UK Oracle User group gives thumbs up to Oracle applications

That’s chief among the findings of a survey conducted by the UK Oracle User Group (UKOUG) ahead of its Birmingham conference and published yesterday. “They’re a good set of results for Oracle,” says Ronan Miles, UKOUG chairman, “and with 600 respondents – 30% of the base – it’s clear they understand that Oracle does link its actions to the survey.” Miles says Oracle made significant investments in existing JD Edwards and PeopleSoft applications users following last year’s poor survey results. “Now the survey shows measurable improvements, and it’s clear that Oracle is setting its development policy to follow user group statements,” he says – although he concedes the potential for a more cynical view that all new release happened long enough ago for user opinions to have gone through the cycle of pleasure, pain and pleasure again. As for Oracle Fusion – the future consolidation of Oracles enterprise applications around its new technology framework – the UKOUG survey shows user understanding has risen just 3% in a year, from 51% to 54%. However, Miles says this is the best that could be expected. “SAP and Microsoft .Net users on top of Oracle won’t be interested in the plans for Fusion, so this number is a clear win for Oracle,” he says. And he adds that the fall in applications users saying they will move over to Fusion in 2009 demonstrates that Oracle’s future-proofing Applications Unlimited is now trusted and comfortable for most users. “Most users now don’t see themselves moving off their current technology because they believe they can take their time – and Oracle should be pleased because they wouldn’t want everybody wanting to move over on 1 March 2009!” And the same goes for Oracle E-Business Suite, which also shows customer satisfaction rates rising. “Even Oracle’s business intelligence strategy, which was earlier deemed to be very confusing, is now understand by users. They can see the direction of Siebel analytics and what the Hyperion acquisition bring to the party. Oracle has invested a lot in UKOUG membership and it’s paying off.”