Enterprise Showdown: Who’s Better? Oracle or SAP?

At first glance, California-based Oracle and SAP, with its German lineage, don’t seem to have much in common.

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But look a little closer, and there are more similarities than meet the eye: Both have flamboyant leaders in CEO Larry Ellison and Chairman Hasso Plattner, both offer a wide range of critical (and costly) business technologies and both are fierce competitors for the same corporate customers. So to add just a little more fuel to the fire, we stacked the two up against each other to see which one has more influence in the corporate IT universe.

What’s in a Name?
Oracle	EDGE	SAP
Original name: Software Development Laboratories; changed to Relational Software, Inc. in 1979; changed to Oracle Systems in 1982. Ahh, much better.		Before it was shortened to SAP, the company’s original name was SAP Aktiengesellschaft Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung. (SAP Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing—rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?)
Visionary Leader
Oracle	EDGE	SAP
CEO Lawrence J. Ellison cofounded Oracle in 1977 and created the wildly successful Oracle relational database management system.		Chairman Hasso Plattner cofounded SAP in 1972 because IBM wouldn’t listen to him about the next generation of business software.
Visionary Leader’s Signature Quote
Oracle	EDGE	SAP
The red-tailed hawk best exemplifies Oracle “because it has incredible vision and the ability to see things from great heights. It [only] kills to feed itself.” -Ellison, CIO magazine, 1997.		“Larry Ellison said SAP faces a nuclear winter. But Larry might have to face the nuclear fallout—because we have a vision.” -Plattner, to SAP customers in 1999, quoted by BusinessWeek.
Headquarters
Oracle	EDGE	SAP
Redwood City, Calif., population 75,402—famous for its San Francisco-area waterfront and sky-high real estate prices.		Walldorf, Germany, population 14,000—famous for its white asparagus and Astoria Walldorf soccer team.
Language Spoken at HQ
Oracle	EDGE	SAP
English		English (first) and German (second)
How Big a Software Player?
Oracle	EDGE	SAP
The second-largest enterprise software company in the world ($18 billion in revenue).		The third-largest enterprise software company in the world ($12 billion in revenue).
Noteworthy 2007 Announcement
Oracle	EDGE	SAP
Fusion—first announced in 2005, the so-far secret systems integration sauce got a new release date (late 2008) and a new boss. Still waiting…		Business ByDesign—on-demand enterprise applications for small and mid-market companies. What took them so long?
Oops!
Oracle	EDGE	SAP
Releases allegedly bogus financial statements and overstates revenue in late 1980s and into 1990. Class-action lawsuits and a near bankruptcy soon follow, as the The New York Times notes. The company eventually recovers.		Buys TomorrowNow in 2005, a half-priced third-party maintenance provider for ERP applications (such as J.D. Edwards and PeopleSoft, both owned by Oracle). TomorrowNow gets caught with its hands in Oracle’s documentation in 2007; Oracle files an as-yet-settled lawsuit, and SAP cleans house in management soon after.
Acquisition Style
Oracle	EDGE	SAP
Heated and Hostile (see: PeopleSoft takeover)		Calculated and Congenial (see: Business Objects deal)
Well-Known Corporate Sponsor of…
Oracle	EDGE	SAP
BMW Oracle sailboat team		Professional golfer Ernie Els
Famous “International Incident”
Oracle	EDGE	SAP
Larry Ellison’s sailing crew reportedly ignores Hasso Plasso’s wounded sailing yacht off Hawaii in 1996.		Plasso moons Ellison’s crew (but not Ellison) for not helping with his injured crew member and battered yacht.
WINNER: SAP!