Oracle is to deliver a major update to its Collaboration
Suite before the end of this year, adding instant messaging
capabilities, improving integration with enterprise applications
and enhancing other features.
This third release of Collaboration Suite is intended to make
the Oracle product a stronger rival to Microsoft Exchange and IBM
Lotus Domino, which dominate the corporate e-mail server
market.
Oracle had indicated earlier that the latest version of
Collaboration Suite would appear in the first half of 2004.
The instant messaging functionality is also overdue. Industry
insiders had expected instant messaging to be part of the second
release of Collaboration Suite last June. Both Microsoft and IBM
already sell instant messaging products.
Oracle stressed its commitment to the Collaboration Suite. The
company has hired Terry Olkin, cofounder and former chief
technology officer of secure messaging supplier Secure Data in
Motion, also known as Sigaba.
"The challenge is bringing the different pieces of Collaboration
Suite together into an integrated and easier to use product," Olkin
said.
Another task is raising the profile of Collaboration Suite.
"Clearly, it is not well known in the market. It is not in the same
breath as Exchange or Notes."
Oracle pitches Collaboration Suite as a cheaper and more secure
alternative for corporate e-mail, coupled with the fact that it
works with many user interfaces and offers certain benefits because
it is integrated with a common database. These benefits include
complying with regulations that require retention of all kinds of
electronic communications.
But Collaboration Suite is still a fledgling product, so it
should not be surprising if it is not completely at par with
offerings from Microsoft and IBM.
"What we need to do is come out with a high quality, almost
next-generation communications product. There has to be that wow
factor that says: hey we need to look at Oracle stuff because they
are thinking ahead, they are thinking outside of the box, they're
not just adding yet another feature," Olkin said.
Collaboration Suite Release 3 should reflect that thinking. It
will deliver a lot more than just tagging on instant messaging
capability to the existing product, said Rob Koplowitz, a senior
director of product marketing at Oracle.
Aside from instant messaging, Oracle will deliver enhanced
features to rival Microsoft's Windows SharePoint Services group
collaboration websites as well as improved integration with
Oracle's enterprise application products, he added.
Oracle launched its offensive against Microsoft and IBM in
September 2002 with the first release of Collaboration Suite. The
product was updated in June 2003 to include web conferencing.
Joris Evers writes for IDG News Service