Oracle to unveil Fusion Apps for 2010 launch

By Jim Finkle

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp is putting the final touches on a new line of software to be introduced next year, including slick features that analysts say make it more compelling than rival products from SAP AG .

The product launch will be one of the most closely watched in Oracle's 32-year history as Chief Executive Larry Ellison has essentially staked his reputation on the new business management software, Fusion Apps.

Oracle has spent five years and billions of dollars on the project, part of its efforts to win customers away from SAP, the only company that sells more business management software than Oracle.

One key differentiator between Fusion Apps and the products available from SAP and Oracle is that it is easier to customize and integrate with other software, allowing businesses to save millions of dollars in consulting costs, said Ravi Kumar, a vice president at Infosys Technologies Ltd, which has been testing early versions of the software for six months.

Another important advance is the user interface, which looks more like a screen from Google Inc's GMail than a traditional business software application, he said.

'It is very user friendly. Very intuitive. People will be able to drag and drop,' Kumar said. 'Fusion will be much more user friendly compared to SAP.'

SAP did not return phone calls and emails requesting comment.

SAP and Oracle control virtually all of the market for software that large corporations use to manage accounting, payroll, human resources, sales and other operations.

It is rare for companies to switch software providers because it is a tedious and expensive process. Still, analysts said that if Fusion Apps are a hit and SAP fails to catch up, then Oracle may be able to win some customers away from the German company.

One research analyst who attended a two-day briefing on Fusion Apps at Oracle's Redwood City, California, headquarters described the user interface as 'slick.'

'It's leaps and bounds ahead of SAP,' said the analyst, who declined to be identified because Oracle asked that the news be kept quiet until after Ellison formally unveils Fusion Apps in a speech before some 10,000 customers later on Wednesday.

Oracle built Fusion Apps from scratch using some of the technologies found in websites from companies such as Google. Those technologies, dubbed Web 2.0, were not in use when Oracle and SAP wrote the frameworks for their current software.

'The new architecture will make Fusion Apps easier to customize and tailor than SAP,' the analyst said.

Another analyst said that SAP's software is built on an aging infrastructure. Every time SAP upgrades its product, it is restricted in what it can do because it must write the updated programs upon millions of lines of old code.

For SAP to technically catch up with Oracle, it will have to pursue the same type of mammoth upgrade that Oracle undertook to produce Fusion Apps, the analyst said.

Fusion Apps will initially include software for managing accounting, payroll, human resources, procurement, sales and other business needs that are similar across most industries, according to the people familiar with Oracle's new software.

A spokeswoman for Oracle declined to comment ahead of Ellison's speech which was scheduled to begin at 3.45 pm Pacific time on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Richard Chang) Keywords: ORACLE/ ([e-mail]; + 1 617 856 4344; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.