Migrating to Fusion will not be your average upgrade. It's a completely redesigned enterprise application suite based on the best functionality from the packages Oracle has acquired. In addition, Fusion will have completely new technical underpinnings based on a service- oriented architecture and Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS). Oracle's "Applications Unlimited" commitment announces extended support for its current application suites. However, it is hard to believe that it will support multiple development teams indefinitely.

Any organization that uses an Oracle-owned application suite must make a conscious migration decision regarding Fusion. Because of the size, scope, technical complexity and associated costs of this migration, you should base your decision on business criteria, not on technical features. As you decide what to do, consider the following:

-- Migration to Fusion may require multiple upgrades of each application package. For most applications, Oracle will provide an upgrade to Fusion from only the two latest versions (some of which haven't been released yet). If you're using an older release, you'll have to upgrade to one of the newer versions first.

-- Fusion is a complete rewrite. New product releases typically have more problems than normal upgrades. It's often better to upgrade after the software has been in the field long enough for the initial bugs to be identified (by someone else) and corrected.

-- There will be a shortage of Fusion expertise after the initial product release. As a result, individuals with Fusion experience or even Fusion training will be in high demand and very expensive at that time.