There have been numerous inquiries as to which company is the leading pacesetter. Is it SAP or ORACLE?

Making a comparison may not be fair to both companies.  Nonetheless, there may be a reason to make a comparison between the two largest enterprise software corporations in the whole world. It is worth to consider several points.

Statistics say that SAP controls the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) market. It maintained a market share of 24 percent in 2010. Oracle was next with 18 percent. The emergence of HANA has made it better for SAP. The SAP HANA memory database is described by many enterprises as “bona fide and amazing”.

On the other hand, there are claims that ORACLE is the overall leader worldwide in the development of software applications for database management. It owns a market share of almost 50 percent in relational databases

What are the facts?  

SAP formulated a solution mainly from the ground going up.

On the other hand, Oracle has developed principally by gaining the most optimal investment alternatives. For instance, it has acquired the DEMANTRA Demand Management solution for highly developed sales and operations planning. It secured the Hyperion financial reporting module as well as Siebel Customer Relationship Management solutions.

SAP has established functionality within the main Engine Computer Control (ECC) system and all-in-one ERP programs.

In terms of product road map, SAP builds and improves major product packages while ORACLE moves toward Synthesis. This is said to be more of being a creative thinker in terms of technology trends. Yet it seems that there is more improbability with its different product lines.

SAP is awesome with respect to power but it may not be adaptable because it is not easy to make changes as the business goes forward. This is both an upside and downside. There is rigid integration and helps implement uniform business strategies. Nevertheless, it may not be that easy to moderate the software and make adjustments in terms of changes, basic techniques as well as requirements.

The approach of ORACLE is to generate more flexibility so evolving business requirements can be accommodated. It is a strong point that can be a disadvantage when it becomes difficult to put into effect consistent procedures in a big organization.

The two solutions are expensive and take longer to apply. ORACLE has a small advantage in terms of normal implementation duration and a big advantage in typical implementation cost.  This is estimated at 20 percent less than SAP.  Meanwhile, SAP has the lowest business risk among the two.

It is widely believed that the biggest advantage of SAP include business benefits and client fulfilment. ORACLE may have gained the highest satisfaction level among all Enterprise Resource Planning merchants globally. SAP is still number one in business benefits that have been accomplished. SAP still remains as a reliable solution for most companies.

The bottom line is that each service provider has its own strong and negative points. This all depends on the requirements of enterprises in this industry