Oracle considers tilt at State and local government market

Oracle has announced a new land management application for local governments and says it plans customization and a local launch.

The new Community Development app, delivered as SaaS, promises to “Modernise how local government executes on building permits and land management.”

Launched last week, the service offers AI and chatbots to deliver self-service land management services.

Oracle told CRN that “Global sales are planned for the future, pending product readiness for the unique community development requirements for each country/region.”

While the software giant said “We are not prepared to announce AU/NZ availability at this time” it did not rule out bringing the service to Australia.

And if it does, it will represent a substantial challenge to the many vendors and channel organisations that specialize in local government and/or land management.

Councils in particular are under pressure to do better with development applications, a task that involves labyrinthine regulation and is often the subject of complaints about slow service.

Oracle has decades of experience customizing financial and HR apps for Australian regulations, so its ability to tailor this app for Australia should not be doubted. Whether it is up for the task of customizing a service for Australia’s 500-plus councils, most of which have distinct regulations, remains to be seen.

But if the company only targets State and Territory land management systems and asks Councils to customise for their own rules, Oracle’s size and salesforce could make life very interesting for organisations like TechnologyOne that target the local government sector.