Oracle hires HP vice president to sell software hosting service

Oracle has tapped Juergen Rottler, formerly with HP, to head its growing On Demand unit, a division that sells software-hosting services.

Oracle has tapped Juergen Rottler, formerly with HP, to head its growing On Demand unit, a division that sells software-hosting services.

Rottler, who officially begins his new job Monday, will report directly to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison as executive vice president of Oracle On Demand, an Oracle spokeswoman in the U.K. said Thursday. The 38-year-old Rottler, who had been with HP for 15 years, was previously a senior vice president responsible for HP’s public sector, health and education business.

Rottler will also server as the executive sponsor for Oracle’s alliance with HP, the company said.

Though the position of executive vice president of Oracle On Demand is a new job title, Rottler is replacing Timothy Chou, who was president of Oracle On Demand. Chou is still with Oracle, though the exact details of the new organization are still to be determined, the spokeswoman said.

The appointment of Rottler marks an effort by the Redwood Shores, Calif., company to expand its Oracle On Demand division, which sells monthly subscriptions to hosting and maintenance services for customers that licence Oracle’s software. When Oracle released its first quarter financial report on Tuesday, it pointed out that revenue for its applications management business had grown 34% compared to the same quarter last year.

Oracle offers its applications management service for its database programs, business management applications and application server software. Customers are charged on a monthly basis for the service, on top of the licensing fees, at a cost of between 3% to 5% of the price of the software. Earlier this year, in an effort to raise its profile as an application service provider, Oracle rebranded the On Demand unit from its old title, Oracle Outsourcing.

Earlier this month, Oracle launched a program for independent software vendors that build Oracle-based applications whereby ISVs can host applications at an Oracle data center and Oracle will oversee the necessary technical support and maintenance for both the underlying hardware and software infrastructure tied to the ISV application.