Does Oracle Innovate?
February 23, 2009There’s an interesting conversation going on around the topic of whether Oracle is an innovation company any more.
It started at Vinnie Mirchandani’s ‘Deal Architect’ blog with a post stating:
Oracle, in my opinion, has forgotten how to develop code. Its top executives are deal makers, not technology visionaries.
Worse, when it comes to their acquisitions, they cannot retain or easily replace the entrepreneurial talent. Every person who departs Oracle comments about the mass confusion that comes with such a rapid accumulation of software IP.
This opinion seems to have struck a nerve as there has been an ongoing conversation in the comments of the post between Vinnie and Karen Tillman (VP Comms – Oracle).
There has also been a post from Dennis Howlett’s ‘Irregular Enterprise’ blog following on with further financial reasoning and anecdotal evidence.
Karen makes the interesting point that innovation is a matter of perception. She’s right. But the common denominator has to be – do I as a customer get better value from my IT investments as a result of what the s/w supplier offers? In ORCL’s case, it is hard to say that criteria has been met.