'The SME market is not as homogenous as we think it is,' said Francis Ong, Oracle Philippines' new managing director, in a briefing Tuesday.

SMEs typically either buy software as packaged solutions or seek the help of independent software vendors (ISVs) in developing customized software. 'The key to selling to the mid-market is to make it easy for them, by reducing complexity,' Ong said.

Oracle is hoping to 'shield' users away from complexity even as the company works on integrating with its own products previously competing technology from companies that it acquired in the past year, most notable PeopleSoft and more recently Siebel Systems.