What partners think

Ian Langley heads up sales at Compelsolves Oracle practice. With 70 staff dedicated to Oracle, and a large server practice as well, Complesolve is one of only two certified Oracle Advantage partners in the UK.

"My sales team use it on a daily basis. It is easier to find information than it was previously on Oracle.com. We use the site to ensure that our sales messages and campaigns dovetail with the Oracle message. We don't use the Oracle launch pads, as we do our own marketing. I have two bugs. Firstly, it still isn't integrated into Oracle's lead referral system, although Oracle says that is coming soon. Secondly, when a new price list comes out you still can't download anything but US prices."

"But I would like to see Oracle produce something with much more information for its Advantage Partners."

"Victoria Sheedy is marketing manager at Azur Business Solutions, a mid-sized Oracle partner.

"This site makes my life much easier. I used to spend half a day looking for stuff. Now it is there immediately. I like the way the site is tailored round my profile and my needs. We use launchpad to run our email campaigns. It works brilliantly and swiftly calculates response rates and even our return on investment. I use it on a daily basis and so do 20 others here."

Steve Hogg is in charge of the Oracle practice at partner AnIx:

"There were a few teething problems, but it works well. It is easy to find the information, with good navigation. I guess I use it every week or two. We are not using the email campaigns from the launchpad yet. People internally don't believe in email blasts. The site lets us see Oracle's campaigns, and that is useful. It is much better than the IBM system I used to use where the information was hard to reach. As a partner you did not have total access to the site, so you kept getting blocked, which was frustrating."

Our Analysis: A generally positive reception. Note that all three partners emphasised ease-of-use. How long it takes to find data is the yardstick partners apply to these systems! Note that only one of the three was actually using Oracle's email marketing machine. It is easy to come up with marketing collateral, but it has to fit in with the way your partners go to market. And this will often vary considerably!

Note also the discontent at Compelsolve - the system is perceived as giving it no advantage over other smaller players, who have invested less.