Technology consultancy Cap Gemini Ernst &
Young International B.V. (CGE&Y) Thursday said it has extended its deal
with Oracle , agreeing to pair its technology expertise
with Oracle’s application server, Oracle9i for customers.
The news is a coup for Oracle, which is looking to pry application server
market share from market leaders IBM
and BEA Systems
.
CGE&Y’s Paris-based unit said it would team with Redwood Shores, Calif.’s Oracle to
develop joint products, demo centers and step up sales and marketing
efforts over the next two years. CGEY, which competes with Accenture and
BearingPoint, offers management and technology consulting; systems
transformation; outsourcing and local professional services.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but the specifics of the pact call for
the creation of 13 CGE&Y Demo Center locations around the world that will
showcase Oracle9i Application Server and Oracle9i Database software. These
will be staffed by both companies.
The two companies will also design and develop industry and horizontal
solutions that yield return-on-investment for our customers, including
dedicated teams mobilized to deliver Oracle9i technology solutions in each
major geography. CGE&Y will train hundreds of its consultants on Oracle9iAS,
as well as deploy Oracle9iAS and Oracle9i Database to their customers.
Steve Garone, chief analyst and managing partner, The AlignIT Group, said
the deepening of their existing deal should
offer great value to CIOs and other IT decision makers.
“Both firms possess a strong focus on architecturally-driven solutions, and
their combined expertise should yield significant TCO and ROI advantages for
their customers,” Garone said.
The deal solidifies CGEY’s faith in Oracle as a quality provider of
application server software, a field in which Oracle is competing fiercely
for market share versus traditional leaders IBM and BEA. Oracle9i
application server powers applications for portals, business intelligence
and integration, and works well with Oracle’s database, which is the firm’s
bread-and-butter data management software.
Oracle chose to highlight the competitive win over rival IBM. “Together, we
are providing a compelling alternative to IBM proprietary solutions and
delivering to customers solutions that benefit from the industry’s most
integrated, reliable and secure application server platform,” said Thomas
Kurian, senior vice president, Oracle9i Application Server Development.
Firms with international appeal such as CGE&Y are considered quality
customers by infrastructure software providers such as IBM, BEA and Oracle
because they bring their services, along with their preferred infrastructure
partner, to more broad audiences in the a variety of industries.
And firms such as CGE&Y often mix-and-match the technology they choose from
software vendors. For example, CGE&Y’s U.S. arm chose BEA as its preferred
partner for business integration software, a field generally dominated by
IBM, webMethods and Tibco.
Oracle, Cap Gemini Extend Tech Pact
