August 9, 2007

Oracle Accelerate: Partner Developed Applications

The hardware of technology is important, but it has its limits. The real power of the technology we use are the applications - hosted or traditional software.

For larger vendors, such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP they create platforms for managing one's entire business. The added value and power of these platforms is software, created by software developer partners, that runs on top of these platforms to perform specific business tasks and processes.

Oracle recently announced a program, Oracle Accelerate. This is a program for developers to create affordable and quickly developed solutions for the small-medium sized business (SMB) market. So far 26 applications have been developed through this program for the Oracle platform.

IBM has had similar program for years, IBM Express program which is specifically developed for the small-medium sized business (SMB) market. Through this program developers are given "templates" as it were in developing software for IBM's WebSphere platform.

"These Oracle Accelerate solutions are the first of many scheduled to hit the market. Our partners are critical to the Oracle Accelerate strategy as they bring a deep understanding of Oracle's products as well as the specific industry challenges and business complexities that SMBs and SMGs face every day," said Oracle Senior Vice President, Global SMB Business Unit, Tony Kender. "We have been building the infrastructure to enable our partners to build and deliver Oracle Accelerate solutions for their markets since October. Now that we have everything in place, we are working to review the large number of partners' solutions in queue and are looking forward to a continuous flow of new Oracle Accelerate solutions from our partners globally."

Why is this important for you?

As your business grows, it's very important to consider what software vendor(s) you will align with. It's counterproductive to work with 10 different software vendors, unless you really need to. It's best to see the 1 or 2 vendors who can provide the core of your back office needs.

One indication of their ability to service your needs is the bread of their partners. Not just resellers, but partners working with them on solutions. The better partners have solutions for every business but also vertical industry solutions as well.

0 comments