HP is setting itself up to target Oracle, says analyst

Company should not lose sight of its strengths in services and hardware

Will HP target Oracle?

The appointment of ex-SAP CEO Leo Apotheker to HP CEO last week may be an indication that HP is targeting Oracle as its new major competition, as opposed to its traditional competitor IBM, said Ovum senior analyst Ian Brown during a conference call today.

The dual appointment of Apotheker, ex-CEO of software company SAP, and Ray Lane, a close confidant and ex-president of Oracle, as its non executive chairman, is a clear indication that HP is looking to move into the enterprise software market, he said.

Brown argued that this was an acknowledgment from HP that it is sub-scale in software by comparison with its competitors.

However, Ovum senior analyst John Madden said that he had been disappointed with the appointment. “It was a sound choice, but I was hoping for something bolder, a visionary, really.”

On the public sector side Sarah Burnett, another Ovum senior analyst, said she hoped that the appointment would result in innovative thinking as this was what was required in public services. “Let’s hope they don’t deliver the standard, plastic ERP,” she said. She added that the company should not lose focus on its strengths in services and hardware.

In terms of where the company is likely to go in the future, the analysts agreed that the company would need to accelerate its cloud strategy, and Angela Eager, also a senior analyst at Ovum, said she hoped that the company would pursue a next-generation software-as-a-service model. “It will need to leapfrog over the on-premises providers if it is going to be successful in this arena,” she said.