Oracle targets midmarket

Oracle will stake its claim for the business applications market in the UK

Oracle has confirmed the UK will be a major battleground for its imminent push into the midmarket for business applications.

Speaking today, Stuart Turner, senior vice-president for commercial sales at the vendor, said the UK would be an early adopter of Oracle's new Accelerate programme - announced at this month's Oracle OpenWorld conference - to target more products at small and medium businesses (SMBs).

Under the programme, Oracle plans to increase the availability of industry-specific application bundles; enhance support for resellers and consultancies selling and customising the bundles; and better promote its Business Accelerator toolset - automated wizard-based implementation software designed to simplify application installation for SMBs.

"We plan to build on the good progress Oracle's technology portfolio has made in the SMB space and apply many of the same lessons to our apps business," said Turner. "We'll work with partners who specialise in niche industries and can add value to our apps… In the midmarket you can’t just address a business services segment - you need to be addressing architects or estate agents, real micro-verticals."