Friday, April 18, 2008

Oracle Siebel Applications Unlimited (FAQ:4)

5. Will customers need to move to the Oracle E-Business Suite before upgrading to Oracle Fusion Applications?
No, customers will not be forced to move to the Oracle E-Business Suite prior to an upgrade to Fusion Applications. There will be no forced upgrades, and customers can count on Oracle’s unique Lifetime Support Policy to protect and support their existing applications.

6. Is Oracle taking on too much; that is, can you really continue to enhance the current applications while investing in the next-generation applications?
When Oracle acquired PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel, a vast majority of their development and support teams were retained. In addition, we plan to leverage our Fusion Middleware platform and infrastructure investments across all product lines. Prior to the acquisitions, each of the product lines had significant resources allocated to individual next-generation initiatives. The combined companies have more resources than the acquired companies had separately. These resources can be focused on functional enhancements instead of overlapping development on infrastructure for each of the product lines. Oracle is moving toward establishing separate business units for each product line.

7. How is Oracle taking input from customers as it develops the next product releases?
Oracle is working closely with our customer communities - including our CIO Advisory Board, Product and Industry Strategy Councils, and Customer Advisory Boards (CABs) - and with individual customers to determine product direction. We are also dedicating extensive time to analyzing customer enhancement requests, across all product lines. In addition, Oracle's independent global User Groups have created a single "Fusion Channel", through which user group members worldwide can assist and provide feedback directly into our development effort. To learn more about how to get involved with the Fusion Channel initiative, contact your local User Group, or go to www.iouc.org for more information.

8. How does this announcement impact the 2013 support timeline?
Oracle has already announced the Lifetime Support Policy for all product lines. The Lifetime Support Policy provides access to technical experts for as long as you license your Oracle products, and it consists of three support stages: Premier Support, Extended Support, and Sustaining Support. It delivers maximum value by providing you with rights to major product releases, so you can take full advantage of technology and product enhancements. Oracle’s Lifetime Support Policy also puts you in control of your upgrade strategy. Our flexible support policy stages make it easier for you to plan and budget for Oracle’s exclusive product upgrades. We plan to maintain all our families of products as long as they remain viable. This means that there is no longer a minimum 2013 support date.

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