6 December 2002 Database and applications software vendor Oracle has unveiled a new cut-down version of its E-Business applications suite targeted at midsize companies in Europe.
Its E-Business Suite Special Edition, which Oracle will sell pre-installed on hardware, is intended to reduce the cost and implementation time of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications for mid-market customers.
Oracle partners in 13 European countries will sell the software, which includes financial accounting, sales order management, inventory management and purchasing modules. The software is most suitable for companies with between 10 and 25 ERP users. Organisations that require more licences will have to upgrade to the more expensive E-Business Suite for large enterprises.
The company’s partners will be able to determine the price of the product, which will differ depending on added software and services. An Oracle spokesperson said that the E-Business Suite Special Edition costs less than $100,000 for 15 users. This price includes hardware, implementation, a year’s support, licences and training.
But none of Oracle’s hardware partners have so far signed up to the new product suite, although it is seeking to persuade Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer and Sun Microsystems to adopt it. The E-Business Suite Special Edition server will have two microprocessors, four gigabytes of memory, and will run on open-source software vendor Red Hat’s Advanced Linux Server.
The new software will be targeted at companies with between 100 and 500 employees and revenues of between €20 million and €250 million. “There are around 200,000 European companies in this category we define as the mid-market,” said Alfonso Di Ianni, senior vice president of Oracle’s marketing, alliances and channels.
The company’s move marks a step up in competition in the lucrative European mid-market, which rivals such as software giant Microsoft and German business applications software specialist SAP are also targeting.
