Oracle Fusion Apps: The power of waiting

It looks like in two weeks from now, at Oracle Open World 2010 Oracle will finally be announcing Oracle Fusion Applications, the next generation of Oracle’s package based applications.

During the last years Oracle has been postponing the launch of Fusion Apps, because of changes in the technology stack underneath it and also strategic changes in their company. And this despite the fact that SAP already launched a similar approach of their applications a couple of years ago.
So why did Oracle take such a long time and why would that be beneficial?

Strategy
In the last years Oracle has been doing a couple of strategic acquisitions and of those acquisitions, the SUN and BEA deals are the most significant ones. These acquisitions are strategic for the development of Oracle’s Fusion Applications because by doing so Oracle has been setting the firm basis for their applications.
With the best of breed application server (Weblogic) as the basis of the development platform and on top of that a superior integration stack with products like Oracle Service Bus and Oracle BPEL Process Manager which now form the basis for fully integrated Service Component Architecture (SCA). Topped off with Oracle Webcenter Suite as it’s Enterprise 2.0 / UI layer suite, Oracle completes an entire stack for building the next generation of agile, built for change, business applications.
Of course since besides the Database everything in the Oracle productstack is or will become Java based, this is one of the big reasons for the acquisitions of SUN Microsystems.

Development
As with all of their products Oracle has spent a lot of money in the last years and still is investing in further development of the acquired products to form a fully integrated platform. This platform (Fusion Middleware 11g) is the firm basis of the Fusion Applications; Business functions are offered as services through the Middleware integration stack and composite applications can be created in which standard applications are combined with custom, justifiably unique functionality to form one business application. Ending up in one single User Interface based upon Webcenter Suite which enables end users to setup their working environment to meet their specific needs in an iGoogle manner.
Keep in mind that Oracle, by developing the Fusion applications using their own Fusion Middleware stack is eating their own dogfood (pretty tasteful if you ask me!) and enables customers to use the same platform to develop their own applications in exactly the same manner as Fusion Applications. This way integration of or mashing up standard functionality with custom, high value, business specific functionality becomes easier then ever before!

Involvement
One of the strategic steps in development of the Oracle Fusion Applications was to involve key customers and partners in the beta-testing of the Fusion Applications. Being a key partner, Capgemini was one of few parties that were involved in this beta-testing. Of course under NDA, but the information as described in this blog is nothing more then a gathering of the information which is shared with the public already.
During the beta-test Capgemini key Oracle-consultants have scrutinized the beta-versions and collaborated with Oracle to rework their findings into the products.

The power of waiting
As mentioned before, SAP has launched a similar approach earlier than Oracle did. The big difference between the two launches is that SAP had been developing the integration stack and is still developing it while already launching the new applications approach. What customers noticed along the way is that the platform was (and is) far from mature enough to enable the SOA based business agility they would like to achieve.  
By waiting for the right moment on which the complete stack was ready for developing a real innovative and future proof (also think of cloud / on demand movement) application stack, Oracle has proved to be a company which builds businesses. By not falling in the trap of a fast go to market, but waiting for a certain level of maturity, Fusion Applications can really make a difference for businesses. Of course the platform will not be perfect all from the start,  but it is definitely by far the best agile business application suite at this time.

During and after Oracle Open World 2010 me and my colleagues will give you updates and more details on Fusion Applications.

This blog was originally posted on Capgemini’s Oracle Blog