'The user group provides encouragement, support and consulting to the users' - David W Tuson, President, Asia-Pacific Oracle User Group

"The

user group provides encouragement, support and consulting to the users."

–David W Tuson,

President, Asia-Pacific Oracle User Group.

An old timer in IT industry,

David Tuson has been involved in IS implementation since 1964. From card punching machines

to the current client server-based ERP systems, he has seen them all. Currently handling

the Asia-Pacific Oracle User Group (APOUG) concerning Oracle Applications, he is also on

the board that advises Larry Ellison, Chairman, Oracle Corp, on user application trends

and user expectations from future versions of software. Based in Australia, Tuson

coordinates the entire user-related activities in the APAC region. He was recently in

India to kickstart user group movement in the country. Taking some time off from his busy

schedule, Tuson talked to DATAQUEST on the relations between the user groups and the

product vendors. Excerpts:

What is the major difference

between IS investments by users in the US and those in Asia-Pacific?



The American trend is to throw a lot in hardware. But in APAC, we tend to focus on the
software or the application side of the IS. In Australia and New Zealand, there are lot of

local applications which are important.

Any difference in the general

perceptions of CEO about IT? Or the other functional managers in an organization.



I haven't met too many CEOs in Asia. But yes, I have been talking to a lot of CIOs. And
according to them investment in IT is very important. In Australia, CIO is the main

decision maker for anything regarding IT. The functional executives do not have much say

in IT investment.

Coming to the issue of association

of users like the one you are heading. Can a user group really be unbiased?



Oh yes. Completely. We are unbiased. We may advise a customer an Ingres solution as
opposed to Oracle RDBMS solution. We evaluate the various needs of an organization and

give a fair advise. This is also directly related to the experience one has. As long as

you have a considerable amount of expertise, you can be impartial. We invite the tool

providers to make presentations to the organization. And based on all these, the decision

is taken. The users want the best possible solution.

What kind of support do you extend

to the user organizations?



We have chapters in every small geographic location. Every chapter in every state

of Australia has a meeting. Then there are special interest groups (SIGs) which have

interactive sessions on the current trends and patterns in the usage of applications.

Apart from these conferences, they also have newsletters and web sites. Oracle also plays

an important role in such events by presenting both the technological and the business

aspects of an ERP solution. But Oracle does not do any funding of such events. Every

participant has to pay a participating fee. And these conferences are generally a huge

success.

What does the user group comprise?

There must be a large proportion of implementors and solution providers in the group.



Yes. A considerable component of the user group is consultants and independent vendors.
And this group is growing fast. In the last 12 months, Oracle Applications has grown very

strongly and hence the number of such entities.

What actually triggers the

formation of these user groups?



Four to five years ago, customers used to call at Oracle offices for support

aspects. These calls were put on wait, and ultimately piled on to become a huge backlog of

calls to customers. The user groups started as an answer to these calls. In fact, small

and generic problems commonly faced by users started to get tackled from our end. This was

mainly done by sharing of ideas and experiences in areas like product quality. Moreover,

on issues like quality, if some users went collectively to Oracle, then the company would

also listen to the problems being faced, as opposed to a single user complaining to Oracle

about his problems with the software. In India, we had a group, but it did not really take

off.

But the Indian corporates have

already realized the importance of IS implementation. Or you think that they haven't

reached the stage where IS becomes critical?



From the meetings that I had with users, I found that most of them do have some internal
discussion groups focusing on issues regarding the system. For example, in Hong Kong

Telecom there is an internal user group for Oracle Applications. I am sure, this exists in

India as well.

Then what exactly is the role of

Oracle User Group?



Its role is to motivate people to think in terms of where to start and how to go

about it. This involves interacting with various kinds of people in an organization,

talking with Oracle about formation of new committees etc. It also means providing a

bridge between the users and Oracle. We invite speakers approved by Oracle to make

presentations about new technologies like object orientation etc. We also provide

encouragement, support and consulting to the users and then keep in touch to know how they

are doing. My job is to enable them to get recognition for themselves.

India falls into your area of

operations. So, what exactly are you looking at executing in this country?



In India, my role is to formalize the formation of a Oracle User Group here. And my
mandate is to make it successful. This is my first visit to this country and I am focusing

on the need of setting up a formal user group for Oracle applications. I am meeting with

consulting organizations and customers here, and they seem to be pretty upbeat about the

whole thing. So we are getting the developers and the customers together and working on

it.

As President of OAUG you must have

encountered issues like which server operating system to install?



I don't get involved in the network OS issues. I used to do this earlier. But currently,
no. The choice of the OS is entirely on the user. I do get invitations to talk on platform

issues. It is a service opportunity. But the best option is that people from both the

schools of thought should come together and talk about them with the users.

New concepts keep coming from the

side of the technology vendor. For example, Universal Server, which disappeared as quickly

as it appeared, or the NC. How do you tackle these new concepts?



OAUG, which represents the interests of Oracle application users and Oracle Corp have a
partnership between them. Under the alliance, Oracle has to listen to the group regarding

development of new products. Any new product is developed once all deliberations are

complete.

What is the repercussion on the

vendor in such a scenario?



Oracle gives its own perspective. And we push them back. We give them queries

which they reply back and we publish them. It encompasses issues of support, problems of

installation, running and maintenance etc. OAUG tests the solution given by Oracle. This

is how it works. And hence, there is a tremendous partnership between the company and the

user group. With the new concept, we make sure that Oracle gives us the migration platform

to the new technology. This is done so that the users don't have any problems migrating to

the new platform.

What is your view about the new

concepts like NC, NetPC etc.? Which of these will take off?



I don't have the foggiest idea. Yes, there are places where devices like NC will work. But
there are also other areas where NCs may not work at all. They will coexist with other

platforms.

What is the contribution of OAUG in

the development of a new version of any product?



We have product enhancement programs. Where users from all over the world air their
concerns, views and needs about particular technologies. These concerns and needs are

prioritized according to importance. Each continent prioritizes for its region. Then

Oracle looks at all the priorities given to it and tries to incorporate them into the next

release or the next version of its product. If Oracle can't do it, then it gives us strong

technological reasons as to why the changes can't be incorporated. For example, for the

next version of the Applications (11.2), about 1,500 suggestions have already come.

SAP has a larger mindshare. How do

you deal with this issue of Oracle versus SAP?



OAUG may not get involved if the decision is SAP. If SAP has better features for a certain
kind of application, which the user prefers, then OAUG doesn't have any hold over the

customer. In Australia specifically, it is Oracle which has more mindshare.

How does OAUG works in terms of

finances? Does Oracle fund it?



All the user groups have to be financially independent. OAUG is completely

financially independent. Though Oracle may financially support a user group which is being

set up, the aim is to become financially independent in a required timeframe. For example,

in mainland Asia, the timeframe is five years. In India too, the target is five years.

This timeframe may vary or get changed according to the progress undertaken. An

independent user group is more effective than a financially dependent one.

Have you seen any productivity

improvement in user organizations due to the support being provided by OAUG?



Primarily on the technical side. For example, I have seen database administrators becoming
more efficient and productive. About the functional side, I can't say much.

What do you think are the

differences between Asia and Australia?



Asia and Australia have lots of cultural differences. In Australia, technical

people are considered separate and functional or business person don't interact with the

technical people. We have a go between the two. However, in Asia this is not much of a

problem. In India, particularly, I have been interacting with the consultants and the

functional people. And there appears to be no problem at all, till now. But this is all I

can say, as this is my first visit.

Are user groups some kind of an

extension of a company's marketing department?



It is not true. The user groups are primarily involved in support functions for the user
community, apart from organizing technology and user conferences. In fact, Oracle's

support division has benefitted a lot from us.

L SUBRAMANYAN



and SIVAKUMAR V


in Delhi.