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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