Oracle set to take SAP head-on in APAC

"Once the dormant giant in Asia, we are now nipping at the heels of SAP," declared Oracle Asia Pacific Applications and Industries Senior VP, Mark Gibbs. Oracle currently enjoys 11% market share (post PeopleSoft merger), while rival SAP leads the market with 20% share of the APAC pie. Mark claimed that the merger with PeopleSoft had significantly weakened SAP´s position in the market. 

He delineated the strategies that the company would adopt to reach the numero uno position in Asia Pacific. "The combined strength of Oracle and PeopleSoft would look at tapping under-penetrated sectors like communications, media and entertainment, public sector and financial services," he said. He also added that the company would actively pursue the mid-market opportunity. 

Mark also revealed plans to introduce Oracle´s next generation applications named Project Fusion, that optimizes the product lines of Oracle, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards. Touching on the integration of PeopleSoft and Oracle, he said, "It took us 18 months to buy PeopleSoft and our competitors thought it would take us more time to integrate both the companies. But we plan to complete the integration in June 2005."

He also said that the company was committed not just to support the PeopleSoft and JD Edwards products till 2013, but also to bring more releases in 2006. On the company´s M&A strategy, Mark stated that the company is still interested in following the inorganic route as was shown in the recent acquisition of
Retek.

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