No takers for Oracle database machine

There has been considerable interest in Oracle's database machine, according to CEO Larry Ellison, but it has not led to any sales, he admitted.

The company launched the Oracle Database machine and the Exadata Storage Server (both jointly developed by HP) in September, aiming them at customers looking for high-end data warehousing products. Both machines combine Oracle's software and ProLiant servers from Oracle partner Hewlett-Packard.

Since then, the buzz has been big, Ellison said during a quarterly earnings conference call. "As measured by pipeline growth and pipeline size, this is the most successful introduction of a new product in Oracle's history," he said before admitting that "it's going to be a while" before Oracle can convert that buzz into solid sales of the product.

Still, the Exadata business "looks very, very promising and should help us drive growth over the next 18 months," Ellison said.

Ellison said a number of demonstration machines are in the hands of customers, but it was unclear whether any companies are now using the products in production.

"It doesn't surprise me that Oracle didn't name any specific customers on an earnings call, and that's because it was an earnings call, not a product announcement or customer-win or testimonial call," said Forrester Research analyst James Kobielus. "Don't interpret that as any slap against the new HP Oracle appliance, which is a strong product with considerable customer and market interest."

Oracle and HP also released the product in the middle of an economic recession, "so it may take some time to make those pipeline conversions," Kobielus said.

The new products are going up against the likes of Teradata, Netezza and Greenplum, the last of which announced NYSE Euronext as a customer this week.

During his keynote address at OpenWorld, Ellison had tart words for those competing products, but such boasting could be premature, suggested Curt Monash, founder of Monash Research.

"Until there are some major production Exadata success stories, it remains less proven than a number of smaller vendors' alternatives," Monash said via e-mail Friday. "Oracle will find Exadata pioneers anyway, of course, but not necessarily a huge stampede of them."

Greenplum's president, Scott Yara, echoed Monash.

"Oracle and HP are two great companies, but it's not a guarantee for success in the market," Yara said. "They're going to sell Exadata. Whether they're going to be the leader is another question. ... I think Oracle personally has a lot to prove."

Author: Chris Kanaracus @ www.computerworlduk.com

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Oracle's edge

The software giant will no doubt feel some pain as companies scale back staff. But its stable infrastructure business will help it weather the storm better than most. Say what you will about Larry Ellison's style, but the in-your-face founder of Oracle knows how to manage a company through a recession, at least so far.

In an economic climate where other companies are heading for the lifeboats, Ellison is skippering Oracle into a position of strength. And it comes down to selling software that relies on a growing stream of corporate data, rather than a growing number of employees.

During a recent conference call, Ellison and his management team were practically optimistic, projecting that overall revenue for Oracle's fiscal third quarter ending in February will be up from 8% to 11% adjusting for currency exchange.

In its most recent second quarter, revenue came in below guidance, with sales growth of 6% (9% was the Street's estimate), but with operating profit margins at almost 46%, above estimates, and pointing to Oracle's ability to maintain pricing power. (Earnings were down slightly for the quarter, a slip Oracle blamed on the strengthening dollar.)

Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) is feeling some pain, like every other company out there, but so far it is not as acute. And when you dig into the numbers, it gives you a sense of why Oracle may offer relative safety in these uncertain economic times.

Oracle sells both applications -- human-resources software and customer-relationship software, for example -- and so-called infrastructure software. The latter includes Oracle's core database products, as well as middleware, which acts as a sort of glue between all kinds of software and services.

Applications are generally sold on a per seat basis, so revenue is based on staff size at Oracle's customers. Infrastructure software is sold based on capacity, the number of processors (CPUs) in a server running the software, for example.

The scary issue for a lot of tech companies is of course is one of headcount. As companies cut numbers to weather the recession, they are also cutting the number of seats they need for any number of applications. But companies are less likely to scale back on the efficiencies an automated enterprise can offer them, so that business is not as vulnerable.

Because it is driven by "data, not heads, the (infrastructure) segment should be more stable than other software businesses through the recession," writes Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Holt, who has an "overweight" rating on Oracle, with a 12-month price target of $22.

In that context, data versus heads (or applications versus infrastructure), investors would be wise to look at other software companies SAP and Microsoft, for example, which will be subject to the same forces.

In the second fiscal quarter, Oracle posted database and middleware revenue of almost $3 billion, up 4% year over year. During the same quarter, the applications business was flat to slightly down.

"Oracle's negative year-over-year growth in applications do not bode well for SAP," says JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens, who has a "market perform" rating on Oracle. SAP has a very application-heavy product offering. "Our checks so far suggest SAP has already seen some of its larger deal prospects in North America push out."

At some point the economy will recover, and headcount will once again grow. At that point, Oracle will be able to push its applications business harder. In the meantime, unlike some of its competitors, Oracle has the leverage to wring additional revenue from its infrastructure business, and sail -- as it did after the tech bubble burst -- far ahead of the pack.

Author: Michael V. Copeland @ money.cnn.com

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Despite Tech Slump, Oracle Hits Its Mark

Oracle's bread-and-butter database business is faring better in the recession than its business applications, which companies use to manage finance, HR, sales, and other functions. Sales of new applications licenses fell 15 percent, to $469 million, during the quarter. Oracle's database and application-connecting middleware license sales grew.

During the tech industry's last big slump, software and hardware Relevant Products/Services vendors were slow to cut costs as falling demand pummeled profits.

This time around, Oracle isn't taking chances. Oracle, the world's No. 2 software company, hit Wall Street's earnings target when it reported fiscal second-quarter results on Dec. 18, by aggressively cutting research and development, travel, and other costs as its customers curtail spending.

Amid a global economic slowdown that's sapped business demand for computers and software, Oracle widened operating margins in the quarter ended Nov. 30 to 46 percent, compared with 41.3 percent a year earlier. While the software maker missed Wall Street's estimates for total sales and new software bookings, its earnings of 34 percent a share, excluding certain items, met analysts' projections. Better still, Oracle issued a third-quarter earnings outlook roughly in line with Wall Street estimates.

Shares of Oracle gained 4 percent in extended trading, after closing Dec. 18 down 13 percent, or 0.8 percent, at 16.61. The shares have lost 2.4 percent in the past month, compared with a 4.7 percent gain for the Nasdaq Composite Index.
Wide Range of Products Helps

Oracle displayed a knack for slicing costs while offering customers a wide range of products that it's assembled through a slew of acquisitions the past four years, analysts said. "This company can hold the bottom line better than anyone," says Brent Thill, Citigroup's software research director, who rates Oracle's stock a buy.

Analysts said Oracle has cut expenses in sales and marketing, and overseas R&D, and reduced sales and back-office expenses from its January acquisition of BEA Systems. A wide breadth of products lets Oracle salespeople zero in on where customers are still spending. "It all goes back to the all-you-can-eat buffet at Oracle," Thill says. "You can pick one thing or everything, and they have something they can talk to a client about."

The appetite for cost-cutting is catching across tech. Dell beat Wall Street's profit forecasts in its third quarter, reported Nov. 20, by taking an ax to expenses, despite ringing up sales that were more than $1 billion short of expectations. Troubled computer maker Sun Microsystems in November said it plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs, or 18 percent of its staff. Tech firms including Adobe Systems and Western Digital have announced plans to shed workers as well.

Net Income Falls amid Sales Slowdown

"Within technology we're seeing revenue weakness but good profitability," says Andy Miedler, a senior technology analyst at Edward Jones, who has a buy rating on Oracle. "Companies are more aggressive with cost-cutting during this downturn due to the lessons they learned with cutting costs too slowly during the tech wreck last time."

Cost-cutting aside, sales still take a hit when customers slash information technology budgets. Oracle's net income fell 0.5 percent, to $1.27 billion, in the second quarter, and sales were up 5.5 percent, to $5.6 billion, vs. analysts' consensus estimate of $5.84 billion. New software license revenue, an indicator of future sales, was down 3 percent to $1.6 billion. The closely watched metric fell far short of Oracle's forecast three months ago, when it said new license revenues would rise 2 percent to 12 percent. The bookings are a key measure of Oracle's performance, since they often produce additional tech support Relevant Products/Services revenue.

"Customers are signing up for fewer multiyear, $100 million projects," said Chief Executive Larry Ellison during a conference call with analysts. "Fortunately we have a very broad portfolio." A strong dollar is also hurting Oracle's results, as overseas sales translate into fewer dollars on the company's books.

Applications Vulnerable to Downturn

Oracle's bread-and-butter database Relevant Products/Services business is faring better in the recession than its business applications, which companies use to manage finance, HR, sales, and other functions. Sales of new applications licenses fell 15 percent, to $469 million, during the quarter. Oracle's database and application-connecting middleware license sales grew nearly 4 percent, to $1.16 billion.

"The applications business is in tough shape," says Citigroup analyst Thill. Applications revenues are more vulnerable in a weak economy, as companies protect database and middleware projects that can yield business information to help them compete, Thill wrote in a Dec. 2 research note. Oracle is locked in an applications market-share battle with SAP, which in October cut its profitability outlook for the year.

Oracle also issued a downbeat forecast for its third quarter, which ends in February. Assuming today's exchange rates, Oracle said it expects to earn 31 percent to 33 percent per share, vs. Wall Street's expectation of 34 percent per share. Oracle co-President Safra Catz told analysts that the company is expecting a record low in the pace of deal closings for that period of the year.

Lots of Acquisition Candidates

Oracle has been posting bang-up results for the past few years, largely by spending more than $25 billion to buy more than 40 software companies since 2005. In addition to having more products to sell, Oracle can also sign up customers added through acquisitions for lucrative tech-support contracts.

In recent months, Oracle has hinted it may hold to that strategy. There are at least 50 publicly traded software companies with $300 million to $6 billion in annual sales that Oracle could potentially acquire, said Mark Murphy, an analyst at Piper Jaffray who rates Oracle a buy, in a Dec. 12 research note. In September, Ellison said Oracle might take advantage of depressed stock prices to buy up more software companies on the cheap.

Now, Ellison said prices have dropped so low that some companies may resist being bought. "Some companies have much more attractive valuations right now, but I'm not sure they'd be wildly enthusiastic about selling for cash [value]," he said on Dec. 18.

When markets rebound and an M&A freeze thaws, Oracle could nevertheless be poised to spring. "As we come out of this cycle, Oracle is extremely well positioned," says Israel Hernandez, a director at Barclays Capital, who has an overweight rating on Oracle's stock. "They're going to come out a much stronger company after the recession." Until then, Oracle and other tech firms may have to keep looking for costs to chop.

Author: Aaron Ricadela @ www.newsfactor.com

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The top advice from Oracle experts in 2008

Whether you have a question about Oracle errors, backups, upgrades or jobs, SearchOracle.com has an expert panel ready to help. This year our experts answered questions on all these topics and more - - here's a look back at some of our most popular expert questions and answers of 2008.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. What is the ORA-03113 error?
2. How to get history of modified data from Oracle databases
3. How DDL and DML commands work in Oracle
4. How to do a hot backup when Oracle Database is up
5. When should an Oracle database be reorganized?
6. Tips for how to size an Oracle server
7. When to use CHECK constraints in SQL
8. When to do a manual upgrade vs. export and import
9. What is the difference between a database engineer, architect and administrator?
10. How to archive and decommission a database

What is the ORA-03113 error?
Q: We have an Oracle 10g database and get the ORA-03113 error sporadically. This is a science application where we query time-series data from a vb.net application. We can query successfully all day with some parameters (location, variable identifier, and date range) but when the date range changes beyond a (arbitrary?) limit (e.g. 2003 to 2007 works every time, but 2002 to 2007 fails every time), this error appears. We get a similar error using Oracle's sqldeveloper, though the error message text is different. Where do we start looking for answers?

A: ORA-3113 errors mean that your network connection to the database was severed. In my experience, there are two problem areas. One, something in the network failed between the client and the database. Two, a bug in the database caused the session to be terminated and the client thinks a network error was the cause. If you are sure your network is fine, then it is probably a bug. Make sure you have the 10.2.0.3 patchset installed. After that, file a Service Request with Oracle Support. Only they will be able to help you with the ORA-3113 error.


What is the ORA-03113 error?
Q: How can you get the history of data modified from an Oracle database?

A: There are a few options at your disposal. After the fact, you can mine your archived redo logs using Oracle's Log Miner utility. Before the fact, you can set up auditing to record changes...


How DDL and DML commands work in Oracle
Q: What happens in the background when we execute DDL or DML commands?

A: First, Oracle parses the statement and ensures that the statement is syntactically correct and semantically correct. Next, Oracle verifies that the user has permissions to perform the statement. If the user can execute the statement, Oracle obtains all locks necessary for the statement to complete. Once the locks have all been obtained, Oracle executes the statement. In some cases, results are returned. If results are returned from the statement, Oracle fetches those results and places the result set in an area called a 'cursor'. The cursor is passed back to the application.


Hot backup when Oracle Database is up
Q: What is the procedure for doing a hot backup when the database is up?

A: There are two ways. The preferred way with Oracle's databases today is to use RMAN. The following will perform a hot backup using RMAN.
Read expert Brian Peasland's recommended steps for using RMAN and learn more about RMAN and hot backups.

When should an Oracle database be reorganized?
Q: When should a database be reorganized?

A: Never. A well-designed database should never need reorganization. It used to be that a DBA would perform a weekly or monthly reorg to help database performance. But today's Oracle databases do not need regularly scheduled reorgs to perform well. Bad design can throw this theory out the window though.

Tips for how to size an Oracle server
Q: Do you have any suggestions on where I can find the following information, with recommended server hardware specifications for how to size an Oracle server? I'll be using storage area network (SAN) storage.
Number of processors
Quantity of RAM

I've searched the Oracle site and even though there are a number of white papers, I haven't seen anything like the old 9i sizing guide.

A: I have not seen any sites or other pieces of information that would give you the information that you seek. And I would be leery of the information presented. The amount of memory, processors, and other system resources are not dictated by the total volume of data in the database.

CHECK constraints
Q: How can I create a constraint to not allow a date prior to 1 Jan 2007 to be entered?

A: This is accomplished with a CHECK constraint. Here's an example:
create table documents
( id integer not null primary key
, title varchar(99) not null
, added date not null
, constraint only_new_ones
check ( added>= '2007-01-01' )
);

Manual upgrade vs. export and import
I am ready to upgrade. My database size is 200gb and it is an unsupported version of Oracle to upgrade to 10g(8.1.6.2 to 10g). It's O/S is on HP-UX, so could you tell me whether the best process for upgrade is to follow the manual upgrade process or by using the export & import to the new Oracle Database? If I follow the manual method then I have to apply the 8i to 8i Patches then to 10g . If I follow exp/imp then I need more down time. Which process should I follow?

A: If you perform the manual upgrade process, then you will have to be at least at Oracle 8.1.7 before you can begin. So to go from 8.1.6.2 to 10g, you will need two upgrades with this path. If you use export/import, then you will only need one upgrade. On average, each manual upgrade will take about 1 hour, but this time can vary. So without knowing more about your environment, the manual upgrade process will require about 2 hours of downtime. Using export/import for a 200GB database will probably take longer. So the big question to answer here is how much downtime can you take for the upgrade? If you had a larger downtime window, then you might use exp/imp for the upgrade. The exp/imp method also lets you perform some reorganization like moving objects to new tablespaces.

What is the difference between a database engineer, architect and administrator?
Q: Could you please explain the differences between a database engineer, a database architect and a database administrator?

A: Great question! It can get pretty confusing as these titles (and many more including database developer, data architect, data analyst, data modeler, database designer, etc.) are often intermixed, used improperly, or redefined by the companies using them. The definition really depends on the actual job descriptions as defined by the various companies posting them. I will do my best, however, to differentiate and simplify them for you...

How to archive and decommission a database
Q: What would be the best way to archive and decommission a 5GB Oracle 7.3 Database? This data needs to be available for at least 20 years from now in case a regulatory agency requires it, and we are afraid that in the future we won't be able to recover it to a newer version of Oracle.

A: I use Oracle's export utility for this type of task. Your database isn't too large, so exp will work. The nice thing about exp is that future versions of Oracle will still be able to read the resulting dump file. So perform the following:
exp userid=system/manager file=my_db.dmp log=my_db.log full=y

The resulting files can then be written to DVD or some other media for long term storage.

Source: Shayna Garlick @ searchoracle.techtarget.com

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Oracle Likely to Bend to Recessionary Winds

Oracle's boom time is not likely to continue as the U.S. recession deepens. The business software giant may not be ready to put jobs on the chopping block, but it will probably curtail expenses sharply.

Business software maker Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) is scheduled to report its fiscal second-quarter results after the stock market closes Thursday.

The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.

Overview: Oracle has been on a roll for several years as it snapped up dozens of its smaller rivals, but the Redwood Shores-based company will be hard pressed to keep the momentum going as more corporate customers curtail their spending on technology to weather the recession.

Analysts already have lowered their fiscal second-quarter estimates to below the target set by Oracle's management three months ago and are bracing for a cautious outlook for the rest of the fiscal year ending in May.

The big question now is whether Oracle will rein in its expenses to help offset the anticipated weakness in its sales. Many other technology companies already have drawn up plans to prune their payrolls, so it won't be a shock if Oracle trims its payroll of about 85,000 employees worldwide.

Most analysts, though, seem to think Oracle will start off by curbing travel expenses and other discretionary items before resorting to its first mass layoffs since the dot-com bust of 2001 shriveled its software sales.

Oracle eliminated about 2,300 jobs between May 2001 and May 2003, representing a 5 percent reduction from a much smaller work force at that time. If Oracle were to impose layoffs on a similar scale in this recession, it would translate into about 4,300 fewer jobs.

As usual, investors are likely to focus on Oracle's sales of new software licenses -- a key benchmark because those deals uncork a stream of future revenue from product maintenance and upgrades.

Back in September, Oracle forecast its new software sales during the second quarter would rise by 2 percent to 12 percent. Some analysts think Oracle may have landed a large software deal that may have helped the company fall within that range, but management isn't expected to be as optimistic in its forecast for the current quarter ending in February

By the Numbers: Analysts, on average, expect Oracle to report earnings of 34 US cents per share on revenue of $5.86 billion. The earnings estimates exclude expenses for employee stock compensation and acquisitions. Oracle's management projected adjusted earnings of 35 cents or 36 cents per share.

Analyst Take: Even though analysts have already lowered their forecasts, Brad Reback of Oppenehimer & Co. is advising investors to be prepared for a letdown when the results and third-quarter outlook are released.

"It is difficult to envision a scenario where the company's ability to close deals in late November was not negatively impacted" by the deepening recession, Reback wrote in a recent note to clients.

Stronger Dollar Doesn't Help
As if the economy isn't challenging enough, the strengthening dollar also is taking a toll on Oracle's international sales. Noting that the dollar has gained 12 percent against the euro since mid-September, analyst David Hilal of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. thinks Oracle will lose about $300 million more in revenue from adverse currency fluctuations than management anticipated in September.

Both Reback and Hilal expect Oracle to cut its costs to cope with the downturn.

Reback believes Oracle has enough wiggle room to lower its annual expenses by about $700 million without resorting to layoffs. This assumption is based on projected fiscal 2009 expenses of nearly $14 billion, or about $160,000 per employee. Oracle's expenses have averaged about $153,000 per employee during the past 12 years, Reback said.

What's Ahead: Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison has indicated that he may try to take advantage of the recession's fallout to buy even more rivals at bargain prices. The company already has spent more than $35 billion on takeovers completed during the past four years.

Stock Performance: Oracle shares dropped by 27 percent during its fiscal second quarter and are down by about the same amount for the year.

Source: www.ecommercetimes.com

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Minnesota Goes Live On Oracle PeopleSoft 9.0, Thanks To Infocrossing

PeopleSoft 9.0 keeps the State of Minnesota's information up-to-date with ever increasing security policies. Infocrossing, a Wipro company, has completed an Oracle PeopleSoft 9.0 upgrade at the Department of Finance and Employee Relations for the State of Minnesota. The State of Minnesota leveraged Infocrossing's enterprise resource planning and consulting expertise to upgrade from PeopleSoft 8.3 to 9.0 meeting all project criteria in 11 months as planned. The newly implemented HCM system allows the State of Minnesota to effectively manage information of non-employees and the new compliance requirements.

The department has been recently renamed to Minnesota Management & Budget (MMB). MMB provides payroll and employee benefits services to approximately 50,000 state employees and retirees, with health coverage for approximately 115,000 lives.

The upgrade has improved printing through the use of newer technologies such as XML and has set a baseline to enable other reporting capabilities. In terms of security, People Soft 9.0 keeps the State's information up-to-date with ever increasing security policies. The upgrade has thus resulted in 'best practices' and has enhanced features for vendor releases of tax upgrades, corrections and enhancements, the company claimed.

According to Scott Antin, regional vice president, sales, Infocrossing, "The State of Minnesota has been a leader in adapting new technologies and automating payroll, and we are pleased that through this implementation they will derive the benefits of an updated ERP system that can streamline business processes, reduce costs and increase employee satisfaction."

"This upgrade is a great example of how a project should be conducted and delivered. Projects of this size and complexity are often late and over budget, but MMB has had a great history of success in delivering successful projects by complete planning, establishing disciplined project management and selecting experienced partners. For this upgrade, we selected Infocrossing and its consultants brought specific business and technical product knowledge that enabled a successful conclusion," said Steve Jorgenson, CIO, MMB.

Source: www.efytimes.com

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BMW Oracle take plans for 'illegitimate' America's Cup format to court

The US team BMW Oracle will refuse to register for the next America's Cup and will instead rely on a legal appeal against the plans of the defending champions, Alinghi, to alter the event's format.

The decision means the bitter dispute surrounding sailing's most high-profile competition, held since 1851, will continue in court.

Alinghi, along with 11 other teams, have agreed to work on organising the 33rd America's Cup and had set a deadline of December 15 for the BMW Oracle team to sign on. But the BMW Oracle's Golden Gate Yacht Club, which argue that the new format unfairly favours the Swiss champions, said they had no intention of doing so as they did not consider the event to be "a legitimate America's Cup".

"Rather, we will now focus our efforts and attention on winning our appeal before the New York state court of appeals," the club's commodore, Marcus Young, said in a letter to the Societe Nautique de Geneve, which represents Alinghi. "It's clearly the only avenue left open to create a fair and competitive challenge that preserves the integrity, prestige and tradition of yacht racing's pinnacle event."

In response, Alinghi said the BMW Oracle team were pursuing a "selfish legal strategy". "While it's disappointing that BMW Oracle have chosen to proceed with the legal route instead of joining the collective process, SNG and Alinghi are committed to working with all these entered teams to organise a multi-challenge event while waiting for the final ruling from the court of appeals."

The 33rd running of the race was originally scheduled for 2009 in Valencia but was put on hold after BMW Oracle challenged the legality of the Spanish team recognised by Alinghi as the event's official challenger of record.

The challenger of record is usually involved, along with the holders, in setting up the rules for the next edition of the race.

A New York judge ruled in BWM Oracle's favour in November 2007 and a subsequent ruling set up a best-of-three, head-to-head series between the two rivals rather than the traditional multi-boat competition.

Alinghi successfully appealed against the decision, saying they preferred a later race date, a separate challenger of record and a larger field of challengers.

BMW Oracle, who object to a number of elements of the rules and structure of the planned event, filed their own appeal and the case is set to be heard on February 10 with a ruling due by the end of March.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

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Oracle Emphasizes Enterprise 2.0 Credentials

A year on from staking a claim on the "Enterprise 2.0" landscape, Oracle last week sought to re-emphasize its credentials by briefing analysts and customers on its progress to-date.

The terms Enterprise Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 are often used interchangeably to describe the application of Web 2.0 ideas and technologies within the enterprise. However, a clear distinction exists between the use of these two terms, and this differentiation is important to maintain going forward, as it enables more meaningful discussions to be had when examining the future role of IT within the business.

Building on the somewhat vague and yet particular usage of the term Web 2.0, Enterprise Web 2.0 describes a fresh, and some would say new, approach to the design and provision of business applications that incorporates aspects such as social networking, collaboration, and real-time communication.

In addition, Enterprise Web 2.0 places more emphasis on the user’s "experience" or "joy of use", something of a novelty in enterprise IT these days.

By comparison, Enterprise 2.0 focuses on the composition and architecture of the IT ecosystem, and the associated business models that will support Enterprise Web 2.0 applications. Oracle’s decision to use the tag of Enterprise 2.0 sits comfortably with this terminology, as for the most part Oracle’s primary offerings sit at the infrastructure layer.

Viewed from the perspective of a potential customer, Oracle’s recent acquisition spree has left it with a number of overlapping products, solutions, and technologies in this area. Last week’s briefing therefore provided the company with an opportunity to reposition and re-emphasis its strategy.

Oracle has clearly been busy these past 12 months as evidenced by the release of several offerings that bring the power of Web 2.0 technologies to the enterprise. The company now offers a growing range of integrated tools and services for delivering "context-aware" applications, effectively collaborating, and simplifying the management and archiving of unstructured content. These are the products and technologies previously associated with Plumtree, BEA, and Stellent, all of which have now been subsumed by Oracle.

Oracle WebCenter Suite, one of four portal offerings from Oracle, provides the foundation for the company’s Enterprise 2.0 strategy. This user interaction and portal platform can be used to support and integrate ad hoc and structured business processes, and is also suited to custom and packaged enterprise applications.

Oracle’s new collaboration platform, Oracle Beehive, is an open platform for integrated and secure collaboration, and marks Oracle’s third attempt to break into the enterprise collaboration market. Oracle recently acquired the intellectual property assets of California-based Tacit Software for an undisclosed sum to expand its collaboration platform, and so it will be interesting to see where this takes Oracle.

It is clearly a mistake to think that Web 2.0 is all about technology, and likewise Enterprise Web 2.0. But it is also a mistake to dismiss the technology altogether. Selecting and implementing enterprise social software solutions, next-generation collaboration solutions, and Rich Internet Applications requires careful thought, consideration, and planning.

Organizations must now consider Oracle’s credentials and capabilities along with those of its competitors in this important new area.

Author: Richard Edwards @ www.computerwire.com

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Oracle vs. SAP revisited

Much of the Oracle vs. SAP talk we’ve heard recently has centered on the $1 billion lawsuit filed by Oracle against SAP.

But what about the Oracle vs. SAP battle outside the courtroom?

The two software giants have had a more longstanding feud in the applications space, and a new Forrester research report just declared a new winner. The report ranks Oracle’s application strategy ahead of SAP’s, a change from two years ago when Forrester said SAP was winning its war with Oracle.

The 2006 report credited SAP for the momentum it was gaining from its NetWeaver platform. That, along with SAP’s strong partnership strategy and customer base, put the company ahead of Oracle, Forrester analysts said.

Now, it looks like the promise of Fusion Applications is putting Oracle on top, at least in the eyes of analysts. The new Forrester report says that while SAP is simply focused on getting customers on its latest ERP software release, without looking ahead to the future, “Oracle’s vision for the future of its apps business is now clearer and more compelling,” according to this ITWorld article.

But whether Oracle stays on top is up to them: “If Oracle Fusion Applications fall flat, SAP wins by forfeit,” the report said.

Oracle may be winning the ERP applications battle, but let’s take a look at some other areas, many in which the fight is tough to call — who do you think emerges as the winner?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM )

Last year, analysts named SAP as No. 1 in CRM, ahead of Oracle’s Siebel CRM. It was reported that while Siebel was more widely deployed, SAP’s strategy of bundling CRM with ERP and other deals helps them drive in more revenue. Gartner’s 2008 Magic Quadrant report also showed SAP gaining the most ground in CRM.

What about the future? While Oracle is adding social networking to its CRM offerings, SAP’s hiring of former Oracle executive John Wookey, who has a strong CRM background, just may keep SAP on top.

Business Intelligence (BI)

SAP and Oracle both recently made major BI acquisitions, but it may be awhile until we see just how successfully they play out. SAP purchased Business Objects last year, and at this year’s TechEd conference, the CEO of Business Objects, John Schwarz, announced that the SAP BI product line will be supported through at least 2016. However, it will eventually merge with Business Objects to become one product line. Schwarz said that the company “brings new value for SAP customers by giving business users access to information without IT having to become involved.”

After Oracle acquired Hyperion last year, Charles Phillips, Oracle’s president said, “”We now have the most comprehensive BI product line.” Oracle executives also said the acquisition would allow them to offer a more holistic approach to BI, even when faced with the challenge of “addressing fragmented business challenges.” It should be interesting to see how.

Web 2.0

Since this is a relatively new area, and organizations are just starting to jump into Web 2.0, it should be interesting to see how Oracle and SAP choose to do so. In September, Oracle previewed new Web 2.0 and social CRM applications at Oracle OpenWorld. Earlier this year, SAP expert John Reed thought SAP had not yet caught up to Oracle:

”The problem is that SAP has yet to build a Web 2.0 tool set for its own customers that is fully integrated into SAP. In my opinion, this is one of the few areas where Oracle, with its WebCenter 2.0 toolkit, is well ahead of SAP. But SAP will get there,” Reed said.

There are endless ways we could compare these two software giants, but what do you think? In these areas (or in areas I didn’t address) who do you think is stronger — Oracle or SAP? Or does choosing one over the other simply depend on the needs of your organization?

Author: Shayna Garlick @ eyeonoracle.blogs.techtarget.com

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Oracle: Barclays Trims Ests, Target; But Stays Bullish

Barclays Capital software analyst Israel Hernandez this morning trimmed EPS estimates for Oracle (ORCL), while cutting his price target on the stock to $22 from $27. His EPS estimate for the May 2009 fiscal year drops to $1.44 from $1.55; for FY 2010, he goes to $1.55, from $1.76. The new numbers are below the Street at $1.49 and $1.66, respectively.

For FY Q2 ending November, he now sees 33 cents, down from 36 cents, and below the Street at 35 cents.

Hernandez wrote in a research note that the lower estimates reflect - surprise! - the deteriorating macro environment and currency headwinds. He sees ‘09 license growth down 4%; he previously had been expecting 10% growth. But Hernandez says that maintenance growth should provide offset to a decline in new license.

Hernandez asserts that “it is prudent” to lower estimates here, given “lower closure rates” anbd a contraction in IT spending over the next several quarters. He also notes that the current Oracle guidance for Q2 came in mid-September, before the height of the financial and credit crisis.

Nonetheless, he maintains an Overweight rating on the stock.

ORCL today is up 39 cents, or 2.4%, to $16.77.

Source: Eric Savitz @ blogs.barrons.com

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Universities to employ Oracle software program

Vietnam’s education ministry recently signed an agreement with an international software corporation on applying advanced computer science into information technology teaching at a select group of universities.

Under the agreement signed on Tuesday, 25 universities will be able to access the technical curriculum and students can gain exposure to modern software as part of the Oracle Academy program developed by Oracle Corporation.

Students will also have opportunities to develop their business and technology skills, giving them an edge when entering the world labor force in the 21st century, said Ho Thanh Tung, general director of Oracle Vietnam and Indochina, at the signing ceremony in Hanoi.

The agreement was signed between the Administration for Information Technology under the Ministry of Education and Training and Oracle Vietnam Pte. Ltd. – a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation.

The universities participating in the program include Hanoi University of Technology, Da Nang University of Technology, and member schools of Vietnam National University-Hanoi and Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City.

Oracle Corporation is one of the world’s leading software companies. The California-headquartered company specializes in developing and marketing enterprise software products.

Oracle Vietnam was established in 1995 in Hanoi and now has a representative office in HCMC.

Source: www.thanhniennews.com

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Court says Oracle must pay Arizonans by California standards

Arizonans working in California are covered by the Golden State’s overtime laws, according to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Ninth Circuit said in a ruling in the case Sullivan v. Oracle Corp. that employees living in Arizona and Colorado but working in the company’s home state are subject to California’s employment rules.

Workers had sued Oracle arguing they should receive more compensation based on California’s overtime rules. Oracle contended the employees were subject to compensation laws in their home states.

The Ninth Circuit ruling overturns a California district court decision siding with Oracle.

James Hart, an employment attorney with the law firm Littler Mendelson PC who is familiar with the case, said businesses with California operations need to examine payroll and other practices to make sure they adhere to that state’s overtime and labor laws.

Source: phoenix.bizjournals.com

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Wipro and Oracle Launch OZONE

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro, and Oracle have announced the launch of the innovative solutions lab - OZONE, at Wipro's Electronic City facility in Bangalore.

Services provided at OZONE will help joint Wipro and Oracle customers to define their IT roadmaps. The new lab will provide customers with the opportunity to test the adoption of Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA), Oracle Fusion Middleware, and Oracle's industry applications.

The lab can demonstrate end-to-end industry-specific processes and solutions, which leverage Oracle's portfolio of existing as well as newer Oracle software, and showcase innovative joint solutions developed by Wipro. This facility will also be used to co-develop solutions across specific industry processes in human capital management, customer relationship management and supply chain management.

The solutions being currently developed in the lab include process integration packs (PIPs) built on the Oracle Application Integration Architecture for the Communications Industry which are being co-developed and jointly marketed by Oracle and Wipro.

"The Oracle solution lab underscores our joint commitment to delivering competitive business value to service providers worldwide, by helping them transform their businesses, launch next-generation services and offer superior customer experience" said Judson Althoff, GVP (worldwide alliances and channels) of Oracle.

Source: www.cxotoday.com

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Oracle Rolls Out VAD Remarketer Program

The VAD Remarketer Program makes it easy for resellers to start selling Oracle products. Oracle has launched its VAD Remarketer Program with its distributor, Tech Pacific (India) Limited in India. The Oracle VAD Remarketer Program enables Tech Pacific to resell Oracle technology products through its resellers throughout India, without requiring the resellers to join the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).

The VAD Remarketer Program makes it easy for resellers to start selling Oracle products and extend the Oracle portfolio to their customers without having to make up-front financial investments to build an Oracle practice. Resellers can leverage Tech Pacific for support, training and other reseller services.

Oracle 1-CLICK ORDERING streamlines channel order-processing time. Products in the Oracle 1-CLICK ORDERING Programs category include Oracle Database Personal Edition, Oracle Database Standard Edition, Oracle Database Standard Edition One, Oracle Application Server Standard Edition, Oracle Application Server Standard Edition One, Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition One, Oracle Weblogic Server Standard Edition, Oracle Universal Content Management Standard Edition, Oracle Document Capture and Oracle Internet Developer Suite.

According to Sanjay Achawal, director, enterprise business group, Tech Pacific (India) Limited, "The key feature of the Oracle VAD Remarketer Program is that it eliminates start-up costs and makes Oracle products easily accessible. We are confident that our partners would be excited, as they would see great opportunity to engage in this business. This would help them offer a variety of Oracle-based solutions to customers which was not feasible earlier."

"With the launch of this programme, we are making it easier and more profitable for resellers to make available Oracle technology products to mid-size businesses," said Sukhdeep Singh, senior director, distribution and commercial channels sales, Oracle Asia Pacific. "Channel partners are a vital extension of our sales ecosystem. In Asia Pacific, approximately 80 per cent of our business is managed by our partner community."

Roadshows and product knowledge sessions are planned in Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai to create awareness amongst Tech Pacific India's reseller base.

Source: www.efytimes.com

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Oracle names young exec to head RP unit

Business software maker Oracle Corp. has picked a young-looking Filipino executive, Ryan Guadalquiver, as the new managing director for its Philippine subsidiary.

Guadalquiver was formally introduced in his new role last week when he represented the company in the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Education.

His age cannot be ascertained, however, as the company did not give any profile on the official and refused to entertain questions from the media regarding the appointment.

Not much is known about Guadalquiver, who did not rise from the ranks but is now tasked to lead one the biggest software subsidiaries in the country. Apart from various business software offerings, Oracle still commands a lion’s share of the database market in the local market.

Guadalquiver is the second Filipino country manager of Oracle Philippines after Bernard Yu, who stayed at the helm of the company for almost a decade. After Yu stepped down, two foreign-born executives Yashi Kant and Francis Ong served successive terms as country manager.

Prior to his new post, Quadalquiver was the Oracle’s country director for technology. A colleague, Mina Lim, temporarily served as officer-in-charge of the company before he formally took over last week.

Guadalquiver is also said to have worked for mobile operator Globe Telecom before jumping over to Oracle about two years ago. Employees at Globe could not confirm this, however.

Guadalquiver will be reporting to Oracle Asean managing director Natasak Rodjanapiches, who is also in charge of Oracle Thailand.

Author: Melvin G. Calimag @ www.mb.com.ph

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Oracle earnings stress sector’s dollar woes

When Oracle, the world’s second biggest software company, reports its latest earnings on Thursday, it will highlight an inconvenient truth for the US technology industry: the big lift the sector has had in recent years from the weakening US dollar is over, at least for now.

In its fiscal year to the end of May, roughly a quarter of Oracle’s reported revenue growth came from foreign currency translation effects, as the falling dollar increased the value of its overseas sales. Given their strong position in large parts of the global technology market, many other US tech companies have seen similar lifts from their big overseas positions.

Currency adjustments have contributed nearly half of the revenue growth at software makers Symantec and Autodesk in the first half of this year, according to an analysis by Citigroup.

A bounce in the dollar since July, particularly against the euro, has put at least a temporary end to that benefit, just as tech companies are bracing for a downturn in demand due to the weakening economy.

Adobe, another big software concern, said this week that, in its most recent quarter, foreign currency adjustments had actually depressed its reported revenue slightly compared with the preceding three months, the first time for several years currencies have not provided a tailwind.

Since Wall Street generally looks at year-to-year growth rates rather than quarter-to-quarter, the full impact of the stronger dollar, if it holds, will not be felt until next year. However, the dollar bounce will also have an immediate impact in at least two ways.

For fast-growing companies whose growth is judged on a quarter-to-quarter basis, the currency tailwind of recent quarters will turn into an immediate headwind. That is still the case with Google, at least when it comes to the “whisper number” that Wall Street uses each quarter to assess the company’s earnings, said Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at Collins Stewart.

“It is significant for Google,” Mr Aggarwal added. “It is a trend reversal, after 10 quarters of positive impact.” Foreign currency earnings have helped to support Google’s growth rate as it has hit the inevitable slowdown that comes with reaching massive size.

Revenue growth in the second quarter fell to 43 per cent from 63 per cent a year before, but would have slumped to 36 per cent had it not been for a weaker dollar.

A second immediate effect will come as Wall Street analysts start to revise their earnings forecasts for next year to reflect the new exchange rates.

Author: Richard Waters @ www.ft.com

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First Niagara Financial Group Selects Oracle CRM On Demand

Community bank will initially roll out product to all 114 bank branches.

First Niagara Financial Group (Lockport, N.Y.), a community-focused bank that provides financial services through 114 branches and four regional market centers across upstate New York, has selected Oracle (Redwood Shores, Calif.) CRM On Demand to address key sales and customer insight challenges the company faces.

The new Oracle CRM On Demand implementation will help deliver better cross-sales and up-sales by measuring overall revenue and number of products sold over time, customer loyalty capitalization, better reaction to acquisitions and added lines of business, as well as increased visibility into customer profiles, trends and forecasts for higher customer satisfaction and new sales. First Niagara Financial Group will initially roll out Oracle CRM On Demand to all 114 bank branches, and plans to roll out to other regional offices in the future.

Source: Peggy Bresnick Kendler @ www.banktech.com

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Former Oracle apps development exec said to be joining SAP

John Wookey taking new job at Oracle arch rival, source says; SAP declines to comment. John Wookey, who left his position as senior vice president of applications development at Oracle Corp. last fall, is taking a job with Oracle's bitter rival, SAP AG, according to a source with knowledge of Wookey's plans.

SAP spokesman Saswato Das declined to confirm or deny the hiring of Wookey when reached on Monday. "We always want to inform our employees about any company news first," Das said. "We have nothing to say on this matter until we have a chance to brief our people."

Oracle officials didn't immediately return a message seeking comment on the matter, nor could Wookey himself be reached. It wasn't clear what his role at SAP would be.

Wookey was a key figure behind Oracle's long-percolating Fusion Applications strategy, which will combine elements of the vendor's various business software lines into a new suite. His departure from Oracle in October 2007 prompted questions about the status of the Fusion project, but the precise reasons why Wookey left haven't been publicized.

Since his departure from Oracle, Wookey has seemingly kept a low profile, perhaps due to a noncompete agreement. Meanwhile, Oracle still hasn't set a firm release date for the initial version of the Fusion suite, but company officials said in September that they hope to deliver the applications to early users before the end of next year.

The news of Wookey's apparent hiring by SAP prompted a thumbs-up from China Martens, an analyst at The 451 Group. Wookey "brings a wealth of ERP experience to SAP, both from his days at Oracle and at Ross Systems," Martens said. Ross Systems, an Atlanta-based ERP vendor, was acquired by Hong Kong-based CDC Corp. in 2003 and now is part of that company's CDC Software unit.

Author: Chris Kanaracus @ www.computerworld.com

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Oracle buys Tacit IP

Oracle has bought the intellectual property of Tacit Software and hired all of its software engineers. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Tacit is the company behind illumio, a SaaS collaboration and "expertise location" platform, and ActiveNet, an on-premises product with a similar purpose.

The system doesn't require users to maintain profiles; instead, a plug-in that is installed locally tracks their activity and builds a "dynamic, highly accurate profile of their expertise," according to the illumio website.

Oracle has bought the Tacit IP in order to boost its Beehive collaboration product, launched at its recent OpenWorld conference. Beehive combines features such as conferencing, email, calendaring, instant messaging and workspaces.

Author: Chris Kanaracus @ computerworld.co.nz

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Oracle mostly backs Tanner on Web 2.0

The Australian government's approach to information management has previously often been "grandiose" and overly simplistic, according to Oracle's Australian division, which today mainly backed comments by finance minister Lindsay Tanner that the government needed to adopt Web 2.0-style tools.

Writing on Oracle Australia's The Red Room blog, the company's local content management spokesperson Paul Ricketts said the challenge for those like Oracle that sold web and enterprise 2.0 technologies to Australian governments was challenging an old-style mindset that has persisted since electronic document and records management systems (EDRMS) first went on the market.

"Departments brought off on the grandiose idea that they would be able to effectively manage electronic and physical documents through a single solution — allowing their content-creation processes to be supplemented by formal records keeping procedures within a single solution," he wrote.

However, added Ricketts, in many cases only the records management portion of such systems was actually implemented, with associated document creation environments often deemed too hard or unnecessary for departments, with the result that additional constraints were placed on workforces.

Tanner yesterday admitted that government agencies lagged the rest of the world when it came to the use of information technology. He also flagged the government's intention to trial web 2.0 technologies next year — such as allowing staff to post blogs — to adapt policy-making to today's technologies.

"The Australian Government could and should be leading the way in adapting our old processes of consultation, engagement, policymaking and regulation to the connected world. Yet we lag behind other nations in both the scale and pace of reform," he said.

Ultimately, Oracle appeared to agree with the minister's sentiments. "We think that Mr Tanner is onto something here, the government is the largest manager of information and needs to look to implement a more open approach for the access of information — both internally and externally," wrote Ricketts.

However the executive said that for Tanner's approach to be successful, government agencies must "embrace the thought that their staff and their customers will require an easy-to-use solution that provides information in context and enables participation within the process."

The executive admitted this sounded like "a load of marketing speak", but said the truth was that ease of access to organisational information required radical re-thinking in the way it was presented to end users.

"Simply deploying a solution that implements 'Windows Explorer' on the web isn't good enough, and nor is a solution that implements itself as a raft of non-integrated silos of information," he said.

Instead, Ricketts said, good use of search technology was key, rather than old-style directory navigation.

For example, he said, contextual search would allow users to retrieve information on taxes on Christmas tree sales from the Australian Taxation Office. Taking it to the next step, users should be able to start online conversations around those specific tax rules. "This is what we call participation," wrote Ricketts.

However, Ricketts wrote, one of the challenges involved was security, especially where government departments were liaising with external parties. "Information, and I'm referring primarily to documentation (Word, Excel, PPT in general), can be leaked to the public or to the press accidentally or otherwise," he said.

"Security needs to be tightly integrated into any environment where participation or collaboration is enabled and it isn't as simple as introducing a directory-service with authentication, unfortunately."

Author: Liam Tung, ZDNet.com.au

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Oracle buys Tacit Software's intellectual property

Corporate software maker Oracle Corp. said Monday it purchased the intellectual property rights of Tacit Software Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

The company said it will fold Tacit's automated profiling technology into Oracle Beehive software, which is used for Web conferencing, instant messaging, email, calendar functions and team workspaces.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tacit Software makes Illumio, software which enables employees to find and share information and knowledge by automatically routing questions to the employee with the knowledge on the subject. The company also makes ActiveNet, which allows employees to connect on key topics to solve problems and address issues.

In morning trading, Oracle shares fell 15 cents to $18.14.

Source: www.kiplinger.com

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Al Safeer Group to roll out Oracle Retail

UAE retail conglomerate the Al Safeer Group has selected Oracle business applications to help it improve management of its operations.

The group will deploy Oracle Retail applications, E-Business Suite and database, across all of its operations in retail, real estate and entertainment, which will replace a diverse base of legacy systems. The new systems are intended to allow the group to have better control and insight into financial operations, and to improve supply chain efficiency.

“Oracle will help enable Al Safeer to improve our business performance by streamlining and integrating processes into a single cohesive enterprise and taking a best-practice approach to managing our information. This can only help us serve our customers better,” said Mahesh Kalwani, COO, Al Safeer Group.

The Oracle retail applications will be used to give better management of inventory and better insight into performance of retail stores, Al Safeer Group’s core activity. Services company Satyam will provide implementation, consultancy and training services to the group to enable it to get the most from the deployment.

Patrick Bohannon, vice president, EMEA, Oracle Retail commented: “Al Safeer’s selection of Oracle Applications will help its decision-makers to turn reliable and timely information into make insightful and profitable business decisions and deliver an enhanced customer experience.”

Author: Mark Sutton @ www.arabianbusiness.com

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Wipro implements Oracle's Peoplesoft in J&K Bank

Wipro Infotech, the IT business arm of Wipro Ltd, today announced that it has implemented Oracle's Peoplesoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0 for Jammu and Kashmir Bank.

It will help streamline the HR management of the bank, which has an employee strength of more than 8,000. It will also enable the cutting down of paper work to a major extent and reduction of manual work thereby lending alacrity to HR processes, Wipro said in a statement said.

"As a result of this implementation all the zones and branches are connected to the centralised HR system and a fully customised claims management system has been deployed to facilitate the claims process, which also includes an interface to Oracle's Peoplesoft Enterprise Payroll," it added.

Some of the modules implemented by Wipro include Talent Acquisition Manager and Candidate Gateway (Recruitment), Administer Training, eDevelopment, ePerformance, eProfile Manager Desktop, eProfile, Profile Management, Global Payroll for India, Absence Management and Approval Workflow Engine.

Source: www.tmcnet.com

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Oracle buys Aussie Ruleburst

Enterprise software giant Oracle has purchased Australian-owned independent software vendor Ruleburst, owners of the Haley suite of compliance software products, for an undisclosed sum.

The Haley suite of products automates the enforcing of business rules within applications. The company says its software is used by large organisations to "prevent, detect and cure breaches in compliance with legislation, policy and business rules".

RuleBurst, based in Sydney, also has operations in the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore.

According to a statement released by Oracle, the company intends to create a new software solution based on the combination of the Haley platform with Oracle's ERP and Siebel CRM applications.

The ISV's staff will form a new business division within Oracle aimed at "enterprise policy automation".

Haley's CEO Dominic O'Hanlon will lead this team as senior vice president and general manager.

Author: Brett Winterford, ZDNet.com.au

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Mideast biggest market for Oracle

The leading database and infrastructure solutions company, Oracle, said the Middle East share for its products is the highest in the world and that it has a great potential.

"The region enjoys the highest market share in the world and is therefore a strategic region for Oracle," said Charles Phillips, President of Oracle Corporation on his first trip to Dubai and the region, at a roundtable held with journalists at Gitex.

Phillips was upbeat on the region's performance and also the customers based in the region. "Over the past three days I have met customers in Dubai and also travelled to Abu Dhabi and am really impressed with the knowledge of clients based in the region. The customers are also proud of working with Oracle and have great stories to tell. The energy is good here as there is a lot of growth potential."

Oracle was an active participant at Gitex. Husam Dajani, Senior Vice President MEA, present at the event said: "We have been participating at Gitex for many years and there has been a continuity in our relationship with customers and consultants. This also shows that we understand all the verticals in the region and have covered all of them."

Though the vendor is on the top in database, middleware, applications and infrastructure solutions, Phillips said there are many customers who have not implemented all ERP modules and had not standardised all the divisions within the company. Dajani said: "Many clients don't have modern CRM systems and require different ways of communications. Therefore these customers require a common experience to grow.

"There are also specialised industries which require unique solutions and also have to move to commercial solutions like Oracle".

He cited the example of the insurance industry, which requires mission critical solutions to make quick decisions and therefore partners need to develop their skills to target these industries. "Its not database anymore but also middleware and a whole lot of applications around that.

"Even banks are looking for modern platforms especially the ones in this part of the world as they don't have legacy systems. Asia and Middle East is definitely faster in adopting technologies compared to their European counterpart," he said.

Oracle's president claimed that the company had no competition on the database front, as close competitor Microsoft was not interested. "Microsoft seems to have lost interest as they are busy chasing Google in the consumer space, while we are very clear that our focus is on enterprise," Phillips said.

On the applications front, he said, SAP was a strong competitor but Oracle was now leading in that space.

"Though IBM is present in enterprise their approach has changed as we are more of partners than competitors. They are focused more on services and loosing market share in database," said Phillips.

Author: Nancy Sudheer @ www.business24-7.ae

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Oracle Financial Services Software net up 7%

Oracle Financial Services Software (formerly known as i-flex), reported net income of Rs 93.4 crore for the second quarter up 6.8 per cent as compared to Rs 87.4 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

Revenue for this quarter grew 23 per cent to touch Rs 707.4 crore as compared to Rs 575.8 crore for the corresponding quarter last financial year.

Sequentially, the net income of the company dropped 11.5 per cent from Rs 105.6 crore--but revenue were up 11.8 per cent from Rs 631.8 crore.

The company signed new license fees of $27.4 million in the quarter and added 16 new customers across product and services business spanning across multiple geographies.

“Our past investments have helped grow products license fees by 55 per cent, compared to the same period last year. The overall revenue stream is well diversified geographically. The combination of domain knowledge and technology leadership of Oracle allows us to address banks’ current and future needs in ways that no other vendor can,” said N R K Raman, Managing Director and CEO, Oracle Financial Services Software Limited.

Source: www.business-standard.com

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Oracle told by judge to offer to settle with SAP

BOSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge told Oracle Corp to propose a financial settlement in a lawsuit that the software giant filed against rival SAP AG in which Oracle has claimed that damages may top $1 billion.

Oracle filed the claim against the German software maker in March 2007, accusing SAP's U.S.-based TomorrowNow services unit of illegally using customer log-ins to steal copyrighted materials from Oracle's website.

Federal Judge Joseph Spero asked Redwood City, California-based Oracle to tell SAP how much money it wants to settle the case by February 13. The German software maker will have until February 18 to come up with a counter offer, according to the order that was issued in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Monday.

Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger declined comment. SAP spokesman Saswato Das said his company would cooperate with the court's request.

California courts regularly require parties in civil lawsuits attempt to settle before they go to court.

SAP had disclosed in July 2007 that TomorrowNow employees made "some inappropriate downloads" of materials from Oracle's website.

But SAP officials have repeatedly declined to elaborate on that comment, saying the facts will be reviewed by the court.

SAP is in the process of shutting down TomorrowNow after an unsuccessful bid to sell the company.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle, Editing by Ben Tan)

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Oracle joins patch party

Company issues 36 security fixes. Oracle has issued a massive security update for twenty of its enterprise computing offerings.

The update encompasses all supported copies of Oracle Database, Application Server, E-Business Suite, People Soft Enterprise, JD Edwards, WebLogic Server and Workshop for WebLogic.

Fifteen of the security patches address issues in the company's flagship Database software. Only one, however, would allow an attacker to remotely access a database system without authorization. The update will not need to be installed on machines running the client version of the database software.

The remainder of the security patches were distributed evenly amongst the other applications. Included in the update are fixes for a pair of remotely-exploitable flaws in Application Server and two in the E-Business Suite offering.

The company is strongly recommending that administrators apply the updates as soon as possible in order to avoid a potentially serious attack or data leak.

Oracle's patch release could lead to a busy week for IT departments. The release of the Oracle update comes just one day after Microsoft issued the October edition of its monthly security update which included critical fixes for Windows, Office and Internet Explorer.

Author: Shaun Nichols @ www.vnunet.com

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Vertica says Oracle compatibility, other features will help it win more BI users

Column-based database start-up Vertica Systems Inc.'s strategy of trying to supplement rather than usurp customers' data warehouses appears to be paying off.

The Billerica, Mass.-based company, which began selling its software just a year and a half ago, brought in $20 million in revenue in the past four quarters, said Dave Menninger, vice president of marketing, last week.

Vertica announced the release of Version 2.5 of its namesake database just half a year after the release of Version 2.0 in March.

Version 2.5 adds features such as the ability to design data warehouses in a number of schemas, and enhancements to SQL -- especially compatibility with Oracle's version of SQL. That will make it easier for customers to port existing applications written for their Oracle databases or data warehouses over to Vertica, Menninger said.

Version 2.5 also adds custom data partitioning, hot backup and an intelligent query router so that applications can automatically search for data whether it is located inside the Vertica data mart or the main enterprise data warehouse.

The company has 50 customers, including a financial services firm that Vertica signed up last month. That customer is Vertica's largest to date, Menninger said, though he declined to name the firm.

Vertica's bread-and-butter is what the company calls a "teramart," a specially built high-speed data mart that is an adjunct to the main data warehouse and analyzes a certain segment of data, typically multiple terabytes in size.
Many of its customers are in the telecom or financial markets, and competition is heating up. Oracle Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Teradata Inc. all have announced major new BI-focused upgrades in the past month or so.

Customers can buy Vertica one of three ways. Most simply, they can license the database to run on Linux servers. A small number buy the software preinstalled on server appliances built by Hewlett-Packard Co. or Sun Microsystems Inc. Licensing the database or buying it on an appliance both cost the same: about $100,000 per terabyte of user data, Menninger said.

That means a teramart of only 10TB costs $1 million. That figure appears expensive compared with Vertica's competitors' offerings in the large and high-performance business intelligence market. Netezza Inc. reportedly charges about $29,000 per terabyte, while GreenPlum Inc. charges about $20,000 per terabyte of user data.

But Menninger said he doesn't expect the company to have to respond with price cuts. Vertica is "saving customers money," he said. "Despite the fact that the economy is struggling, our business has been accelerating."

Price-sensitive customers can opt for a third option introduced in May: running a Web-hosted version of Vertica from Amazon.com's EC2. That option starts at $500 per month for 500GB of data.

Vertica has no plans to create its own set of BI analysis and reporting tools. "Our goal is to use standard interfaces to hook in as well as possible with existing products in the market," Menninger said.

Author: Eric Lai @ www.computerworld.com

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Oracle stands tall in database software

Question: Should I brace for the worst with my shares of Oracle Corp.?

-- D.L., via the Internet

Answer: Like all technology firms, it is facing weakened economies in the United States and abroad that have a negative impact on the companies that typically buy its products.

Oracle shares are down 12 percent this year following last year's 32 percent increase and a 40 percent gain in 2006. The company has expressed caution about its near-term prospects.

Nonetheless, its dominant position in database software gives it a degree of pricing power most other technology companies can only dream about. At midyear it enacted 15 percent to 20 percent across-the-board price increases for its U.S. customers.

It also possesses the solid finances and cash flow to grow by acquiring companies, having spent more than $30 billion during the past three years to buy smaller software firms. Its $8.5 billion acquisition of BEA Systems closed in April.

The company's market share in database software, which is the foundation of every information system, edged up to 49 percent last year from 48 percent in 2006, according to the Gartner market research firm. IBM ranked second at 21 percent and Microsoft third with 18 percent.

Oracle also is gaining ground in enterprise software, those integrated applications that support and streamline business activities. It has lately expanded into applications for the insurance and health-care industries.

Presence in a variety of information technology areas allows it to offer "one-stop shopping" to companies that prefer not to have to deal with multiple providers.

Consensus rating of Oracle shares by Wall Street analysts is "buy," according to Thomson Financial, consisting of 11 "strong buys," 10 "buys," six "holds" and three "underperforms."

The company faces increased competition from lower-cost support providers for Oracle products. Germany's SAP is a formidable foe and the leader in business applications, and Oracle's database software is a maturing business.

Earnings are expected to be up 15 percent for the current fiscal year ending in May and 15 percent for the next fiscal year.

Q: I am unhappy with my shares of Fidelity Value Discovery Fund. Are they still worth holding?

-- P.F., via the Internet

A: Recent events haven't been kind to its portfolio, which emphasizes financial stocks. Trimming back some energy holdings didn't help either.

Nonetheless, its significant holdings in JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. represent surviving banks that avoided most of the excesses of their peers. The fund also adroitly trimmed back its General Electric Co. stock because of the company's stressed financial business.

All this requires that an investor look beyond near-term results to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The fund, which is able to move around various market capitalizations, has an overall strategy of investing in securities undervalued in relation to a firm's assets, sales, earnings, growth or cash flow.

The $1 billion Fidelity Value Discovery Fund is down 45 percent during the past 12 months to rank in the lowest one-third of large growth and value funds. Its three-year annual return of a 7 percent loss places it in the top one-fourth of its peers.

"I currently have Fidelity Value Discovery rated as a 'hold,' " said Jack Bowers, editor of the independent Fidelity Monitor newsletter in Rocklin, Calif. "I think probably the worst is over and, though we're not there yet, at some point the financial sector will outperform."

The fund has been managed since its December 2002 inception by Scott Offen, who previously managed several of Fidelity's industry funds. Although he is an accomplished stock picker, he is not yet one of the investment firm's most proven managers. Because Offen doesn't hang on to winners forever because he sees downside risk in doing so, the portfolio tends to have high turnover.

This "no-load" (no sales charge) fund requires a $2,500 minimum initial investment and has an annual expense ratio of 0.87 percent.

Author: Andrew Leckey @ Tribune Media Services

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Oracle Acquires Primavera

Oracle has announced that it is to acquire Primavera, a software company that focuses on enterprise project portfolio management, PPM. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition follows Oracle’s moves to expand its services, transport, and construction, STC, business. While Oracle already has a significant existing client base in project-intensive industries, through a combination of core technology assets, middleware, Siebel, E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Agile, there is still heavy supplier fragmentation in those markets.

By acquiring Primavera, it has started to arm its salesforce with stronger arguments to push for highly lucrative enterprise licensing agreements.

Source: www.computerwire.com

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