HYDERABAD: Enterprise solutions provider Oracle Corp has raised many an eyebrow by announcing a flurry of acquisitions.

Call it an attempt to eliminate competition or to extend its product portfolio with complementary companies' products, Oracle's determination to lead the enterprise application market space is apparent.

Will Oracle take on its formidable rival SAP in the ERP space? Or will the recent announcement to acquire Siebel catapult Oracle to be the largest CRM provider?

Whatever be the answers, it is business as usual for Oracle's customers.

V Vijay, director, DelFin Analytics, said, "The combined market share based on new license revenues for CRM software of Oracle, PeopleSoft, and Siebel was about 20 per cent in 2004, higher than SAP's 17 per cent. Over the next one to two years, combined CRM revenues of Oracle, Siebel and PeopleSoft could decline owing to worries on integration of these disparate products."

A recent Goldman-Sachs report based on Gartner market data said that the combined CRM revenues of Oracle (21 per cent) and Siebel (28 per cent) in 2004, did not exceed SAP's 51 per cent. Besides, the report further estimates a 13 per cent increase in SAP's CRM license revenue this year while Oracle's revenues are slated to decline rather than going northwards.

"Market analyses clearly show Oracle as the largest player in the CRM space, post its announcement of the proposed Siebel acquisition. It may not add any significant value immediately, but there will be incremental gains in the long run, as some customers using Oracle or SAP platforms use Siebel too. This is an interesting space for us," said a vice-president, of an ERP solutions provider.

He further insisted that SAP invariably is the leader in the ERP space, while it will be a while for Oracle to dominate SAP. Nonetheless, the results could be determined only when Oracle's Project Fusion slated to roll out convergent products integrating all acquired company's products sometime in 2007-'08 becomes operational.

Oracle stated that Project Fusion would integrate all components (JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Retek, iflex, and now, Siebel's products) to offer next-generation enterprise technologies, applications, and services. It intends to deliver features in phases across the product lines and with next level of upgrades.

A recent report by JP Morgan Securities Ltd, hints that besides the challenges in integration from a product point of view, there is eventual sales integration that needs to occur from the current buffet model at Oracle.

It further believes that SAP will gain market share against the larger Oracle, who is yet to demonstrate organic growth in its application business.