Oracle Once Again Leads the Corporate Software Pack

“Beauty is the oracle that speaks to us all.” --Luis Barragan

Mexican architect Luis Barragan was one of the great creative minds of the 20th century – transforming Mexico’s building tradition with his poetically elegant yet simple architectural style.

Much like Luis Barragan, software powerhouse Oracle (ORCL) has a long history of transformational change within the software industry – though in recent years it’s often been caught lagging behind key competitors.

Not any more, at least according to the latest ChangeWave Research survey on corporate software spending trends.

The October survey of 1,780 Alliance members involved with IT spending in their organization shows Oracle once again leading the corporate software pack. Moreover, after two-consecutive quarters of slower spending growth, software purchasing trends appear to be steadying going forward.

A total of 18% of respondents say their company plans to spend more on software over the next 90 days, while 14% say they’ll spend less – exactly the same as our previous survey in July.

Security (23%) is still the top category respondent companies say they’re buying over the next 90 days, but Virtualization software spending (9%) is very much on the rise – up 2-pts since July.

Oracle Grabs the Momentum

The standout finding of the survey is the momentum Oracle shows across several major software fronts. In fact, according to the survey it’s the only company currently showing market gains across various software verticals – including Business Intelligence [BI], Customer Relationship Management [CRM] and Enterprise Resource Planning [ERP].

Here’s the tale of the tape:

• Oracle Gains Share in BI Market. Oracle (36%) is the new leader among BI software vendors, having experienced a sizeable 8-pt increase in share since our previous survey in July. Microsoft (MSFT) (35%, up 1-pt) is now a close second.

Note that Hyperion Solutions (19%; up 5-pts) – a company recently acquired by Oracle – also shows clear gains in the space.

• Oracle Holds Onto its Lead Among CRM Vendors. Better than one-in-four (26%) respondents say their company currently uses Oracle CRM software – unchanged from the previous survey. SAP (SAP) (17%, down 2-pts), Microsoft (16%, unchanged), and SalesForce.com (CRM) (15%, down 4-pts) are locked in a tight battle for second place.

• Oracle and Microsoft Showing Momentum Among ERP Vendors. SAP (38%; down 8-pts) still leads among ERP vendors, but the company has lost share since our July survey. Second place Oracle is doing well (32%; up 2-pts); however, Microsoft (29%; up 15-pts) currently has the most momentum in this space.

Above and beyond the BI, CRM and ERP verticals, we also benchmarked trends in Data Storage & Management software – where we find Microsoft (30%) as the clear leader, followed by Symantec (SYMC) (20%), Oracle (17%) and EMC (EMC) (17%).

What About The Future?

The most bullish survey findings on Oracle arose from our look at corporate buying trends going forward.

We asked respondents to tell us which vendors their company plans on purchasing from over the next 90 days – and while the sample size wasn’t big enough to break out by vertical – the cumulative totals clearly show Oracle (+5) with the most momentum going forward.

In direct contrast, compare Oracle with Microsoft’s weak trend line (-5) over the next 90 days. We note that SAP remains unchanged from its previous measures in July.

Summary

The current survey contains real-time evidence that Oracle is on the upswing in terms of corporate software momentum.

The November 12th announcement that Oracle is entering the virtualization software market is the latest indication that CEO Larry Ellison is not planning to sit on his laurels anytime soon. The new product – named Oracle VM – was presented before thousands of corporate customers at a San Francisco IT conference.

Oracle VM is now available as a free download, and the company plans to sell service contracts for the product that will range from $499 to $999 per year. With the virtualization software market growing at an astronomical rate. Oracle plans on directly challenging current industry leader VMware (VMW) within this space.

If history’s an accurate guide, we’re likely to see a royal battle in the virtualization software market – but there’s plenty of room for profitable competition in the world’s fastest growing software space. And as we’ve just seen, Oracle has the market presence and momentum to wage a serious battle on just about every corporate software front.

Jim Woods co-wrote this article.

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This article summarizes the results of a recent ChangeWave Alliance survey. The Alliance is a research network of 13,000 business, technology and medical professionals who spend their everyday lives working on the front line of technological change. For more info on the ChangeWave Alliance, or if you are interested in joining, please click here.