with SAP’s announcement of their next generation of applications due to be delivered in 2010, they are a full two years behind Oracle’s announced delivery date for our Fusion-based applications in 2008.

it is our belief that SAP will have to abandon ABAP and go to a standards-based middleware. Eventually, SAP will have to abandon their minimalist approach to acquiring industry-specific knowledge and products. But until they do, we will continue to gain application market share quarter after quarter and year after year.

..SAP’s growth in their most recent quarter was 8% and our growth in our last two quarters was over 80%we have leap-frogged them in backing via acquisitions, we have leap-frogged them in retail. We have leap-frogged them in telecommunications.

I cannot imagine them holding on to their existing strategy in the face of market share losses and what is turning out to be a rather slow organic growth for them.

“Since January of 2003, SAP has consistently articulated and delivered on its vision for enterprise SOA following a course of organic growth combined with strategic acquisitions. SAP offers customers market-leading, enterprise SOA applications today while Oracle’s next-generation applications exist only in PowerPoint and won’t be delivered until 2008 or beyond.

“mySAP ERP 2005 gives customers and partners a world-class ERP platform with planned, regular functionality enhancements without the need for major upgrades through 2010, and has been shipping to customers since June of 2006.

“By contrast, Oracle’s statements about SAP and their own Fusion progress continue to be inconsistent and misleading. In January, Oracle claimed they were halfway to Fusion and two weeks ago they said they were not even halfway done — Oracle needs to adopt one version of the truth, and be honest with the market on its actual progress.”