There's nothing like a Dane to pull it together

Jesper Andersen

Jesper Andersen rattles through technology concepts with machinegun speed in a Danish accent.

Service-oriented architecture, industry-specific functionality, data hubs, polluted data. The rapid fire discussion is matched by equally quick hand movements from Oracle's senior vice-president for application strategy.

A herd of Oracle executives were let loose at the company's showcase corporate spectacle, OpenWorld, in San Francisco last week, but Andersen stood out from the crowd.

He had previously spent four years with Oracle when, after a spell with a smaller IT firm, he joined PeopleSoft just before it was swallowed up by Larry Ellison's company last year.

Andersen is the only ex-PeopleSoft staffer to be appointed as an Oracle senior vice-president following Ellison's acrimonious takeover.

The master of computer science takes a quick breath and moves on to explaining that the US economy thrives on continuous technology innovation.

"It's a relentless race for productivity enhancement every single day, otherwise we can't stay in business!" he declares with an energy that would make Ellison proud.

So what about his vice-president position? Andersen is slightly wary of the question, and points out that while he is the only senior VP, several other colleagues from PeopleSoft have been appointed regular vice-presidents since the acquisition.

"I know that there's been a lot of focus on that. To us it's not an issue. It's an advantage for me, having very good knowledge [of both PeopleSoft and Oracle]. If your question is more directed at do we have enough senior people from PeopleSoft and [its subsidiary] JD Edwards in senior roles - absolutely."

He expands on an oft-used line at the OpenWorld conference: the cultures of the two companies mesh together well.

"From day one there was a feeling amongst the PeopleSoft people of some sadness that we lost, some relief that it was over, but a feeling from day one of being treated as equals and really, really well by Oracle.

"I joined PeopleSoft a month after Oracle launched its hostile takeover so in the back of my mind I knew that might happen."

He says the company approached him a few times about returning "so I kind of felt Oracle would ask me to stick around if this [takeover] happened. Larry supposedly has an unwritten policy that it's okay to leave Oracle once because it's human to make a mistake".

Andersen's job is to steer overall product strategy and direction for Oracle's business application.

A big part of the strategy is Project Fusion: the blending and updating of JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Oracle's merged hotchpotch of application software into a more cohesive offering. "This approach allows our customers to gradually adopt - when they are ready - applications at a pace that makes sense for them," he says.

Oracle is also developing more "industry-specific applications" and Andersen says the recent acquisition of a stake in Indian banking software developer i-flex - one of 10 takeovers in the past year - is an example of how the business is expanding in that area.

"We think of it [the acquisition] as a huge opportunity. Financial services is the biggest industry from an IT spend perspective. It's growing. It has a lot of old systems that are way too expensive to maintain and run."

"The reason i-flex is exciting is that they have already proven that their stuff works [but] you have to be the financial size of an Oracle to sustain this. These big banks aren't going to replace these things over the next year or two - this is a 10-year, 20-year play."

Jesper Andersen

Who: Senior vice-president of application strategy for Oracle.
Favourite gadget: "My Blackberry. Without it I don't know how I would ever keep up with my email."
Next big thing: "RFID (radio frequency identification) is going to have a very big impact."
Alternative career: "I'd love to be a professional golfer but my game's crap."
Spare time: Spending time with wife and two daughters.
Favourite sci-fi movie: The Matrix.