We believe that software development evolves into modeling; and people, in an increasing way, will not program solutions. They will model solutions and these models are executables.

The key question for open source is, Which open source technologies are mature enough to survive the consolidation that’s coming? Linux? Definitely. Eclipse? Definitely. Mozilla? Most likely.

The question that customers ask themselves is, Can I bet the farm on this platform?

There’s an acknowledgement that somebody is going to build some stuff that’s going to be competitive with what we do. But that’s OK–that’s part of being a platform. There’s been a belief change internally.

When the market consolidates, people (put) their investments into the biggest pile. Which open-source technologies are mature enough to survive the wave that’s coming? Linux–absolutely. Eclipse? Yes. Mozilla? Most likely.

Right now, we have about 500 of those enterprise services published.

We think this is the beginning of a new wave where applications companies play a very different role in the future of being platforms, not just about technology, but platforms that provide fundamental, highly reusable...

We’re very opportunistic when it comes to open source.

Vendor consolidation is a major trend that forces customers to consolidate their IT (information technology) landscape. They’re redrawing their landscape without those smaller vendors who they see as being most at risk.

We believe the open source business applications do not have enough time to mature before this consolidation wave hits.

The mess that companies have with their IT today is unimaginable, and the larger they get the more mess they have. They would be happy with just 1,000.

These composite apps are built around the user and are instantly usable. All of these are add-ons. You don’t need to touch your existing stuff, and you don’t need to be all SAP.