for Oracle Corp. The Novell talk by Ellison might just have been competitive posturing.