Oracle’s Strengths and Weaknesses Defined | Robert Bunda : Business Revolution

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Having the strengths and weaknesses of Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft helps us notice the similarities and differences that these competitors face within themselves. These are internal forces that each company faces and uses to grow. This analysis is made so the firms know what they are doing well and build off that to continue doing well. It is also made so the company knows what it lacks in and can correct weaknesses in order to remain competitive and effective.

Next we have to look at what these results are based off of and what they really mean. For example all three competitors mention research and development as one of their strengths but we have to look more in-depth and figure out what about research and development is so important. The below chart will supply information from the EBSCO database with what Oracle uses to help create its SWOT analysis.

Oracle

Strengths

Weaknesses

Robust market position:

The company leads the relational database management systems
market with a share of approximately 48% in 2009.
The company is in the number one position in terms of total
software revenue for Linux and Unix with 74.3& and 60.7% market shares.

Inorganic growth strategy:

Over the last five years Oracle has acquired Sun, BEA systems,
Hyperion, Solutions, Siebel Systems and PeopleSoft.
The acquisition of Sun made Oracle one of the world’s largest
enterprise software and hardware systems companies.

Strong R&D capabilities:

R&D expenditures were $3,254 million in 2010, $2,767 million in 2009, and $2,741 million in 2008.

High indebtedness:

Total debt has increased from $5,894 million in FY2006 to
$14,655 million in FY2010.
Interest that the company has incurred in FY2010 as a result
of so much debt was $754 million.

The statistics from strengths of Oracle have to be next compared to those of its competitors to really tell whether they are strengths or possibly weaknesses. Oracle’s strategic management should strive to make their strengths the competition’s weaknesses.

Oracle and the Competition (robertbunda.com)
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