Oracle Looking Beyond Database Customers With New Collaboration Suite

Version 2 of the suite, due in the first half of next year, will add whiteboarding, co-browsing and instant-messaging capabilities to the existing voice-mail, e-mail and unified search capabilities,all for $60 per user, according to Oracle.

That price includes "all the Oracle database and application-server functionality you need," said Chuck Rozwatt, executive vice president of server technologies at Oracle. The Collaboration Suite will allow large customers to consolidate servers and save money, he said.

Oracle supports its own 40,000 employees on one three-node Hewlett-Packard cluster running HP-UX and Oracle9i Real Application Clustering but has seen impressive results on Linux-Intel boxes as well, Rozwatt said during the OracleWorld conference held in San Francisco last month.

Oracle's contention is that its messaging platform will be far more cost-effective than Microsoft Exchange Server or IBM's Lotus Domino. Whether solution providers agree depends on where they sit.

"Oracle's tried [to unseat Microsoft and Lotus before with no success. I don't see what's different now," said one U.S. messaging integrator in the Midwest who requested anonymity.

Marc Hebert, executive vice president at Sierra Atlantic, an Oracle partner and solution provider based in Fremont, Calif., said that once the Oracle marketing machine kicks in, Collaboration Suite could become a hot product.

"The biggest issue for Oracle right now is getting top-line growth, and the Application Server and Collaboration Suite are [Oracle's best opportunities," he said.