Oracle: Following MSFT Online?

Stocks: (ORCL)(MSFT)

All of the news about moving software online centers around Microsoft's initiative to catch Google as the leader of applications that can be accessed via the web.

But, Oracle has been there for awhile and is moving quickly to make web-based tools a reality.

Take the enterprise epay solution, which allows any employee to payroll details and paycheck management. Silly application. Big market. Oracle's My Company dashboard applications allows management to access loads of corporate data from any location with a broadband hook-up. The company's retail webtrack allows retailers and their partners to source goods over the internet. Oracle also has a product that allows large auto fleet companies to manage motor vehicle operations online. The company even offers a collaboration tool for online 3D CAD work over bandwidth limited connections. These are just the tips of a large iceberg.

Oracle distributes a Universal Installer to streamline downloads of its software for web use.

Microsoft would do well to look at the Oracle model, and perhaps they have.

Oracle may be further out in front in web-based software than most investors realize.

Douglas A. McInyre cane be reached at douglasamcintyre@gmail.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.