August 24, 2005

A full year after its intended release date, Oracle has finally shipped its newest version of Oracle Collaboration Suite. Its now two years that Oracle made its last major update on that software.

Oracle launched its suite in 2002, positioning it as a lower-cost alternative in a market overwhelmingly dominated by Microsoft's Exchange and IBM's Notes/Domino.

Like its rivals, Oracle's suite offers personal email and calendar applications, as well as collaborative tools such as group file management and Web conferencing. Oracle's new version, Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g, adds long-awaited instant-messaging functionality and an improved collaboration portal, dubbed Workspaces.

Oracle has kept Collaboration Suite's price constant since launching the software three years ago, at US$60 per named user for a perpetual license. Components of the suite can also be purchased piecemeal, for US$45 per named user. The suite is available worldwide in 25 languages.

Despite a price tag that frequently undercuts its rivals, Oracle has gained little traction in the market, thanks in part to the suite's more limited functionality. IDC estimates the 2004 worldwide market for "integrated collaborative environments" at us$1.9 billion, with Microsoft and IBM together drawing 90 per cent of that spending.

IDC's research puts Microsoft in the number-one spot, with 51.2 per cent of the market share, followed by IBM with 40.1 per cent. Among other vendors, only Novell Inc.'s GroupWise held a noticeable share, with 6 per cent of the market. Oracle registered seventh on IDC's list, with market share of 0.3 percent.

Gartner's estimates of the enterprise e-mail and calendaring software market show Oracle similarly distant, in fifth place with 0.3 per cent of the market to IBM and Microsoft's collective 93 per cent share.

Although Oracle Collaboration Suite can be used as stand-alone software by companies with no other Oracle infrastructure, Gartner sees it appealing primarily to companies that are already Oracle customers and don't need complex collaboration or messaging functionality.

Source: Computer World-Singapore