One Oracle Suite To Rule Them All

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Oracle Wednesday announced a new a package of software aimed at pulling all of a company’s data together.

The new Oracle Collaboration Suite lets companies store and search for e-mails, voice mail, appointments, documents and PowerPoint presentations on a single database.

Speaking to financial analysts, chairman and CEO Larry Ellison Wednesday said Oracle Collaboration Suite should beat the pants off Microsoft Enterprise Core CAL infrastructure software, which Ellison said lacked security and universal search.

“They simply can’t compete,” said Ellison. “It (Oracle Collaboration Suite) is one set of tools to manage all your data.”

The software package works through Microsoft Outlook, any Web browser, voice, wireless devices and fax. Ellison commented he would sue if Microsoft even thought about adjusting its e-mail platform to make his software incompatible.

Key to the new software rollout, the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based software giant also said it had acquired the assets of Montreal-based Steltor back on June 21. The privately owned Canadian company works in the time management software space. Financial terms of the deal were not discussed but Oracle said it would transfer about 100 Steltor employees to its team.

The acquisition is significant because Steltor’s software supports all of the calendaring features, including the advanced capabilities, of Microsoft Outlook. Oracle Collaboration Suite customers can keep the Microsoft Outlook user interface while taking advantage of Oracle’s integrated suite and unbreakable software infrastructure.

Oracle said its new software is also less expensive than Microsoft’s offering. For example, to support 5,000 employees, the standard price for a collaboration system from Microsoft would currently cost about $1.28 million, whereas from Oracle a comparable system would cost $450,000.

The introductory price for a perpetual license of Oracle Collaboration Suite is $60 per named user, including voice support and regardless of the number of devices an individual uses to access information. Oracle will also offer Oracle Collaboration Suite as an annual subscription service at $15 per named user and as an outsourced service for an additional $10 per month per named user.

The company said the new suite would, of course, include its tried and true “Unbreakable” baseline qualities along with its clustering technology from the Oracle9i Database with Real Application Clusters and Oracle9i Application Server. The company said the embedded database and application technology could give a Web server directory services and single sign-on capabilities.

The No. 2 business software maker said its Oracle Collaboration Suite is anticipating a big shift towards collaborative applications. In a recent report, IDC said companies working to pool their resources face steep competition from operating systems, Web application servers and other broader platforms like Web services.

“Collaboration has become mission critical for companies, but software hasn’t kept pace due to lack of competition in the market,” said Charles Rozwat, executive vice president of Server Technologies at Oracle.

The company also dismissed analysts’ concerns that it had too many Big Irons to chase in the database sector, mainly IBM .

“We think Lotus is a dying animal,” Ellison said. “The only software company we care about a lick… is Microsoft.”

Oracle said the platform should be shipping sometime in August.