Oracle shows support for alliance scheme

Electronic distribution will not affect Oracle's commitment to its newly found channel partners, the company claimed. This follows news that Microsoft will move more than 70 per cent of its business to an electronic model next year.

Polly Sumner, vice president of worldwide business alliances at Oracle US, said at the company's developer conference in Paris this week that the number of partners that would physically distribute Oracle software was set to rise from 7,000 to 10,000 by next March.

Oracle will invest $1.2 billion of its revenue in its alliance programme by March next year. 'The difference between us and Microsoft is that our programme is focused on value-added services,' Sumner said. 'We build our distribution strategies by product lines and we also have a sales model for large and vertical accounts.' She said that Oracle will continue to have both an indirect and a direct model.

The company will continue to roll out electronic distribution, but Sumner insisted that it would not compete with its partners by selling its software direct. 'Most of our partners like it,' she said.

'We think that value-added distributors can run the (virtual) stores for us. Value-added distributors would be able to build their businesses round Oracle products.'

'We're trying to create facilities for software developers to sell to each other.'

Many of its partners were not normally associated with distribution but nevertheless sold a lot of Oracle software, Sumner said, citing the example of Mincon, an Australian mining company that had established sales in Brazil, South Africa and Eastern Europe because of the development of Oracle software.

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