"Oracle makes a desktop productivity play once a year like clockwork. This is classic Oracle -- if at first you don't succeed, then pitch it again next year," Governor said. "This time around, however, users are far more open to non-Microsoft alternatives, which does favour Oracle." Last year, Microsoft announced a radical change in the way that businesses buy its software: rather than simply being able to upgrade their software when they wanted to -- and when their budgets allowed -- companies would need to commit to buying operating-system and application upgrades ahead of time through an annual fee. Microsoft customers can decline the plan, but they will lose out on discounts. Many Microsoft customers have howled in protest, citing estimates that their costs could more than double at a time when the sputtering economy was cutting into their own revenue. Microsoft customers have until the end of this month to join its new licensing programme. "Microsoft is charging a fortune for massive Exchange upgrades. It is much cheaper to go to Oracle," Ellison said. Analyst David Hilal, of Friedman Billings Ramsey, predicts Oracle's new collaboration software can add some new revenue, but it won't be a huge revenue generator. Hilal said Oracle could sell the product to many of its current customers who want to buy its products from one company. "This is a good incremental sell to midsized companies," Hilal said. "It's not significant, but it can serve as an add-on (sale) for their customer base. There are a lot of Oracle customers who might want to standardise with one software company." Customers can either buy the Collaboration Suite and install it themselves or pay Oracle to host and manage the software, Oracle representatives said.
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