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Needless to say, Dreamforce made a big splash this year with the announcement of Salesforce Chatter, to be launched next year. But how is Dreamforce shaping up in comparison to Oracle’s OpenWorld?

For one thing, attendance at Dreamforce pales in comparison to that of last month’s OpenWorld conference—there are about 19,000 at Dreamforce, while OpenWorld drew almost 20,000 more attendants. Oracle Corporation is much bigger than Salesforce.com, so that could provide some explanation for the disparate attendance records. It is perhaps a little surprising the Dreamforce doesn’t have at least a commensurate attendance record, since cloud-computing has been a hot button topic this year, and Salesforce is pretty much the go-to source for cloud computing trends.

In terms of announcements, the declaration of Salesforce Chatter, which is being described as “Facebook for enterprise,” trumps Oracle’s announcement of Fusion Apps.  Oracle also announced a commitment to incorporating social networking into their CRM platform, but they didn’t present an offering that caused a stir the way Salesforce Chatter did—and it did cause quite a stir, cracking Twitter’s top ten with “#df09” as a trending topic. There is also speculation that Chatter is the new Salesforce cloud—Benioff alluded to four clouds in his keynote, naming Sales Cloud 2, Service Cloud 2, and Custom Cloud 2, and leaving the fourth a mystery (to be revealed tomorrow).

Some attendants of both conferences lamented the long-winded keynote speech, even though most have been enthusiastic about the announcement of Chatter. And Sam Diaz at ZDNet noted that Dreamforce didn’t offer the same caliber of celebrities as OpenWorld: San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom joined Benioff during his keynote, while Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Who’s Roger Daltrey attended OpenWorld. Diaz also noted a sense of “showboating overkill” in the speaker introductions.

We won’t be able to really assess the overall success of the conference until the end of the week, but is one of these companies doing “the convention” better?

Last week, Oracle announced the release of PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM 9.1, which they developed after customer feedback indicated businesses were most interested in solutions that could accelerate business performance with a lower cost of ownership. Because no system update is complete without a social media facelift, CRM 9.1 was redesigned to tout a Web 2.0 user interface and experience, with new collaboration tools like wikis, forums and chats, and blogs and tagging. In addition, CRM 9.1 features drag-and-drop interactivity, search windows, and simpler navigation.

PeopleSoft CRM 9.1 is built on Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools 8.50 technology platform, which is a development environment that offers flexibility in managing and integrating applications. Oracle cites the “lower cost of ownership” as being manifested in PeopleSoft’s compatibility with previous application releases—and therefore not requiring upgrades in core CRM applications—but this is a tad misleading because it doesn’t necessarily benefit those who aren’t already Oracle customers. For sales and marketing deployments, CRM 9.1 does provide more precise application configurations, which cuts some of the cost of customization.

Specific to sales and marketing customers, CRM 9.1 aims to lower cost marketing channels and expand reach with SMS messaging and an all-inclusive event manager. There will also be mass sales activity reassignment capabilities for sales managers. Still, PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM 9.1 can be tailored for many different verticals, from higher education to the communications market.

As the economy continues to struggle and companies continue to look for ways to cut back on their budgets, SaaS Software has become an increasingly popular option for many struggling companies. As companies look to scale back on expenditures, software providers are providing the options that allow companies to do this. CRM providers are looking to continue this trend as companies such as Oracle expand into the On-Demand CRM software market.

Although CRM Software has been provided in SaaS format, it has not been as prevalent among CRM Software providers as other industries. However, companies such as Salesforce.com have shown that on-demand CRM providers can survive in an intense CRM software market by providing companies with the flexibility and ease of use commonly associated with SaaS Software.

 Oracle has recently jumped on the bandwagon as it takes on Salesforce.com in the On-Demand CRM marketplace. Currently, with a limited number of On-Demand CRM providers, there is definitely room for more providers in the marketplace. The expanding repertoire of companies to include SaaS CRM software will definitely be beneficial for many companies as companies will have more options to select from and find the solution that fits their company best.

Oracle’s new offering looks to add a host of new options to compete with the already popular Salesforce.com CRM offering. With more customization options as well as more flexibility in pricing plans, Oracle hopes it can succeed and establish a strong customer base in the SaaS CRM market.

The future of SaaS CRM Software looks bright for providers and users. As SaaS Software continues to grow in popularity, this opens up an opportunity for On-Demand CRM providers to establish their presence within this new, yet rapidly expanding market. The introduction of more SaaS CRM providers will simultaneously provide companies with more benefits as companies will benefit from the increased competition among CRM Software providers which will increase product quality while drive down price.

As the SaaS CRM Software market continues to grow, companies should expect better and far more innovative options that once could only be dreamt of.

Oracle has announced that free Oracle business applications for the Apple iPhone are now available. Soon, businesses will be able to access Oracle CRM products on their iPhones. I guess this is to counter the growing friendship between SAP and RIM and also Microsoft and RIM. It will be interesting to see the kind of research and development push mobile CRM gives to hand held devices. Screen size and computational power are an issue as of now. At present the Oracle applications will focus on offering information on key metrics and analytical data. Oracle Business Indicators will allow a business to make company financial trends and supplier information available to its mobile workforce

The Oracle business applications will make use of the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus and Oracle Business Intelligence Applications, Fusion Edition.

It appears that even the most “social” business functions of marketing and sales are not perfectly happy with the way social CRM is shaping up. These functions would rather have commissions and sales instead of a community.

What I don’t get is that even when they have a good thing going they are getting into cribs and nags about small things. Do they expect the software to close the deals for them. Maybe the whole thing is not as big a deal, maybe it is – for Oracle has come out with Sales Prospector, which is meant to help sales teams or individual sales reps build information-sharing networks that, in theory, will help them close more deals.

Of course, the key here is the sharing of data between salespeople. Would I want to share details on leads with fellow sales guys if my commissions depended on it?

Oracle has announced what it calls call “enhanced support across Oracle’s core BI foundation software, Hyperion Essbase and Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus (Oracle BI Suite EE Plus).”

Regarding Oracle BI Applications company officials state that they “offer new support for the Oracle E-Business Suite R12 including pre-built content and adapters for Financials, Human Capital Management, Order Management & Fulfillment, and Supply Chain modules.”

Read more here

Oracle has announced mobile interoperability with Nokia devices. Now, Nokia products can be used to access Oracle CRM and database software. Much like the Microsoft, BlackBerry, and iEnteprises collaboration, the Oracle and Nokia tie-up will give Oracle further access into the mobile CRM market.

The Oracle-Nokia collaboration offers three-pronged interoperability i.e. Oracle has validated Nokia’s Intellisync Device Management with Oracle’s Siebel CRM software; one can access Oracle Database Lite on Symbian Version 9/S60 Version 3; and run Siebel Wireless can run on the Nokia E90 Communicator.

Oracle has claimed that the combination of CRM and database in a wireless environment will help companies adopt mobile technology across the enterprise. The benefits offered by this partnership include secure and efficient deployment of the mobile CRM, cost effective operations, data security, increased customer satisfaction, and better management of customer issues.

Learn more here.

Navigor has launched Oracle’s Siebel-on-demand solution for SMBs in South Africa. Navigor hopes to push the new Siebel-on-demand offering as a solution for the CRM requirements of SMBs. The CRM is available as a rental option thereby putting it within reach of businesses of all sizes. Low entry costs, good broadband connectivity, no maintenance costs are some of the advantages that small businesses can hope to avail with the new Oracle offering.

Navigor will help businesses modify and categorize the CRM solution as per customer requirements. A little strangely, Navigor feels that convincing SMBs about the benefits of a hosted solution will be a challenge. It would be interesting to learn of other places apart from South Africa where SMBs need to be educated about the benefits of a hosted solution.

Oracle has stated that the growth prospects for its CRM and on-demand CRM solutions are looking good in the Asia Pacific region. The company’s partner base in the Asia Pacific, consisting of Siebel CRM On Demand resellers and implementation experts, has increased to more than 48 in the short span of 12 months.

A little unsurprisingly the company sees itself as the CRM market leader, though SAP, Salesforce.com and even Microsoft may have their own definitions of a CRM leader. Here’s Will Bosma evangelizing on how Oracle is the CRM Holy Grail for companies in the Asia Pacific. I wish, though, he had said something a little more original than exceeding customer expectations. 17% of the CRM market in the AP region is under Oracle’s control.

The news about Oracle today is reading like a press-release version of that 2001 Japanese cinema classic, Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.

The software behemoths aren’t destroying Tokyo with fire breath and the like, but there is a lot of bellowing and stomping going on involving three of the biggest names in the biz.

Computer World is running a bit more on the software lawsuit of the year, i.e. Oracle v. SAP AG, with SAP reportedly now hoping to settle with the big O. Oracle v. SAP, a case “about corporate theft on a grand scale, committed by the largest German software company,” in the opening words of the complaint.

Oracle originally brought the lawsuit against SAP in the US Federal District Court in the Northern District of California on March 22. The lawsuit alleged that King Ghidorah – i mean, SAP was guilty of violations to the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, Unfair Competition, Intentional and Negligent Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage and Civil Conspiracy, i.e. they ripped off Oracle data. Read more