2008 CRN Channel Champions: Software

It looks like all that money Oracle Corp. spent acquiring companies like PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards and Siebel Systems is paying off. Oracle is the Channel Champions 2008 winner in the category of enterprise business software suites, edging out Microsoft Corp. and handily beating SAP AG.

Oracle, based in Redwood Shores, Calif., scored an overall rating of 70.9 compared to Microsoft's 70.5 and SAP AG's 66.6.

Oracle's high technical criteria scores are what put the vendor over the top. Oracle's technical satisfaction rating was 83.2, a significant lead over Microsoft's 81.0 rating and a surprisingly wide advantage over SAP's 74.8 score. Oracle beat Microsoft and SAP in almost every technical criteria, including product quality and reliability, scalability, configurability and customization tools, and support for multivendor products and standards. Only in price for performance did Microsoft have a higher score—and by a wide margin at that, 80.0 to Oracle's 74.7.

The contest between Oracle and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft was more evenly split in channel program and support criteria and financial criteria.

In channel program and support, Microsoft won out with a score of 66.3 to Oracle's 65.5. Solution providers gave Oracle higher marks for postsales training and channel program relevance while Microsoft earned higher grades for technical training and presales support. Walldorf, Germany-based SAP AG, however, scored higher than both competitors in managing channel conflict.

Still, Oracle's channel programs that assist solution providers selling to small and midsize businesses are winning praise from the company's channel partners.

"Oracle does a good job of pairing partners to their partner managers and providing us with solid sales leads as part of that process," said Tarek Fadel, CEO of New York-based Fadel Partners Inc., a supplier of solutions built for media and entertainment companies around Oracle's E-Business Suite. His company has benefited from the Oracle Accelerate Program, which provides sales and technical assistance to channel partners who sell vertical industry-tailored application bundles to companies with annual sales less than $100 million.

-- Rick Whiting