Oracle Scores Twice in Gartner's Field Service Magic Quadrant

The company's Siebel unit is the sole Leader in a recent Gartner Magic Quadrant and its Oracle E-Business Suite lands on the cusp; ClickSoftware and TOA Technologies are listed as Visionaries.

Growing demand is driving change in the field service management (FSM) industry -- vendors whose products enable mobile workforce optimization, fleet routing and management, technician portals, and asset monitoring -- even as the number of players within it shrinks. An estimated 40 percent of technicians in large enterprises will have wireless access to FSM by 2012, up from 12 percent today, according to a report by research firm Gartner. The addition of CRM functionality to FSM solutions will be used as a way to enable field service technicians to capture sales leads, configure orders, and market while on site. But more than half of all FSM suppliers will merge with, be acquired by, or acquire another supplier by 2012, according to Gartner. It is against that backdrop that Gartner presented its 2008 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management.

As in many other corners of CRM and related industries, the growth of software-as-a-service (SaaS) is becoming a factor to consider. Gartner predicts that, by 2012, at least 30 percent of new FSM application components will be sold using the SaaS delivery model, rather than as purchased software licenses. Despite that, two of the leading products in the FSM space have limited or no SaaS options.

Oracle's Siebel Systems, the sole resident of the Leader quadrant, is no stranger to acquisition; Oracle is the most notorious acquirer and Siebel its most notable acquisition in recent years. "Siebel design and configuration tools are best-of-breed," writes Michael Maoz, Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst, in the report. "References report that the scalability of the application can support thousands of technicians comfortably." While Maoz notes that the Siebel product shows "continued investment in functionality and technology, deeper integration with the Oracle technology stack and...ongoing recruitment of development, sales, and marketing resources," he cautions against the cost and complexity of implementation, and also its lack of either real-time capabilities or a Web-based option.

Oracle's other FSM-capable product, E-Business Suite, is almost precisely in the center of Gartner's chart. Its strengths include good reference designs for project management, a strong background in asset management, and notable mobility tools, according to Gartner. Weaknesses include difficulties in procurement, a reliance on other Oracle products, and the aforementioned lack of SaaS, as well as a relatively small customer base and little experience with complex operations.

Two companies occupy this year's Visionaries quadrant (those with relatively complete market vision but less ability to execute):

* ClickSoftware; and
* TOA Technologies.

Gartner notes that ClickSoftware "is the largest independent software company offering field service optimization...[and] a growing company with the advantage of focus on a core service business problem." However, its solution is described as incomplete. TOA Technologies tripled its customer base from 4,000 last year to 12,000 this year, making it the fastest-growing vendor in this Magic Quadrant. Gartner hails its ETAdirect product as "the only multitenant, Internet-based, SaaS offering on the FSM Magic Quadrant. It attacks a high-value, high-cost activity: service technician travel and work." TOA is a small company, though, with a narrow focus within the telecommunications industry.

Three companies were added to the list of vendors this year:

* IFS
* Vertical Solutions, and
* WennSoft.

All appear in the Niche Players quadrant, alongside more established players:

* SAP;
* Corrigo;
* Astea International;
* Ventyx;
* ServicePower; and
* Syclo.

One company, @Road, was dropped from the 2008 chart; "We have not seen software modernization of the workforce optimization application, or partners and a sales force actively selling and deploying the product" is the reason quoted in the report.

Notable by its absence is Microsoft. "Microsoft has tremendous long-term potential in this area, but it is unlikely to muster the focus required to build a credible business during the next 12 months," Maoz writes. "It will remain consumed by other priorities, such as communications, CRM, ERP applications for small and midsize businesses, and mobility."

Author: Marshall Lager @ www.destinationcrm.com

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Self-service spending is up

According to ePaymentsnews Network, US-based consumers have spent $548 million on the self-service payment systems in 2007, a sum which has increased by 19% as compared with the 2006 sales, a report points out.

The report titled "The Self-Service 'Buy-and-Pay' Market: Kiosk, Vending and Foodservice Trends in the US" and published by consumer market research provider Packaged Facts also says that a 17% compound annual growth rate is expected to boost sales to $1.2 trillion by 2012.

The report predicts that self-checkout kiosks will witness a rise in the share of transaction volume from 30% to 35%, while vendings share will remain in the low single digits in spite of an expected improvement in the annual growth from 3% in 2007 to 8% by 2012.

Call center self-service increasing

The use of automated self-service tools in call centers has surged over the past decade, to the point that only 50% of users ever interact with a human being, says VNUNet.

In 1997, 90% of contact centre calls were handled by an operator but today that figure has fallen by almost half. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and web-based systems now respectively account for 15.5% and 13.7% of all transactions.

Cost savings have been a primary driver behind the switch, according to Dimension Data's global benchmarking report for the sector. The average self-service operation costs a business £2, compared with £17 for one handled by a human agent.

Application Lynx implements Oracle

Application Lynx, a provider of HR and payroll solutions, has implemented the Oracle Human Capital Management solution, part of the Oracle E-Business Suite, at Bradford & Bingley, states ComputerWeekly.

The project involved the implementation of the Human Capital Management HR Self Service, Learning Management, and Daily Business Intelligence modules.

They will enable Bradford & Bingley's HR department to support the HR business requirements for more than 3 000 staff across the UK.

Author: Vicky Burger @ www.itweb.co.za

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Oracle named top telco OSS vendor for 2008

Oracle, the world's largest enterprise software company, recently received the Telecom OSS Vendor of the Year award at the 5th Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards ceremony in Singapore held last May 23.

Oracle's OSS solutions were cited for topping the judges' criteria on revenue and revenue growth, portfolio diversity, major wins and key achievements. The company's OSS solutions currently automate the order-to activate provisioning cycle by integrating key service fulfillment processes, including back office order orchestration, network and service inventory management, network intelligence, service activation and configuration management.

Aside from Oracle, telecommunications provider Ericsson Mobile and mobile handset provider Nokia won awards for Wireless Infrastructure Vendor of the Year and Mobile Handset Vendor of the Year.

The list of winners are as follows:

Enterprise Vendor Awards

Contact Center Applications Vendor of the Year - Avaya
Network Security Vendor of the Year - Check Point Software Technologies Ltd
Application Networking Vendor of the Year - F5 Networks
Business Intelligence Vendor of the Year - SAS
Conferencing Service Provider of the Year - InterCall
Contact Center Outsourcing Vendor of the Year - IBM Daksh
Enterprise Telephony Vendor of the Year - Avaya

Telecom Vendor Awards

NGN Infrastructure Vendor of the Year - Alcatel-Lucent
Broadband Equipment Vendor of the Year - Huawei Technologies
Telecom BSS Vendor of the Year - Comverse

Telecom OSS Vendor of the Year - Oracle Communications
Optical Vendor of the Year - Alcatel-Lucent
Wireless Infrastructure Vendor of the Year - Ericsson
Mobile Handset Vendor of the Year - Nokia

Service Provider Awards

Mobile Content Developer of the Year - Faith Inc
Satellite Communications Service Provider of the Year - IntelSat
Data Communications Service Provider of the Year - BT
Broadband Service Provider of the Year - Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
Next Generation Network Service Provider of the Year - Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd.
Emerging Market Service Provider of the Year - Ufone
Competitive Service Provider of the Year - StarHub
Wireless Data Service Provider of the Year - Telstra
Wireless Service Provider of the Year - Bharti Airtel

Best of the Best

Most Promising Innovative Application/Product of the Year - Gifticon by SK Telecom
Most Promising Vendor of the Year - Blue Coat Systems
Most Promising Service Provider of the Year - Bakrie Telecom
Vendor of the Year - Huawei Technologies
Service Provider of the Year - China Mobile
CEO of the Year: Service Provider - Mr. Solomon D. Trujillo, Telstra

Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com

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SAP CFO sees no out-of-court settlement with Oracle

The chief financial officer of business software maker SAP does not believe an out of court settlement with Oracle is likely at present, he told German Sunday weekly Euro am Sonntag.

"That is a possibility that we never ruled out, but for the moment it is not an issue. There are no talks over and above the regular court proceedings," Werner Brandt said.

Oracle had filed a lawsuit against SAP in March 2007, accusing it of corporate theft and copyright infringement.

The two are bitter rivals in the battle to supply customers with software to automate, integrate and manage everything from human resources to accounting.

When asked about the company's outlook, Brandt said he continues to expect an adjusted operating margin of 35 percent in the mid-term.

"I see no reason why we cannot generate 100 basis points of additional margin annually in the coming years, and even slightly more if business is good," he said.

For 2008, SAP expects its non-GAAP operating margin at constant currencies, which excludes a non-recurring deferred support revenue writedown from the acquisition of Business Objects and acquisition-related charges, to be in the range of between 28.5 and 29.0 percent.

Brandt also forecast organic growth in software and other software-related service revenue, which doesn't include maintenance sales, would be a clear two-digit percentage figure on average in the coming years.

By comparison, the company has said this would rise by 12-14 percent in 2008, when the contribution from the acquisition of Business Objects is stripped out.

Source: (Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner; editing by Elaine Hardcastle @ www.forbes.com)

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Dubai World deploys largest Oracle installation

Dubai World is currently rolling out Oracle Hyperion Financial Management software to more than 300 users across 150 legal entities in a bid to strengthen its corporate governance and regulatory compliance processes.

The new software deployment, which is the largest installation of Oracle’s Hyperion solutions in the wider Middle East region, will enable the finance departments of various Dubai World companies to accelerate and enhance their reporting status, analyse financial growth, and develop a single instance of financial reporting across their organisations.

“Robust corporate governance, accurate and swift financial reporting, and rapid compliance with changing regulatory frameworks are key elements of Dubai World’s growth strategy as a global company, and our new Oracle Hyperion Financial Management system is a critical tool to achieving these aims,” said Maryam Sharaf, group chief financial Office, Dubai World.

The Hyperion Financial Management software selected by Dubai World is a comprehensive, Web-based financial software application that delivers global collection reporting and analysis in a single, highly scalable offering.

While the software utilises the most advanced technology currently available in the market, its user-friendly interface and financial reporting tools enable it to be owned and maintained by Dubai World’s Corporate Finance team together with its Information Technology Center which provides hosting services, said a top Oracle official.

"We anticipate that Hyperion Financial Management will enable Dubai World to reduce its financial consolidation timeline by half by automating and streamlining its closing and analysis processes,” said Arun Khehar, vice president, RPM Industries, Oracle.

“This type of system also helps customers like Dubai World identify new sources of profitability while cutting down on the operating costs of its finance departments, and these benefits can be significant to a growing global brand with multiple overseas subsidiaries,” he added.

One of the fundamental benefits that Dubai World expects to derive from using Hyperion Financial Management is a ‘single version of truth’ in the reporting of its financial results across a diversity of subsidiaries, Khehar explained.

Rather than relying on spreadsheets or custom-made reporting solutions, the new software can integrate information from multiple systems and companies within Dubai World and provide a single and centralized view of the company’s finances.

This latest software deployment was managed in partnership with Paragon Middle East.

Dubai World plans to extend the Oracle Hyperion solution to its subsidiaries in Europe, Africa and the US within the year, said Sharaf.

Source: www.tradearabia.com

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Oracle Announces Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing Release 2.2

Enhancements Help Utilities Boost Employee Productivity, Improve Ability to Manage Conservation Programs and Enhance Customer Experience.

* Today, Oracle announced the availability of Oracle(r) Utilities Customer Care and Billing 2.2, which includes significant enhancements that help utilities boost employee productivity, improve ability to manage conservation programs and enhance customer service.
* The new release continues to build on Oracle’s commitment to providing utilities with industry-specific applications that are pre-integrated with other Oracle product offerings and allow customers to fully leverage Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware technology to improve application performance and reliability.
* Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing helps customers manage all aspects of the utility customer lifecycle including service connection, management of meter reads (index and interval), complex billing, payment processing and debt collection. In addition, the product also supports associated functions like field service, meter management, sales and marketing and provides a very flexible rating engine and efficient contact center management application.

Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing Release 2.2 Details

* Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing 2.2 helps utilities:
* Improve Conservation Program Management - Utilities today are focused on driving environmental initiatives by offering green products and services, developing demand response programs and improving grid efficiency. Many utilities encourage customers to participate in conservation and energy efficiency programs by issuing rebates upon proof of purchase. In order to efficiently run these programs, utilities require systems that help them to market to their customer base, automate processing and track/analyze campaign progress. Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing 2.2 enables utilities to manage conservation programs within the customer information system (CIS) itself, ensuring a single data repository and a single view of the customer. The new module provides management-level program oversight, increased automation and governance capabilities, as well as support of analytical requirements.
* Enhance Customer Service - Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing 2.2 offers utilities new tools that empower employees to improve customer service. The new application version provides enhanced cashiering functionalities that help streamline processes and improve the efficiency of walk-in payment centers, which can lead to shorter customer lines. The application also enables utilities to track customer preferences, ensuring the utility contacts customers through the channel the customer requests, which may include e-mail, phone, fax or postal mail.
* Boost Productivity - The application includes Task Optimization tools that allow utilities to reduce the number of steps and associated "clicks" in their most common processes - improving efficiency and ensuring consistency in task execution. The Task Optimization tools allow utilities to model their business processes, including configuring their own user interfaces, to suit their unique work processes and needs, while ensuring all data entered is properly validated for accuracy. This enables the system to be even more intuitive and user friendly, helping to reduce required training and improve productivity and efficiency.
* Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing 2.2 leverages Oracle’s application infrastructure - including Oracle Database 11g , Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Enterprise Linux, a feature of the Oracle Unbreakable Linux support program - to provide a unified application and technology operating environment. The new release also operates with Oracle Real Application Clusters to provide even higher system-availability for the most critical utilities systems and integrates with Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher to meet utilities’ unique reporting requirements.

Supporting Quote

* "Oracle provides the flexibility and reliability we need to run our business. The enhanced customer care and billing system will support the cashiers in our walk-in payment centers by providing streamlined cashiering processes and a comprehensive view of the customer, allowing us to reduce the number of IT systems that we need to maintain -- and ultimately providing the best possible customer care" said Alisa Mann, customer services manager, Las Vegas Valley Water District.

Supporting Resources

* Oracle Utilities
* Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing

Source: www.oracle.com

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Hellenic Telecommunications implements Oracle's application suite

Oracle has announced that Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, a communications service provider, has implemented an end-to-end application suite from Oracle to support its IT transformation initiative.

Oracle said that Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) has implemented a comprehensive customer relationship management, operations support system (OSS) and enterprise resource planning solution from Oracle.

The OSS components included Oracle Communications Order and Service Management, Oracle Communications Service Activation and Oracle's inventory management system to enable automated fulfillment of asymmetric digital subscriber line broadband services.

OTE has also recently implemented the Oracle E-Business Suite to improve visibility into business data across the enterprise and enhance operational efficiency in its financial, corporate customer services, supply chain and human resource functions.

David Sharpley, vice president of product marketing and channels for Oracle Communications, said: "OTE's selection and implementation of Oracle applications will provide the necessary foundation to help the company to create a sustainable competitive advantage and excel in customer service."

Source: www.cbronline.com

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W. Jordan wins Oracle plant

Data-storage center will employ 100 people at high wages. Business software giant Oracle Corp. on Monday said it will build a data-storage center in West Jordan that will employ around 100 people when the center opens in two years.
Oracle said it would go ahead with the $285 million data center after Utah economic development officials agreed Friday to offer the Redwood City, Calif.-based company up to $15 million in tax-rebate incentives.
In addition, West Jordan has promised Oracle a $10 million incentive - to be funded by the new property taxes that the data center is expected to generate.
Several local governments will also provide about $10 million to Oracle. Representatives of the governments will meet in July to determine how the incentive will be structured, West Jordan community development director Tom Burdett said.
The company plans to break ground this summer on the 200,000-square-foot data center in the Bingham Business Park at 6200 West and 9600 South.
"It's a big coup for the state. These are very high-paying jobs, even in Salt Lake City, in an industry we are trying to grow," said Jason Perry, executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development.
Oracle said it will pay wages averaging $64,000, for a total payroll of $7.3 million. Wages will be approximately 200 percent of the Salt Lake County average wage, GOED spokesman Michael Sullivan said.
Oracle said the data center is expected to open by early 2010 for its global information technology operations.
The data center will support Oracle's on-demand division, which stores and retrieves data for business customers.
It will also assist ''our research-and-development and customer-service requirements,'' Oracle President Safra Catz said in a statement.
"An opportunity like this doesn't come along every day," said West Jordan City Manager Gary Luebbers. "But when it did, we engaged every available resource to convince Oracle to locate in West Jordan. We anticipate Oracle will be a strong partner with the city for decades to come."
Oracle chose Utah for the data center after considering locations in several states. Last month, the company appeared to have settled on property in Meridian, Idaho, but changed its mind when a property owner raised the price of the site at the last moment, according to the Idaho Business Review in Boise.
Oracle already employs 150 people in Utah at a software sales and support office in Sandy.

Author: Paul Beebe @ www.sltrib.com

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Oracle's Got What It Takes - Barron's

Barron's cover story this week takes a sensationally bullish stance on Oracle (ORCL) and its controversial CEO Larry Ellison.

Oracle bears seem to think Ellison is pre-occupied with yacht racing. It may be true that he loves boating, but with 42 acquisitions worth more than $30B in less than four years, it's hard to fault Ellison for giving Oracle less than his full attention. Coupled with its formidable $22B in annual revenue, margins have climbed to 42% from 36% five years ago.

Its aggressive buying spree has made Oracle number-one in non-mainframe databases and middleware -- leaving only enterprise applications in which it trails rival SAP (SAP). "Our goal is to be No. 1 in every segment in which we participate," Ellison says. "We are growing faster than [SAP], and I think we can catch them," which he plans to accomplish by buying smaller, industry-specific software developers.

"The name of the game is scale," Ellison says, explaining his aggressiveness. Software developers with annual sales of $250M-$1B average operating margins of 10%. $1B-5B average 16%. The four biggest -- Oracle, SAP, IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT) average 30%.

Oracle has a great record of maintaining customer bases, both organic and acquired. Maintenance revenues are growing at a 24%/year clip, and Oracle's maintenance-renewal rate is 90%, despite its refusal to reduce fees to snag customers.

Barron's says Oracle should easily maintain 20%+ annual earnings growth. Analysts think shares ($21) are worth $24-30. Ellison agrees: "I think we do deserve a premium multiple. The market gets it right over a long period."

Source: http://seekingalpha.com

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Maryland Institute deploys Oracle applications to automate administrative tasks

Oracle has announced that Maryland Institute College of Art has upgraded to Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise release 9.0. The college completed its upgrade of PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management, Campus Solutions, Contributor Relations and Enterprise Portal on time and on budget.

The college initially deployed the applications to automate manual administrative tasks. Since its initial implementation, the college has nearly doubled in size and has more than 1,800 undergraduate and graduate students and nearly 918 faculty and staff members.

Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) has utilized functionality within PeopleSoft Enterprise Release 9.0 Human Capital Management applications for HR Administration, Payroll and Base Benefits; additionally, the college has also deployed PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.0 Campus Solutions for Academic Advisement, Student Records, Student Financials, Financial Aid, Recruiting and Admissions, Contributor Relations and Campus Community.

The college also leverages PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal to deliver the applications in an integrated, self-service environment to faculty, staff and students. The portal upgrade has improved the user experience for the majority of MICA's students and faculty that work on Mac computers and Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari web browsers. Since upgrading, MICA can now offer online bill/tuition payment, course registration, academic advisement, pay advices, grading and class rosters.

Source: www.cbronline.com

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Oracle To Buy Insurance Software Maker

Oracle plans to make AdminServer's software a core component of its existing insurance-related products, such as Oracle Billing, Siebel Claims, and Siebel Customer Relationship Management for Insurance.

Oracle has agreed to buy AdminServer, a maker of insurance policy administration software. Financial details were not disclosed.

Oracle plans to make AdminServer's software a core component of Oracle's existing insurance-related products, such as Oracle Billing, Siebel Claims, and Siebel Customer Relationship Management for Insurance. Oracle says more than 1,000 insurers, including the top 20 companies, use its software.

The addition of AdminServer is expected to give Oracle a more comprehensive insurance policy management system. Oracle plans to offer software for managing multiple insurance product lines, such as life, annuities and reinsurance.

AdminSever's management and employees will form a global business unit within Oracle focusing on the insurance industry. Rick Connors, chief executive of AdminServer, is expected to become general manager of the unit.

Oracle plans to market the combined insurance product line as a replacement for the legacy policy administration applications used today in the industry. Such applications are "extremely inflexible and imped enterprise agility and efficiency," Oracle President Charles Phillips said. "Together, Oracle and AdminServer plan to deliver the most modern, comprehensive, standards-based and well-integrated enterprise software suite for the insurance industry," Phillips said in a statement released Tuesday.

Oracle expects to close the transaction by the end of June.

Oracle has been on a buying spree since 2005. The business software maker acquired 13 companies in 2005 and in 2006 and 11 companies last year. So far this year, Oracle has bought BEA Systems and Captovation, and has acquired technology from Empirix.

The BEA acquisition, completed last month, is the biggest so far this year. The company's middleware technology is expected to augment Oracle's offerings in business intelligence software, particularly in the area of products and services for accessing transaction data for analysis in real time.

Author: Antone Gonsalves @ www.informationweek.com

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Oracle Caches In on Its Acquired TimesTen Technology

The Oracle In-Memory Database Cache keeps frequently accessed data in memory for faster performance. We look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of this technology.

With the release of the Oracle In-Memory Database Cache option (which allows frequently accessed data to reside in memory), Oracle demonstrates that it is committed to supporting acquired technology and leveraging it to augment its own functionality and improve its performance.

Our SWOT -- strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats -- analysis looks at the option from many angles:

Strengths:

* The In-Memory Database Cache should significantly enhance the performance of applications that require frequent or near-instant access to a database subset. It supports both read and write SQL operations, thus allowing it to be used in both operational and analytic environments.
* The cache option includes the TimesTen In-Memory database, TimesTen-to-TimesTen replication, and the Cache Connect to Oracle. It provides automatic data synchronization between the in-memory cache and the Oracle database as well as with an active standby configuration.
* It allows Oracle to credibly claim that although IBM may have acquired in-memory database technology in its November 2007 acquisition of Cognos (who had previous acquired Applix in October 2007 and its in-memory TM1 OLAP server), Oracle has integrated the in-memory database technology that it acquired with its acquisition of TimesTen in 2005 with its own.
* Oracle is continuing to offer its TimesTen In-Memory database as a standalone product, albeit at the same price as the Oracle In-Memory Database Cache.
* This is not an intention announcement; the Oracle In-Memory Database Cache is currently available and can be used with Oracle Database 10g R2 and Oracle Database 11g.

Weaknesses:

* Like many of its other options, the Oracle In-Memory Database Cache is only available with the Enterprise Edition of the Oracle Database.
* The Oracle In-Memory Database Cache is priced on a per-processor basis and costs an additional 90 percent of the per-processor price of the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition.
* The TimesTen In-Memory database can only directly integrate with the Oracle database.

Opportunities:

* The Oracle In-Memory Database Cache certainly has appeal in very-high-performance environments such as real-time analysis and execution (e.g., stock and bond trading, call centers, communications, defense and homeland security applications, etc.); it can be used in both operational and analytic environments since it supports both read and write access.
* Oracle can make a strong and credible case for using a very large multi-terabyte Oracle Database 11g together with a smaller In-Memory Database Cache as enabling technology for these types of applications.
* Since it can be deployed in an active standby configuration, with cache tables replicated in real-time, Oracle can position the In-Memory Database Cache as part of a high-availability solution.
* Oracle can cite its continuing investment in TimesTen technology as evidence of its commitment to other acquired technology.
* Oracle can credibly position itself as both a tools and a solutions vendor by stressing that it is committed to enhancing its database and middleware toolset while continuing to expand its enterprise application and business intelligence product portfolio.

Threats:

* Oracle is certainly not the only database vendor with in-memory database capabilities. IBM can be expected to compete aggressively, at least on the analytical side, with the Applix TM1 technology it acquired with its acquisition of Cognos.
* Oracle’s competitors may falsely suggest that Oracle requires the use of its In-Memory Database Cache option in performance-critical applications while reminding prospects that this will increase the per-processor price by 90 percent.

Author: Mike Schiff @ www.esj.com

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Siemens Shared Services selects Oracle clustered database

Oracle has announced that Siemens Shared Services, a provider of payroll to human resources solutions, has deployed its clustered database environment to support services to more than 70,000 Siemens employees across the US.

Relying on Oracle Database, Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Automatic Storage Management, Oracle Partitioning, and Oracle Enterprise Manager, Siemens Shared Services's clustered database environment is expected to deliver the performance, scalability, reliability, and flexibility required to support its Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management applications and critical business processes, including payroll for all US-based employees.

Siemens Shared Services uses Oracle Partitioning to break payroll data information into manageable components. To monitor its clustered environment, the company uses the monitoring and diagnostic capabilities of Oracle Enterprise Manager.

In addition, Siemens Shared Services relies on Oracle Automatic Storage Management to automate and streamline storage performance and management and add additional storage capacity without disruption.

Steve Montgomerie, administrator of Oracle Database at Siemens Shared Services, said: "Oracle Real Application Clusters on Windows provides us with the continuous uptime we need to meet our critical business objectives, while easing the burden of our IT infrastructure to grow and scale with the business."

Source: www.cbronline.com

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Oracle creates Web 2.0 division

Oracle is building a global division to offer businesses products, services and best practices for Web 2.0 collaboration.

Charles Phillips, Oracle's president, speaking in London today (9 May), said Oracle would be forming a Web 2.0 organisation to provide businesses with Webcenter, a new platform for building wikis, blogs and content management for Web 2.0 collaboration. He said, "Over the next few years we will be building collaboration into our enterprise application products."

The process for approving expenses is one area such collaboration would work for business users, Phillips said. Web 2.0 collaboration technology could allow the manager to check a travel expense with the travel agent directly, compare travel costs against previous trips to the same destination and, if the person submitting the expense was online, obtain further clarification using instant messaging.

Phillips said Oracle was also developing a collaborative platform that would take users beyond the functionality provided by e-mail packages such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange. "The Beehive product we are developing we will be able to provide an e-mail [server] and a presence-aware environment," which would allow users to see who else was online.

Phillips said the product would remove the need for businesses to run large server farms to support their Microsoft Exchange infrastructure, as it would use computing grids instead of servers.

Separately, Oracle is also investigating how to make patches update automatically, without requiring enterprise application software to be restarted. Oracle's 11g product family has some of this functionality built-in, but, Phillips said, "It is way too hard to update enterprise application software."

If Oracle is able to crack this problem, Phillips hopes it would be able to offer users continuous releases of its software, which could simplify patch management and upgrading.

Author: Cliff Saran @ www.computerweekly.com

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A conversation with Charles Phillips, president Oracle

This morning I participated in a round table conversation with Charles Phillips, president of Oracle, discussing his take on Enterprise 2.0 technologies and how they apply to Oracle’s view of the enterprise applications space. While there was nothing earth shatteringly new in what he said, some nuggets emerged.

Later this year, Oracle will be launching its Enterprise 2.0 salesforce with WebCenter at the heart of what it offers. Despite the cheesy name: “If you can come up with a better one then I’d like to hear from you”, he quipped, Phillips is putting ‘Enterprise 2.0′ style thinking at the heart of how Oracle not only sells but trains its ecosystem of partners. “Training all or a handful of partners on a small part of what we offer is very expensivewhen you take travel etc into account. We want to move to a more collaborative environment for online training”

I was particularly interested in four areas:

Q: How does Oracle see the difference between external facing customer groups and internal collaboration from an Oracle E2.0 products perspective?

A: We think the concepts are the same though there may be differences such as the need for strong security for the internal collaborative communities. So for us it is the same product but with different emphases.

Q: Given that Oracle is developing new communities and tool, do you see the external work that people like Eddie Awad is doing becoming folded into these new initiatives?

A: I don’t want to pre-announce anything but you can expect to see us deliver some exciting developments in this area.

Q: You seem to be spending a lot of time asking customers questions about their readiness for Enterprise 2.0 style applications. Is this informing product development?

A: There’s always a balance to be struck between what customers want and what we can validate putting into development. Right now there is a demand but we’re also getting people to think more about presence as the form of environment in which they operate.

Q: What are your thoughts on embedding E2.0 style applications into business process?

A: We think there are three components: tasks that can be automated, data and collaboration so we’re working on bringing those together. You might want for example to ask questions about expenses incurred, compare it with other similar expenses or see if the cost is within budget. Enterprise 2.0 applications would help in those circumstances but you can explode that idea out to many other business processes.

Contrary to popular perception, Phillips argued that sales people do wish to collaborate but he agreed they don’t necessarily want C-level oversight. Oracle is hoping it can address efficiency among sales led organizations through the addition of social tools that help sale people easily discover content they can use and re-use in their presentations. “There’s a series of tags people can apply. People can look at past patterns of use, who’s used a particular presentation, share it and so on,” he said.

To the more general point about skepticism among business leaders around the value of Enterprise 2.0 approaches, Phillips agreed there is a significant education process to go through. “All businesses should want to find new pockets of demand but we need to show them what can be done. When we get that opportunity, people love what they see.”

Those of us used to Oracle are accustomed to seeing its executives in ebullient mood. I detected that Phillips was offering a pragmatic view of the world, not declaring victory and recognizing the real world challenges of collaborative environments. That’s to be welcomed. Right now I see a surfeit of applications coming to the E2.0 space and sense that business is in a period of both learning and digestion.

Source: Dennis Howlett @ http://blogs.zdnet.com

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Oracle: Eating its Own Open Source Food

The database giant isn't just into Linux and Xen for the money, is it?

Where in the world's largest database vendor does open source fit? At the very heart, according to Wim Coekaerts, Director of Linux Engineering at database giant Oracle.

Coekaerts leads Oracle's Linux and open source support, which includes OracleVM, the open source Xen-based virtualization hypervisor effort.

In an exhaustive interview with InternetNews.com Coekaerts outlined where Oracle is going with its unbreakable Linux distribution, Linux kernel development and virtualization. (Oracle's Linux support stepped up in 2006 when it announced its own support of Linux based on the binaries of Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the number one Linux distributor.)

Coekaerts said the critical thing for Oracle is to actively contribute to the Linux and virtualization communities that serve as the base for Oracle's open source offerings. That doesn't mean he necessarily agrees with what other vendors, in particular Red Hat and XenSource are doing, even though the company works with both of their open source products. The ultimate impact of Oracle's open source effort could well lead to a broader use of Linux and Xen or it could lead to greater fragmentation among the various open source groups supporting the two projects.

Although OracleVM's product is based on Xen, the open source virtualization platform, Oracle is not an official member of the Xen Foundation, which tracks the open source virtualization project.

However, Coekaerts noted that his team talks to Xen project leader Ian Pratt on a weekly basis about what's going on with its Xen development and use, such as a project called Huge Pages. Coekaerts explained that, in a typical operating system, the CPU (define) runs applications in 4k memory chunks known as pages. Huge Pages expands the typical page file from 4k all the way up to 4MB.

"Oracle's [database software] is tough to manage in 4k and the new CPUs from Intel and AMD let you look at 4mb chunks which is useful for Oracle," Coekaerts noted. "Xen doesn't support that today so you have to run 4k pages, which means there is more overhead. We want to make sure Xen is good for Oracle so we're working on Huge Pages."

Coekaerts noted that the majority of what Oracle does with Xen is stability bug fixes that are then contributed back to the mainline of Xen development. Though other vendors, including Citrix, Novell and Red Hat also ship Xen hypervisors, Oracle is trying to differentiate in at least one way.

"We've been trying to explain to customers is this: You're buying OracleVM support and you're getting a product from Oracle that solves your virtualization problem," Coekaerts said. "If people just see Xen, then they ask what version you are running and it's a discussion that goes nowhere. Ultimately they just want support."

Plus, he added, combining OracleVM with Oracle's Unbreakable Linux offering helps the company differentiate its product mix.

"If you have the whole stack you can make things work together," Coekaerts claimed. "Most of the traditional Unix systems have virtualization today where it's the same company that owns the operating system and the virtualization technology."

Coekaerts added that Oracle can offer both virtualization and operating system to customers which is something that Red Hat and Novell can do, but Citrix and VMware can not.

Fundamentally though, Coekaerts argued that Oracle knows what it's talking about because they too are consumers of open source technology.

"We use OracleVM ourselves. We are massive Linux users, we're a customer," Coekaerts said. "We're not just talking to other people and saying what's your pain - we feel the pain. We have thousands of machines running Linux. We're trying to solve our problems which are similar to other organizations."

"To be honest, Red Hat is a small company compared to us," Coekaerts added. "They don't feel that pain they don't even have thousands of servers."

Oracle's version Versus Red Hat's

In October of 2006, Oracle officially announced its Oracle Unbreakable Linux offering, which is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Ever since then, Oracle has maintained that it is maintaining binary file compatibility with Red Hat.

"Oracle does not compete on product differentiation we want to provide good quality support," Coekaerts stated. "One of the reasons why EL is the same as RHEL is we didn't want to introduce yet another version of Linux. It makes it easy for our ISVs to say this is the same, it's not something new."

Coekaerts added that Oracle contributes all bug fixes back to Red Hat. Oracle does not work on new features for Enterprise Linux. As such Coekaerts argued that there is no reason for Red Hat to argue that Oracle's Linux is different. In fact, arguing that it's different is likely not a good thing for Red Hat, in Coekaerts view.

"What's the biggest piece for a customer? The operating system helps you but it is not the core, it's not the critical piece," Coekaerts said. "We've been very successful. We want to grow the Linux market. We're not trying to convert the existing Red Hat users to Oracle. We just want to make sure that Linux is the best platform to run Oracle."

Author: Sean Michael Kerner @ www.internetnews.com

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Reva Systems Integration Of RFID Data For The Oracle E-Business

Reva Systems, the leading RFID Network Infrastructure provider, recently announced that it is working with Oracle to enable Oracle E-Business Suite customers to capture and utilize high-quality RFID data.

"The powerful combination of Oracle at the enterprise level and Reva at the edge enables world-class companies to harness the value of RFID for process improvement and sustainable competitive advantage across industries, geographies and multiple Oracle Applications," said Jon Chorley, Oracle's vice president of SCM product strategy. "Reva makes implementing RFID simple by supporting a structured interface to Oracle Applications. Reva's technology transforms RFID data into superior asset visibility and supply chain information allowing Oracle users to rely on RFID for every-day operations."

"The real-time visibility and process improvements that RFID can deliver will generate value for a wide spectrum of enterprises," said Buck Devashish, Reva vice-president of business development. "Reva complements Oracle's vision for deploying RFID. By implementing Reva at the edge, Oracle users can quickly and easily incorporate accurate, useful RFID data into the Oracle E-Business Suite at the enterprise level."

Reva TAPs are purpose-built RFID Network Infrastructure appliances that provide RFID device control and data processing. TAPs install at a facility level to optimally manage the operations of RFID readers and other equipment from many leading providers, collect the raw tag data, process the data for accuracy and then pass only relevant RFID information to the Oracle E-Business Suite. Reva also provides a set of enterprise RFID management tools which Oracle users can rely on to remotely operate RFID infrastructure and devices across global sites.

Reva Systems is a Certified Advantage Partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork.

About Reva Systems

Reva Systems develops RFID network infrastructure products that enable customers to rapidly deploy scalable solutions in any environment. Reva's TAP appliances facilitate improved system performance, manageability and accuracy while significantly lessening implementation time and complexity.

Reva products are delivered by a global network of partners and deployed worldwide by enterprises leveraging innovative RFID applications to generate value in diverse industries. For more information, please visit www.revasystems.com.

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Featured free training: Oracle 11g 2-Day DBA Course

Many players in the tech industry publish topical whitepapers that include analysis and commentary on a wide range of issues that are relevant to technologists and IT overlords alike. Last month we shared some papers about privileged access auditing, wireless security, and RFID technology. This week, we have something a bit different. Rather than a conventional whitepaper, we are offering Oracle 11g training material.

The Oracle 11g 2-Day DBA Course is a step-by-step tutorial with lots of screenshots and extremely clear and explicit instructions. It is intended to be used in conjunction with Oracle's standard 2-Day DBA guide, which is a good starting point for learning how to install and manage Oracle database systems. Unfortunately Oracle's guide leaves a lot of things unexplained and contains some ambiguities that might prove frustrating for beginners. The Course, which we are offering to you this week, provides context clues and some useful clarifications that make the guide much easier to follow.

The Course covers a wide range of topics, including initial installation and configuration, user and security administration, manipulating schema, performance tuning, and backup processes.

If you are a developer and you want to prototype an application for nonproduction use on top of an Oracle 11g database, you can also grab a bunch of other Oracle downloads and white papers here.

Full disclosure: we work with TradePub.com and other sources to identify the most interesting whitepapers. If you guys check them out, we make money. If we pick bad stuff and no one looks at it, we make zip. So it's in our interest to find the best stuff to share with you, but of course if you're not interested in this kind of material, we mark the headlines really clearly so it's easy to skip.

Source: http://arstechnica.com

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Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management Wins Billing & OSS World Excellence Award

Yesterday at the Billing & OSS World Conference and Expo in Chicago, Oracle was honored as the winner of two Billing & OSS World 2008 Excellence Awards, recognizing Oracle(R) Communications Billing and Revenue Management as the Best Revenue Management Solution and Oracle Communication and Mobility Server as the Best New Product. The annual awards recognize the leaders - vendors, service providers and integrators -- in the development and deployment of billing and operations support systems (OSS) technologies and solutions.

Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management provides a single platform to manage revenue in real time across any customer type, network service, payment method, business model or geography - helping to rapidly convert transactions into revenue. The multi-service, real-time nature of the platform enables communications service providers (CSPs) to quickly roll out cutting-edge next-generation services to the market, and to reduce revenue leakage by helping ensure all usage and charges are rated and recorded properly.

A key component of the Oracle Service Delivery Platform, Oracle Communication and Mobility Server (OCMS) provides the underlying software infrastructure and services that make a host of carrier-grade telephony and multimedia services possible. OCMS enables CSPs and developers to easily build, deploy and manage complex, converged services, while integrating with existing business support system (BSS) and OSS applications to generate revenue efficiently and deliver a high quality customer experience.

Billing & OSS World received more than 90 submissions for the awards, and a select judging panel of experts from the billing and OSS community narrowed the field to three finalists for each of eight categories. Billing & OSS World Group Publisher Mike Saxby and Editor In Chief Tim McElligott presented the awards at a ceremony on April 30.

Supporting Quotes

"Oracle is honored to receive the Billing & OSS World Excellence Awards for Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management and Oracle Communication and Mobility Server. These prestigious awards are a testament to Oracle's commitment to developing the industry's most compelling and fully featured communications application suite, enabling global service providers to rapidly deliver and profit from next-generation IP services," said Bhaskar Gorti, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications.

"Our panel of experts judged Oracle's achievements as exemplary among its peers. Billing & OSS World congratulates Oracle and is pleased to acknowledge its products as examples of excellence in billing and OSS for the communications industry," said Mike Saxby, group publisher, Biling & OSS World.

Supporting Resources http://www.oracle.com/industries/communications/index.html

http://www.oracle.com/industries/communications/communications-billing- revenue-management.html

http://www.oracle.com/products/middleware/service-delivery- platform/communication-mobility-server.html

http://www.billingworld.com/

About Oracle Communications

Oracle is #1 in Communications globally with 20 of the world's top 20 communications companies running Oracle applications. Oracle Communications integrates industry-specific BSS and OSS solutions with the capabilities of Oracle's industry-leading enterprise applications, business intelligence tools, and carrier-grade middleware and database technologies. Oracle Communications enables service providers to deliver next generation convergent services rapidly, increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, and reduce costs in the business and the network. For more information, visit http://www.oracle.com/Communications.

Source: www.oracle.com

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