Oracle upgrades Web-based software

BOSTON, USA: Oracle Corp has created Web-based software designed to help salespeople win more business, its latest attempt to overtake its smaller rival that leads in the field, Salesforce.com Inc, four analysts briefed by Oracle said on Monday.

Oracle, the No. 2 publicly held software maker, plans to unveil the programs on Tuesday, the analysts said.

The new program adds browser-based technologies and can be customized to run on BlackBerrys, and personalized Google and Yahoo Inc pages.

Business users have requested those features because they are comfortable using that technology, analysts said.

"This is very much in line with what we are seeing the marketplace looking for," said one analyst who was briefed by Oracle executives.

That customers increasingly want this technology was underscored last year when Salesforce.com beat Oracle for a deal to provide software to 30,000 employees of investment bank Citi.

Salesforce.com also has 25,000 Merrill Lynch subscribers.

"That was a wake-up call. They have come to a realization that there is money to be made from delivery of software as a service," said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research. He was not briefed by Oracle.

Oracle bought No. 1 customer relationship management software maker Siebel two years ago for almost $6 billion.

The new product, based on technology acquired in the deal, will drop the Siebel name and be called Oracle CRM On Demand. It is its 15th release in 4-1/2 years.

Analysts have said Siebel software users complain they must enter large amounts of data into the program, which discourages them from using it.

The new version does a better job of splitting up those tasks, so that each worker only enters data relevant to his or her job, the analysts said.

"This is focused on the personal productivity of the user, not the organization as a whole," said one of the analysts.

The social networking features alert workers when colleagues have ties to a sales prospect, or help them identify experts who might be able to help close a deal.

SAP AG, the world's biggest maker of business management software and one of Oracle's biggest rivals, announced similar features in its on-premise CRM package late last year.