Press Releases

Rocela responds to Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems

27th January

In response to the completion of Oracle's buyout of Sun Microsystems, which has attracted some criticisms for its impact on market competitiveness, Rocela, one of the largest independent Oracle consultancies working with more than 50 Oracle global clients, today urged end users to view the merger as an opportunity and not a threat.

"Don't let emotions get in the way of the situation and take the deal on its face value" is Martin Mutch, CEO of Rocela's opinion on the news that the EU has approved Oracle's bid for Sun Microsystems.

Of course many organisations will have concerns about the impact that this will have on their business.  To understand more about the primary issues, Rocela, which is one of the largest independent Oracle consultancies in the world and works with more than 50 Oracle global clients, recently polled its customer base.  The main worries for end users were:

  • potential loss of vendor leverage and increased dependency on Oracle
  • questions on strategic intent for platform and software products
  • changes to the culture of Oracle and Sun

Oracle is aware of these issues, but despite having already undertaken more than 60 acquisitions, this is like none other.  It takes Oracle out of its comfort zone and having publicly committed to make the acquisition profitable, it will have to make changes to ensure the transition goes well for users.  But this will not happen overnight by any stretch, and in the meantime, Oracle and Sun users must take steps to make the most of the situation.

Mutch believes that this merger is an opportunity for IT directors and CIO's to build a relationship with Oracle that suits their terms, enabling them to take advantage of the years of experience the two companies have built up separately.  With the closer integration of systems and hardware and focused R&D, Oracle combined with Sun, should be seen as a friend, not foe.

To achieve this, smart organisations should move to create a strong strategic relationship with Oracle, which can be best done in three ways:

  1. Get architecture teams to work as closely to Oracle as possible.  In doing so, they can get a much better understanding of the product strategy and use this to their advantage.
  2. Take the time to understand the Oracle culture and pay close attention to the shift that will take place thanks to the acquisition.
  3. Take a critical and detailed view of your current usage and requirements of the software.  This will give a good basis for when the time for renegotiations comes.  This information is best gathered via software asset management (SAM).

By acting in this way, CIO's can be prepared to respond positively when Oracle presents its new roadmaps.  Oracle needs to make the acquisition profitable - Oracle's customers can turn the acquisition to positively create business value too.

 

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