It’s Products Galore From Enterprise Software Vendors

The last few weeks have seen the release of a string of new products by enterprise software vendors Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL), Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) and SAP SE (NYSE: SAP). Oracle led the way by releasing as many as eight new products in the last three weeks. Salesforce released two products simultaneously last week and SAP rounded up the tally with one new cloud offering.

Of Oracle’s eight new products, four are big data solutions released together in a bid to close the gap between data scientists and businesses. The global database leader also released three industry-specific solutions for the hospitality, electric utilities and life sciences industries. The last of Oracle’s eight new products is an update to the general-purpose Enterprise Performance Management System.

Meanwhile, Salesforce and SAP continued their push towards a cloud-based software environment. SAP released a new cloud-based planning solution, while Salesforce went one step further by integrating mobile-support in its new Analytics Cloud.

In this report, we will take a look at these latest products and other related updates of the aforementioned companies.

See our complete analysis for: Oracle | Salesforce.com | SAP SE

Oracle: Bringing Big Data to Small Businesses

Having shaken up the global server industry (Read: Oracle Triggers Price War in the Servers Market), Oracle returned to its roots with the release of a quartet of new products designed to close the gap between data scientists and businesses. The new big data offerings include, Oracle Big Data Discovery, Oracle GoldenGate for Big Data, Oracle Big Data SQL 1.1 and Oracle NoSQL Database 3.2.5. ^[1] These new products are aimed at enabling Hadoop, NoSQL, and SQL technologies to work together and be deployed securely over public cloud, private cloud as well as on-premises infrastructure.

The key selling point behind these products is that instead of having to rely on data crunchers, it puts the power of big data into the hands of small businesses themselves. For example, the Oracle has termed the Big Data Discovery as the “visual face of Hadoop”, that is, a user-friendly interface that facilitates finding, exploring and analyzing big data insights. Similarly, the GoldenGate for Big Data allows businesses to stream unstructured data from dissimilar transactional systems, allowing users to access a type of data analysis that was so far limited to data scientists and data crunching organizations. To top it off, subscription-based cloud access removes the cost barrier that so far prohibited small businesses to utilize big data analytics.

Oracle also released an update to its Enterprise Performance Management System, specifically in the Oracle Hyperion Financial Management. ^[2] With the latest update, the Oracle Hyperion Financial Management system is now available on Oracle Exalytics with simplified deployment and reduced cost of ownership.

Lastly, Oracle also released industry-specific products for the Hospitality, ^[3] Utilities ^[4] and Life Sciences ^[5] sectors. Oracle Hospitality and Oracle Utilities are aimed at providing analytic solutions for the respective industries. On the other hand, Oracle Life Sciences Consumer and Patient Solution is part of Oracle Marketing and is aimed at enhancing customer and patient engagement.

Salesforce: Paving The Way For Analytics on Mobile Devices

Amidst the hype around the transition to the cloud, Salesforce has already made the move to what it believes could be the next big thing in analytics – mobile access. Last week, Salesforce made its Salesforce Cloud Analytics available for use on mobile devices. ^[6] The Phone Analytics Cloud has been built upon the Wave platform and is the first analytics solution for mobile users, according to Salesforce. Users can now import, analyse and share data sources through new dashboards built especially for mobile devices. The product is expected to be available from March 2015 and will be available free of additional cost to Analytics Cloud licensees.

Salesforce also released a new product in conjunction with its Cloud Application platform partner, Heroku. The new app-development platform, named Heroku Enterprise, is a new edition of Heroku that offers the collaboration, control and support essential for enterprise-grade app development. ^[7] Capitalizing on the burgeoning global app economy, Heroku Enterprise offers a ready-to-use platform for large teams to facilitate collaboration, sharing of third-party services and cross-functional team support.

SAP: Cloud Plans

SAP added another feather to its cloud portfolio with the release of SAP Cloud for Planning last week. ^[8] The latest cloud-based app is geared towards CFO’s and finance professionals for optimizing the flow between analyzing, planning, collaborating and consuming information. The new app, built on the SAP HANA for Cloud platform, offers in-app social collaboration and advanced analytics.

The Cloud for Planning app is SAP’s latest step towards transitioning from a traditional on-premises software vendor to a cloud-based software-as-a-service vendor. SAP has been aggressively promoting its cloud-based products to drive revenue growth, even as revenues from new software licenses are on the decline. (Read: SAP Posts Strong 2014 Results, Cloud Business to Drive Future Growth)

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More Trefis Research

1. Oracle Advances Vision for Enterprise Big Data, Oracle Press Release, February 19, 2015 [↩]
2. Oracle Press Release, February 6, 2015 [↩]
3. Oracle Launches Oracle Hospitality, Oracle Press Release, February 19, 2015 [↩]
4. Oracle Utilities Analytics Solution Helps Utilities Manage Storm Data in Near Real Time, Oracle Press Release, February 3, 2015 [↩]
5. Oracle Announces Oracle Marketing Cloud’s New Life Sciences Consumer and Patient Solution, Oracle Press Release, February 5, 2015 [↩]
6. Salesforce Unveils Next Wave of Mobile Innovation for the Salesforce Analytics Cloud, Salesforce Press Release, February 19, 2015 [↩]
7. Salesforce Announces Heroku Enterprise, Salesforce Press Release, February 19, 2015 [↩]
8. SAP Delivers a New Generation of Planning in the Cloud, SAP Press Release, February 18, 2015 [↩]