Oracle - Not a CRM Leader Anymore?
Oracle is not on the CRM Magazine’s 2013 leader board. I would probably not even notice this, except for the pretty bad patch that Siebel is going through. A few facts that puts this in the perspective though:
- Salesforce.com (the leader) and Oracle have the same scores of 4.5. I should catch up on other factors that sets someone up for being a leader.
- The other leaders on the board are Microsoft, NetSuite, SAP, SugarCRM. I really like the way SugarCRM is, and have high respect for the way Microsoft CRM has turned out, but they don’t really compare to the breadth and depth of what is offered by Siebel (a product that has not changed much for ~5 years). Again, I should catch up on those leadership promotion factors.
- Oracle did make it to the leader dashboard last time, with lesser score.
With Fusion not coming to fruition as much as a Oracle fan would have liked, and with Siebel reeling under pressure from the newer/flashier players, there is no denying that Oracle has some catching up to do. But taking them out of leader boards? Common people, get real.
Siebel does appeal for complex CRM implementations even today (note that I used ‘complex’ and ‘CRM implementation’ in one sentence). We have also seen Oracle’s CRM segregation into Sales, Service and Marketing clouds - very similar to SFDC. Eloqua will play a role in regaining mind share in Marketing. In my mind, Oracle still has a long way to go before it loses its sheen even if it continues today’s confusing-at-best CRM strategy.