Oracle Set to Rally, Educate 100 OPN Specialized Partners

Written by The VAR Guy 1
February 1, 2012

Oracle President Mark Hurd and Channel Chief Judson Althoff are set to rally and educate 100 Oracle Specialized channel partners tomorrow at the company's Redwood Shores, Calif., headquarters.

Oracle President Mark Hurd and Channel Chief Judson Althoff are set to rally and educate 100 Oracle Specialized channel partners tomorrow at the company’s Redwood Shores, Calif., headquarters. The gathering, set for February 2, will include product roadmaps and strategies to help partners leverage Oracle as a partner growth engine. Here’s some insight from The VAR Guy.

The inaugural Oracle Partner Executive Summit is expected to focus on Oracle’s extensive hardware and software portfolio. Althoff is the official host… but President Mark Hurd is expected to share his vision as well, The VAR Guy has heard.

It sounds like there will be a special emphasis on the Oracle Exadata database machine as well as the Oracle Database Appliance. In fact, there’s chatter that some Oracle Exadata partners from outside North America could also be on hand for the event.

The event’s lineup apparently includes:

Amit Zavery, VP of Fusion Middleware product management, covering cloud growth opportunities.
John Fowler, executive VP of systems, offering hardware roadmaps.
Robert Shrimp, group VP product marketing, covering Oracle Big Data Appliance and Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c.
Ted Bereswill, senior VP of North America alliances and channels, covering recent partner wins involving BIAS Corp., Cintra and MapleSoft Group. It’s safe to expect Oracle Database Appliance perspectives from Bereswill and the partners, The VAR Guy believes.

Oracle Partner Solutions

Meanwhile, Oracle continues to build and expand the company’s Oracle PartnerNetwork Solutions Catalog. The web destination includes nearly 21,000 partner solutions for end-customers to explore, according to Lydia Smyers, Oracle VP of worldwide alliances and channel programs and communications.

Sure, most vendors offer websites that allow customers to search for partners. Yawn… Many of those web sites are nothing more than Google maps and partner URLs. In stark contrast, the Oracle PartnerNetwork Solutions Catalog goes the extra mile; the site is loaded with dynamic content that refreshes with partner-centric news, depending on which page or solution a customer researches.

Hardware Growth?

Shifting gears, Oracle’s next quarterly earnings report is still several weeks away. EarningsWhispers.com says Oracle will likely announce its Q3 results on March 20, 2012. At that time, investors and partners will be watching to see if Oracle has jump-started hardware sales.

Distributors have told The VAR Guy that the Oracle Database Appliance, introduced in 2011, is off to a good start. But Oracle’s most recent quarterly results, announced in December 2011, included hardware and software sales figures that disappointed Wall Street.

Still, Oracle continues to bang a steady drum with its channel partners. Oracle put a brighter spotlight on its OPN Specialized partners during the 2011 Oracle OpenWorld conference. And this week, Oracle is set to host the inaugural Oracle Partner Executive Summit.

Memo to Oracle partners who are flocking to Redwood Shores this week: If you’re in the mood to leak information about the meeting, The VAR Guy (thevarguy [at] NineLivesMediaInc [dot] com) is all ears.