Gartner Inc.'s ombudsman has slapped Oracle Corp. on the wrist, saying that the database giant misused Gartner research data in an ad in The Wall Street Journal.
The ad, which ran Nov. 28, claimed that "94 percent of customers run up-to-date Oracle Applications (Easy to upgrade at no additional cost)." The ad contrasted that number to 4 percent of customers who run up-to-date SAP Applications, which, the ad claimed, are "so expensive and difficult to upgrade [that] 96 percent of SAP customers didn't do it."
The ad cited its source as being statistics taken from a March 2005 Gartner report.
The problem with these figures is that Oracle contrasted numbers for two different time periods, according to the ombudsman, Nancy Erskine, who's a vice president at Gartner.
Not only that, but the numbers reflect all aggregated products on Oracle's side, while they pertain to only one version on SAP's side.
Erskine wrote in Gartner's Ombudsman Weblog that the numbers apparently come from a report titled "ERP Upgrades Will Reflect the Uncertainties of the Overall Market."
"To compare 94 [percent] with 4 [percent], Oracle has contrasted numbers for two different time points and aggregated all the Oracle applications shipped as Release 11i (which comprise five distinct versions, shipped over a five-year period) and compared that with one version of SAP product (which became available to customers in March 2005)," Erskine wrote.
"The advertisement egregiously misrepresents the data."
Beyond those misrepresentations, Oracle referenced only products shipped as Oracle E-Business Suite, omitting products on which a higher percentage of customers aren't up to date.
"Oracle currently has a number of other Application products (including PeopleSoft's Enterprise, JD Edwards' EnterpriseOne, and JD Edwards' World)," Erskine wrote. "A higher percentage of Oracle customers using those products are on versions which would not be considered 'up-to-date.'"
An Oracle spokesperson said that the criticism boiled down to details, but that the gist of the ad is still on target.
"Gartner's research makes it clear that a majority of SAP customers are running older versions of SAP software," the spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.
"History shows that upgrading from one code base to another is costly and disruptive. Gartner's blog may point out some differences in interpreting the data, but the main pointâ€â€that SAP [customers] face expensive and challenging upgrades, upgrades that are being forced upon them by SAP and upgrades that are required to get the latest piece of functionalityâ€â€is well-founded and documented within Gartner's own research."
Gartner had not responded to inquiries by the time this article was posted.
The ad, which ran Nov. 28, claimed that "94 percent of customers run up-to-date Oracle Applications (Easy to upgrade at no additional cost)." The ad contrasted that number to 4 percent of customers who run up-to-date SAP Applications, which, the ad claimed, are "so expensive and difficult to upgrade [that] 96 percent of SAP customers didn't do it."
The ad cited its source as being statistics taken from a March 2005 Gartner report.
The problem with these figures is that Oracle contrasted numbers for two different time periods, according to the ombudsman, Nancy Erskine, who's a vice president at Gartner.
Not only that, but the numbers reflect all aggregated products on Oracle's side, while they pertain to only one version on SAP's side.
Erskine wrote in Gartner's Ombudsman Weblog that the numbers apparently come from a report titled "ERP Upgrades Will Reflect the Uncertainties of the Overall Market."
"To compare 94 [percent] with 4 [percent], Oracle has contrasted numbers for two different time points and aggregated all the Oracle applications shipped as Release 11i (which comprise five distinct versions, shipped over a five-year period) and compared that with one version of SAP product (which became available to customers in March 2005)," Erskine wrote.
"The advertisement egregiously misrepresents the data."
Beyond those misrepresentations, Oracle referenced only products shipped as Oracle E-Business Suite, omitting products on which a higher percentage of customers aren't up to date.
"Oracle currently has a number of other Application products (including PeopleSoft's Enterprise, JD Edwards' EnterpriseOne, and JD Edwards' World)," Erskine wrote. "A higher percentage of Oracle customers using those products are on versions which would not be considered 'up-to-date.'"
An Oracle spokesperson said that the criticism boiled down to details, but that the gist of the ad is still on target.
"Gartner's research makes it clear that a majority of SAP customers are running older versions of SAP software," the spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.
"History shows that upgrading from one code base to another is costly and disruptive. Gartner's blog may point out some differences in interpreting the data, but the main pointâ€â€that SAP [customers] face expensive and challenging upgrades, upgrades that are being forced upon them by SAP and upgrades that are required to get the latest piece of functionalityâ€â€is well-founded and documented within Gartner's own research."
Gartner had not responded to inquiries by the time this article was posted.