Korean giant spurns Oracle as it lands in UK

TmaxSoft claims to offer a simpler and cheaper alternative to Oracle as it looks to calm 'increasing anger' with the tech giant

A South Korean software vendor has poured scorn on Oracle as it rocks up in the EMEA market, claiming that it will break the giant's monopoly and offer the channel a simpler and cheaper alternative.

Enterprise software vendor TmaxSoft was founded in 1997 and claims to hold a majority share of the South Korean web-application server market. It also has bases in the US, Russia, China, Singapore, Japan, and most recently, in the UK.

Its Kingston-upon-Thames and London branches, which opened earlier this year, are home to 10 staff in total, but as the firm puts its aggressive master plan into action, it hopes to grow that number significantly.

The firm's chief executive Joe Kim said it was time for customers to look at other vendors who offer alternatives to Oracle's "puzzling licensing models" and "slow and complicated implementations".

"Oracle has been dominating the market for decades, making it near-impossible for smaller companies to compete, despite the significant benefits they could offer," he said.

"But as we're seeing a new breed of innovative tech companies [like us] emerge from new markets, the market could look really different in five years' time. New players are opening doors for channel partners in a market that was once seen as off limits.

"Competitors understand customers' frustrations with Oracle and have the technical capabilities to offer real, viable alternative solutions, without the headache of dealing with an organisation that no longer seems to value customer loyalty."

By the end of next year, the firm wants to establish itself as one of the top five software vendors in the world.

It currently has no channel partners in the UK, but its UK sales director James Mills vows to push all business through resellers as soon as they sign up.

"We are really geared up to dealing with new partners which have a trusted-adviser status with their clients and genuinely want to give them and their prospects a choice, rather than just staying with the status quo of paying lots of money to Oracle," he said.

He added that he hopes to sign up "several dozen" resellers in the UK, which he hopes will be won over by its price promise.

"We can offer something on x86 kit which is 61 per cent cheaper than Oracle can do on Sun," he said.