Oracle Reassigns Two Key Execs

Oracle spokesman James Finn said Senior Vice President Mark Barrenechea will now lead the company's new market development group, which will track installations of the company's applications that automate functions such as accounting, purchasing and inventory.

Barrenechea's goal is to make certain that the implementations are successful and that customers become references.

"Oracle doesn't have a reputation as a 'customer-comes-first' kind of organization," said Joshua Greenbaum, principal of Enterprise Applications Consulting in Daly City, California.

"This is a kinder, gentler Oracle ... If Barrenechea can go out there and show customers that Oracle cares about its customers -- this is going to be good for everybody," said Greenbaum, who added that sales to existing clients are what carry software companies through recessions.

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Oracle also said that Ron Wohl, the company's executive vice president in charge of building enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, will take on Barrenechea's former duties developing Oracle's customer relationship management (CRM) products and combine those development efforts.

ERP software helps companies manage purchasing, inventory, human resources and other business functions, while CRM software automates such things as sales force management and customer service.

Oracle's applications business was once heralded as the engine of future growth for the software maker, but those sales have been falling in recent quarters due to a weak tech spending environment and company-specific woes.

In its recently reported third quarter, Oracle said applications sales fell 41 percent year-on-year to $147.9 million in the quarter ended Feb. 28.

Oracle released early versions of its applications too soon and users complained that the software was riddled with bugs. Its marketing got ahead of the product reality. And the company got caught up in a widely publicized rift with the Oracle Applications User Group, analysts said.

"At a high level, there's been something problematic about their applications execution ... anything they can do about that is a net positive," said Banc of America Securities analyst Bob Austrian.

Meanwhile, Oracle investors carry the burden of the company's missteps. The stock finished Wednesday's regular Nasdaq session 8 cents lower at $12.63 -- significantly off its year high of $20.84.

Austrian said Oracle is moving toward eliminating the software glitches that plagued the company in its early days as an applications vendor.

"They need to put some road miles between then and now," he added.

"If they can execute well in the applications arena, finally, it will be very well received by Wall Street ... but that is a big if," Austrian said.

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