Oracle Collaboration Suite 2.0 Due In June--But Without Instant Messaging

Oracle Collaboration Suite 2.0--based on existing e-mail, calendaring, file management, search, voice-mail, fax and wireless components--will feature realtime communications capabilities include iMeeting Web conferencing, co-browsing and document sharing, said Steven Levine, vice president of Collaboration Suite marketing at Oracle, during a recent meeting with CRN.

The iMeeting component will offer full Web conferencing, white-board capabilities for marking up and editing documents online, voice/audio streaming, polling, annotation, the record and playback of meetings, and chat sessions, he said.

However, version 2.0 will lack the robust instant-messaging and presence-awareness features of Lotus SameTime and Microsoft's forthcoming Real-Time Communications Server 2003, but those capabilities will be offered in a future release, Levine said.

Levine would not confirm the June date but did say the upgraded collaboration suite is still on track to ship by the end of the first half of 2003. While the company has made its e-mail product available for more than five years, its first collaboration suite shipped last September.

Oracle's release is expected just months before Microsoft debuts its Real-Time Communications Server 2003 Standard Edition, expected this fall.

Oracle executives said the ability for users to access collaboration features such as Web conferencing and document sharing, and to record, store and playback from the Oracle 9i database is a major advantage.

"It runs on the Oracle infrastructure and stores Web conferencing sessions in the database," Levine said. "Users can browse the same Web site together from different locations. You can capture audio and work with PowerPoint and edit with other people in real time. E-mail is now mission-critical, and we should treat it as such. The market is expanding well beyond e-mail to do work in real time. It makes sense to put it in the suite," he said.

The database giant shipped its first collaboration suite last September. The collaboration bundle also features voice-mail and fax capabilities.

On Wednesday, Oracle announced partnerships with Anikti, Avnet, Lucent Worldwide Services and Paracon to provide implementation services for Oracle Collaboration Suite.

The Oracle Collaboration Suite Voicemail component runs on standard Intel components to enable customers to replace expensive, proprietary voice-mail systems with lower cost, commodity solutions. The Voicemail component, for example, runs on Intel Xeon processor-based servers, Intel Dialogic telephony boards and Intel NetMerge Converged Communications Software.

These modular components enable the elimination of expensive proprietary voice-mail systems. Oracle offers the collaboration suite as a hosted service and through its own consulting services and a small network of partners.

Oracle partners said customers like the concept of contextual collaboration, in which e-mail and collaboration features are offered as services within a corporation's existing database and application infrastructure because it lowers costs and administration and improves security.

IBM is also taking that approach by integrating its forthcoming Workplace Messaging solution, due to be unveiled this month, on IBM DB2 and WebSphere.

One partner said Oracle customers are exploring integrating their messaging and collaboration features with their database infrastructure to improve security, lower messaging costs and provide tighter integration with their CRM and ERP applications.

"It's still a small number [of customers using suite 1.0]. People are kicking the tires and seeing if it's the real thing, but it's one of the highest interest products from Oracle we've ever seen," said Richard Niemiec, CEO of TUSC and president of the International Oracle Users Group-Americas. People are tired of paying for Microsoft Exchange. Many customers are using Lotus Notes and Exchange, and you can get Outlook support through Oracle," he said.

According to a document posted on Oracle's Web site, the vendor plans to deliver a host of new collaboration features for the suite over the next 12 months including support for the RIM BlackBerry device, support for future releases of Microsoft Outlook, customizable workflows and more granular security controls.

In addition, Oracle will offer e-mail enhancements including per-user backup and restore, enhanced support for server-side rules and migration tools for Novell GroupWise and OpenMail users, thus supplementing existing Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange migration tools.

The real-time communication features, improved performance and reliability and GUI drag and drop features will make the collaboration suite more appealing for Oracle users, said Sean Brennan, product manager for the Oracle line of business at CAT Technology, an Oracle Business Partner in Los Gatos, Calif.

The streamlined installation capabilities promised in version 2.0 will make it easier to set up and shorten implementation times. However, he plans to pitch the solution to Oracle customers based on cost savings and enhanced security offered by the database.

"Everyone is concerned about cost and security, and this gives customers ROI at a fairly quickly rate," Brennan said. "Typically, 70 percent to 80 percent of the user base are Notes- or Exchange-based. But you have to roll out these servers horizontally as you add users, where Oracle can have 42,000 users on two 8-way boxes so maintenance and number of personnel is significantly cheaper than for Exchange customers."