SAP appeared to impress a lot of people with its enterprise services architecture strategy, with big third-party companies like Cisco, EMC, IBM and Veritas signing on. SAP is essentially saying that their middleware plan is cooked and that they are already building third-party products with it. Does that give them a lead on Oracle?
I wouldn't be fooled by that. Remember, we have 7,000 ISVs who are using these products I'm talking about, not just signing press releases. Getting EMC or Veritas to say that [they support] your middleware strategy is almost irrelevant. That's not what customers are buying middleware for. IBM has to support SAP, and we are partnering with IBM as well.
But our focus has been on enabling partners to actually deliver products, so we have thousands of ISVs. We have all the integrators behind us as well. That's where the action is, between integrators and ISVs. And they are behind us and have been for quite a while.
What's chief executive Larry Ellison's day-to-day involvement?
Obviously there are a lot of people who he can rely on who report to him. Perhaps he doesn't need to get into getting every detail the way he once did, but nonetheless, in all the key decisions he's definitely involved.
Has your responsibility shifted somewhat maybe in the last year? Obviously with the addition of Greg Maffei, things changed a little bit.
Zero, I'm doing the same things. Greg's role is basically what Jeff Henley's once was, and what Harry You's was for a short period of time.
What about some of the PeopleSoft executives? Where they are fitting in the organisation?
Well, we gotten a lot of executives from various companies, that's one of the fun things that's happened over the last three or four months. We've gotten so much publicity, and we've had such a great quarter, that a lot of ex-Oracle employees want to come back. And we're seeing a lot of SAP people too. In terms of attracting talent, we are bringing in probably the most talented group of people we've had in a long time. We have PeopleSoft executives in the sales force and in development, playing key roles.
Has your role with Larry changed much, and is there any feeling or pressure on your part to leave the company?
I'm not sure where that idea is coming from, but no, I'm doing the same thing that I was 18 months ago. I have the same responsibilities, and the relationship hasn't changed. Our numbers are getting better. We're happy; I'm happy.
When will your previously announced Fusion Middleware become available as an option for JD Edwards and PeopleSoft applications?
September of this year.
