Oracle Reveals Future of Government Sales

Fitzgerald is chiefly responsible for all government contracts at Oracle, covering everything from relatively small county commission purchases to state budget appropriations to sales agreements with virtually every federal agency in existence. Those agencies include heavyweights such as the departments of Defense, Health, Energy and Transportation. Among the top government resellers teaming up with Oracle are its largest partner, Herndon, Va.-based DLT, as well as Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys Corp. and Virginia Beach, Va.-based Mythics Inc. But, as Fitzgerald explains in a recent interview with VARBusiness magazine, Oracle is eager to provide plenty of exposure for the smaller VARs seeking a growing presence in the government marketplace.

With a quarter-century of experience in information technology sales/sales management, Fitzgerald first worked for Oracle from 1987 to 1997 as vice president and general manager of the public sector sales group. During the immense overhauls in federal procurement reform at this time, Fitzgerald helped Oracle's government customers make the critical transition from relatively rudimentary flat-file systems to common, relational database systems, essentially helping pave the way for modern IT infrastructure in the federal marketplace.

Fitzgerald then left Oracle to join Mountain View, Calif.-based Netscape Communications in 1997. He served as vice president of North American sales, directing Netscape's transition from browser to enterprise software sales. Then, in 1999, he launched the government-focused sales group for San Mateo, Calif.-based Siebel Systems Inc., as the company's vice president over public sector sales. He returned to Oracle in May 2001, as senior vice president of government markets, overseeing the federal and state/local sectors. In November 2001, he was named to his current position. He's a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, and began his career in 1976 in a sales position with Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp.

In his conversation with VARBusiness, Fitzgerald explained how this era of Homeland Defense and global reach has translated into a wealth of partnership activity between Oracle and its VAR partners,activity that continues to evolve rapidly every day.

VB: Since Sept. 11, security seems like Topic A through Z these days, especially in the government marketplace.

Fitzgerald: This is true. The events of Sept. 11 greatly impacted our company,both personally and professionally. We lost eight employees that day, including [account manager] Todd Beamer on United Flight 93. Here, at the Reston, Va., office where our government sales are based, we have eight flags that line our driveway as a tribute to the people we lost. On the very day of Sept. 11, our chairman, Larry Ellison, called me and said, "Whatever we need to do for our customers in Defense and in New York, just do it. There is nothing that we won't do for them."

Now, we had already agreed that spring to a goal of building an Information Assurance Center, a kind of secure, information-sharing structure for customers and partners before the attacks. But, after Sept. 11, our determination was only made greater. That is where we're most focused and most proud of our accomplishments. We've invested a significant amount of money into the center in Reston. We built this into a facility that would enable our customers and partners,resellers and independent software vendors,to come together and produce state-of-the-art security. We work, for example, with Iridian Technologies Inc. in Moorestown, N.J., on its biometric, iris-recognition solutions to provide border security systems. We've worked extensively on developing the most secure systems anywhere when it comes to sharing information.

The challenge now is to collaborate more effectively while protecting the information. Obviously, there's tension between those two necessities. We're working with technology built into our database to ensure that only the data that a government customer is cleared for can be accessed.

VB: What do you provide for VAR partners when it comes to bringing these products to market?

Fitzgerald: Yes, for example, we just had an open house at our information assurance center facility in November. We had more than 200 government customers and 60 partners demonstrate the capabilities that we could provide. Biometrics, simulation technologies,you name it. The feedback we received from the government customers was amazing. They were really impressed with everything that our reseller partners could provide. We have 250 partners now involved with Homeland Security. The Oracle PartnerNetwork is a global one, and we've added 55 new companies to it since Sept. 11.

VB: The demand for wireless applications has further brought security issues to light. How have you addressed that for the government customer?

Fitzgerald: We're very involved with this in many ways. We're providing complete wireless services to a number of government customers,I can't name many of them. But one, though, the Air Force, uses this for maintenance operations when crews are working on the plane. They see that they have a 'down' part, then, instead of walking back to the hangar and reporting it, they wire the information to the hangar. The next thing you know, the truck is coming out to the plane to deliver the part.

Security is key for any kind of wireless communications solution. At Oracle, we encrypt everything that goes out there. We help our partners who don't have that kind of sophistication capabilities in developing this.

It's also important to note that we're the only database technology provider to get certified with National Security Telecommunications Information Systems Security Policy (NSTISSP) Number 11. This requires information systems involved in national security to have independent measures of assurance. We've had no less than 15 independent evaluations on our core technologies. Our partners come to us with great capabilities, and we bring to them this robust, secure environment. That's why resellers have been gravitating toward us since September 11. We've invested in this. It helps our customer, and it helps our country.

VB: Are you going to be doing any similar forums, to further elevate the profile of your solution providers to the government customer?

Fitzgerald: Definitely. This is going to be an ongoing effort. By integrating into our assurance center the test-case examples of what we and our partners provide, capability-wise, we give the reseller partner a lot of confidence. It proves that even if you're relatively small, you can do big things.

We're actually taking our forum on the road in several cities this year,Denver, Ottawa and our corporate headquarters in Redwood Shores in the first half of May. The focus on these events, which will continue throughout the year, will be the state/local market. This is where Homeland Security really takes place. It's essential to get to those government customers the same message that we've communicated to the federal ones. We feel like the federal issues regarding security and public safety are going to move rapidly to the state and local level. And we help our reseller partners establish ties to the state and local customer. We make it easy for them to integrate themselves within our organization structure. We know it's hard for a small company, so we try to make it easy,on everything from the marketing benefits to the technologies we provide.

VB: You've recently announced a major product launch,your Healthcare Transaction Base data repository (HTB). Apparently, Oracle believes this solution segment will be a big one. How big?

Fitzgerald: It's hard to say, but it's going to be huge. This product line will revolutionize the effectiveness of the health care industry. It's not only about building important bioterrorism tools to assist with the health and well being of our society. It enhances the portability capabilities as well: When a doctor diagnoses you, the technology input is transferred to another area that tracks the financial reimbursement mechanisms. We do all of this message mediation on the fly with this solution, and store the data in a highly scalable database. This will help the U.S. military health care networks and other top Health Department services. We're discussing this with state and local agencies too. We're spending millions and millions of dollars developing this and now it's rolling out. It's a field-of-dreams solution that our partners can build upon for all kinds of applications,epidemiology algorithms to enhance medical intelligence findings, for example. We're also announcing a second version of this in June.

VB: You're equally excited about your most recent government e-mail solution line, Oracle Collaboration Suite, where you are working to store all applications on a central database and to have servers running all the software. What are the latest developments here?

Fitzgerald: We already have a number of partners signed on for this. We're taking the concept of security and bringing that to the e-mail systems. This is one of the most expensive and insecure platforms in government. We're providing databases with all the security enhancements that the government customer needs. We're centralizing e-mail servers in one secure database for a fraction of the cost that the government is paying now. We're just beginning to develop forums on this specifically. This product will involve full capabilities too,from voice mail support to work-flow tools to real-time conferencing and searching applications. This will apply to a fourth-generation, e-mail system,one in which all of these applications are built upon. Voicemail and e-mail are all stored in one place, and are searchable and subject to government retention policies. We can improve upon what the government customer has and protect agencies from viruses. And if your e-mail client is Netscape or Outlook, it doesn't matter. We run this from the back end.

This will be a tremendous market opportunity.

VB: Oracle was among the pioneer companies in merging state/local sales with federal operations. Why?

Fitzgerald: We did this back in 1995. It was obvious to us that the federal government business was growing at a tremendous rate. But, at the same time, the state and local operations were handled within our commercial sector and, as a result, weren't getting the attention that was needed. We had to merge this with our executive leadership over federal sales. As a result, state and local sales have thrived, accounting for 40 percent of our government business.

VB: You bring a broad range of experience to this division. What did you do in the Air Force and how does it help you in your current position?

Fitzgerald: I served in Germany and North Carolina as a pilot from 1972 to 1978, after graduating from [Boston College]. I was a lieutenant. First and foremost, it allowed me to understand exactly how the military works. I developed great contacts, which, in anyone's life are important and help me to this day. At Oracle, we're always bringing in people with domain expertise. We have lots of ex-military officers,generals and admirals. What we do is bring in an array of talent,from seasoned service officers to top tech talent,and meld it into a successful organization.

VB: How did your experience with Netscape help?

Fitzgerald: It really rounded me out when it came to understanding the Internet. I interacted often with Marc Andreessen, James Barksdale and Jim Clark. Those guys started the Internet revolution and this was an exceptional opportunity for me to learn and get a feel for e-commerce. With me, they needed someone with enterprise sales expertise to help them transition from a browser to an enterprise model.

Because of that experience, I have more insight into the entrepreneurial, start-up business model. A lot of the VARs we work with at Oracle are in this mode. We understand what's important to them,that we need to work with their capabilities. We need to help build,and enhance,an image for them as responsible, proven suppliers. We help them with critical areas of development that they need, especially now with the demand for security in every product these solution providers sell. H