Interview: 'We're gaining on SAP' - Oracle's Charles Phillips. By Stuart Launchlan

Wearing my curmudgeonly hat inside the Enterprise Irregulars Google Group, I described Charles' claims as outrageous that should be committed to what I call the Orafice Hall of Shame. Other colleagues Josh Greebaum and Anshu Sharma parsed and moderated:

Dennis Howlett of AccmanPro called the claims outrageous leading to a debate on Enterprise Irregulars - and Josh Greenbaum who writes a ZDNet blog, in a rare feat, wrote the following response arguing for the facts in favor of Oracle and I quote him (with permission):

Rising to the defense of Charles in a disagreement with Dennis almost sounds crazy, but here goes:

The only really outrageous statement comes in the first graf:
We're not trying to preserve something from the 1970s like SAP is. As a company, we were in infrastructure first, then we moved into applications.

Correction: SAP is not preserving anything from the 70s (except some of its founders, who ARE relatively well-preserved. And Oracle was NOT an infrastructure company first: they started in database, moved to applications (in 89) and then went into infrastructure.

I have no problem with Josh's remarks - it's all part of the ebb and flow of debate among people of passion. I've since used that discussion as part of a more broad based post about how the 'new' meets the 'old' in times of technology transition over at ZDNet. So yes - I've spun the discussion - but in a different direction.

Internally to the group, the discussion has continued with Josh discussing the mess Peoplesoft got itself into and how Charles Phillips - then one of the Wall Street analysts an outsider could rely upon - trashed Peoplesoft and what happened once Dave Duffield, founder and CEO passed the baton to Craig Conway. Josh says:

Conway took over, and what did we get? Total Ownership Experience -- aka totally oversold excrement.

Too often in IT I see mutton dressed as lamb, companies with pig's ears trying to turn them into silk purses or, as seems to be Oracle's MO - just plain BS'ing your way through. Now we have a new expression - well done Josh. They're not the only ones but they are the most egregious.

Such forms of marketing begs yet another question: Why, if you're doing well - as Oracle is - does it remain necessary to puke over the competition, make claims that are blatantly incorrect or wring every ounce of spin from outlying facts? And before someone slaps me around - that is all part of the financial penalty YOU pay for software. Worth remembering next time someone trash talks their way through a presentation.

For those interested in a serious discussion about where Charles Phillips is spinning this, I'd recommend reading my colleague Phil Wainewright's detailed review of some of the more egregious statements.