Author: Scott D. Rosenberg

Microsoft and the European Commission (EC) – not getting along…

Microsoft is having a hard time with complaints across the board about its software licensing and interoperability practices – most recently with a complaint forwarded to the EC from a UK education group called Becta. The EC has been engaged since January in investigating interoperability issues surrounding Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) document formats for Office 2007. The majority of complaints filed is about the software licensing agreements (SLAs). Becta is recommending that the UK educational community not use Office […]

What is going to happen when Larry Ellison retires?

There has never been a discussion of retirement of a successor named to Larry Ellison, but blogger Tom Foremski is predicting that at the very least it would be a former Oracle employee and he points specifically to Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com – he also predicts that Oracle would then acquire Salesforce.com. Benioff spent 13 years with Oracle prior to founding Salesforce.com and the rumor mill can’t get enough on the topic of Ellison’s retirement, although sources […]

Quick Byte: Oracle Licensing Tip #1

According to Oracle licensing rules, multi-core processors are to be counted as a single CPU in Standard Edition products. However for the Enterprise edition, the Oracle licensing rule is different…each core will be counted as a separately, but with pricing discounts. Recently, on a Pythian Group blog, Mark Brinsmead smartly pointed out that recent changes to Oracles licensing rules for the Standard Edition may result in higher pricing. He rightly pointed out that “When licensing Oracle programs with Standard Edition […]

The early bird gets the worms….

It’s no secret that the Oracle sales process is geared toward the end of the quarter – leaving sales rep less capable to offer aggressive discounts. If you are planning on making a large software purchase – don’t wait until the end of anything – month, quarter or year. Sales reps are pushing to close the big deals at the end of their cycle and will likely push your own contract to the back burner with bigger fish to fry.   […]

Should Larry be on top?

Now that Oracle’s very own Larry Ellison is Forbes’ #1 top-paid CEOs in technology companies for 2007, there are a flurry of comments on whether he deserves it.  It all started with Shayna Garlick’s Does Ellison Deserve to be No.1?  Old Larry even knocked his best friend – Steve Jobs – down for the position. Maybe it’s all those Oracle licensing fees.  Just kidding, Larry. So, does he deserve to be Numero Uno?   Tell us what you think.

Oracle buys AdminServer

On par with Larry’s acquisition strategy, Oracle (nasdaq: ORCL) will acquire AdminServer, a provider of insurance policy administration software.  Though, the terms of the deals have not been disclosed, but the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2008.  For more info, go to http://www.oracle.com/adminserver. AdminServer will complement Oracle’s existing products.  But, any users of Oracle Billing, Siebel Claims, Siebel CRM for insurance and AdminServer should start thinking about the Oracle licensing changes to be made during […]

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