Oracle B2B shift fails to impress

NEWS Oracle has billed the triple launch as its biggest B2B release to date and in a conference call CEO Larry Ellison pledged the products will help companies save billions of dollars through increased efficiencies. The products - Product Development Exchange, Supply Chain Exchange and Transportation Exchange - will allow users to publish information on e-marketplaces for suppliers and partners to use. Jeremy Burton, senior VP of marketing at Oracle, said: "So far the B2B market has been focused on transactions, and indirect procurement - of things like office supplies. We want to focus on direct procurement, and on collaboration." However, Nigel Montgomery, analyst at AMR Research, said the announcement lacked weight. He claimed the effort to produce supply chain software for e-marketplaces was laudable but just a case of playing catch up with other B2B firms such as i2. He added that the logistics product will struggle in Europe as there are already a number of logistics e-marketplaces that will deal with the issue for firms. Montgomery said: "The logistics issue is a red herring. Our research shows most companies want to outsource these functions. Why would they want to pay for Oracle software to bring that hassle inhouse?" In a conference call to European press, Sergio Giacoletto, executive VP EMEA at Oracle, admitted the company has not done a full evaluation of the market for the logistics product in Europe. Oracle said the Supply Chain Exchange and Product Development Exchange are both available immediately, with the Transportation Exchange delayed until at least the spring.