Jim Sinur

I arrived on Wednesday during the mega rock concert featuring Aerosmith, Roger Daltrey of the Who and the Whalers. Unfortunately I was dining the Oracle BPM folks, but my tastes run more European these days with the likes of Stratovarius and HIM from Finland. You knew it was going to be Larryriffic with Ellison’s racing boat in the front of a closed Howard Street for party tents for other networking activities. I was hoping to see Larry’s custom Sliver Porsche or the Bentley, but I was either in the wrong place or they were not there. What I wouldn’t do to ride in that Porsche. I only have a mere 556 HP in my ride. Larry’s Porsche would blow it away.

The banners smelled of hardware; not software, which was a disappointment to me. There was barely a mention of BPM in the hallways, though there were sessions for the BPM type folks. What I don’t understand is Oracles lack of understanding of what it has.in Oracle BPM 11G version. It is ahead of the other power vendors of IBM, Microsoft and SAP. With Larry’s competitive nature and his desire to crush the competition, why isn’t he pressing the advantage he has at the moment? Why does Oracle bury BPM in the middleware sector? Oracle BPM is businessware; not middleware. I don’t get it. Larry never backed out of a fight. Maybe he has his hands full with the Sun deal (a lot of stock equity linked to that puppy), but Larry can multi-task with the best of them. I’m scratching my head and wondering if Oracle really powers that much business innovation.

While the numbers were down, Oracle Open World was a great place to congregate and learn. I had great sessions with clients and the BPM team. More to come from this author.