Kapital Bank implements Oracle Flexcube

Optimizes business performance across its network of 88 branches. Azerbaijan-based Kapital Bank has implemented Oracle Flexcube universal banking system to help expand the size and depth of its banking operations across its network of 88 branches.

Oracle Flexcube's process-centric approach has enabled the bank to optimize business performance by using best practices with an ability to define, implement and monitor the effectiveness of its processes. The system has helped provide the bank with an application platform that enables it to conduct its operations in both domestic and international markets.

Oracle Flexcube has also helped the bank enhance its risk management practices through audit trails and limit tracking across customer segments.

Rauf Razayev, chairman of Kapital Bank, said: "We wanted to roll out Oracle Flexcube to help expand the size of our banking operations and completed the project in under 11 months. This solution is a complete banking product suite covering all areas of banking needs and has enabled us to adopt international standards and meet regulatory requirements. Our association with Oracle Financial Services Software, over the past 18 months, has helped us to translate opportunities in the market into tangible results.

Mustafa Moonim, vice president of Europe and Middle East sales at Oracle Financial Services Software, said: "Kapital Bank was our first deployment in the country and we had a tremendous success in the joint engagement with the bank. We are very pleased with the outcome for Kapital Bank. Banks in the region have shown great acceptance of Oracle Flexcube and the success at Kapital Bank has helped provide us with the foundation for this achievement."

Source: http://enterpriseapplications.cbronline.com

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Oracle Acquires Leader in Application Configuration Management

In its first acquisition of 2009, Oracle purchases mValent, a company whose configuration management solutions can promote efficiencies within Oracle Enterprise Manager. Even as it envelops smaller companies, Oracle may also be looking towards a future where cloud computing dominates the enterprise IT scene.

Despite the economic doldrums seizing most of the IT industry, the Oracle acquisition machine is alive and well. The company’s purchase of mValent, a provider of application configuration management solutions, is designed to enhance Oracle Enterprise Manager’s configuration-management capabilities across IT environments.

Announced on Feb. 4, the complete transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2009, according to a statement released by Oracle. As to be expected, financial details were not disclosed.

The move represents Oracle’s first acquisition of 2009. In 2008, they took over 11 companies, including Lodestar and Interlace Systems.

With mValent technology in place, enterprise users should be able to collect and harmonize data from even the most complex of systems. Ensuring consistent configurations across IT environments would also lead to both improved productivity and application uptime.

Oracle Enterprise Manager enhanced with mValent will also simplify systems’ root-cause analysis and automate remediation of issues caused by configuration changes. mValent’s customer base before the acquisition included Direct TV, Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan, and Kohl’s.

“Effective application configuration management is increasingly important as businesses look to improve operating efficiencies,” Richard Sarwal, senior vice president of Oracle Applications and Systems Management, said in a statement. “This acquisition is consistent with Oracle’s strategy for delivering cost-effective solutions for managing applications that enable customers to adopt new, innovative technology with reduced risk.”

In addition to its focus on enhancing its own product line through acquisition, Oracle has also been casting an eye towards paradigm shifts within enterprise IT. Even as CEO Larry Ellison denounced cloud computing as “gibberish” in Sept. 2008, Oracle has perhaps begun to embrace the model as a means of ensuring future survival.

Author: Nicholas Kolakowski @ www.eweek.com

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Oracle Supports 100 Million Subscribers

Oracle recently completed an extensive performance and scalability benchmark exercise for Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management 7.3.1 that demonstrated its ability to support 100 million subscribers. Scalability of this magnitude is vital to meeting the needs of tier-one communications service providers and those looking to consolidate multiple billing applications into a convergent platform.

· In addition, this week Oracle will propose a series of industry benchmark standards to the TM Forum through its Revenue Management Initiative. These benchmark standards will provide service providers with a consistent way to validate and measure the scalability performance of products marketed to meet the business requirements outlined by TM Forum's Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) and Telecoms Application Map (TAM), with particular focus on the billing and revenue management segment.

Benchmark Details

· Conducted at IBM labs in Beaverton, Ore., the benchmark included various workloads such as rating, billing, invoicing and customer service activities using a variety of plans modeled after real-life communications industry business processes.

· The results demonstrated near-linear scalability from 33 million to 66 million, and to 100 million subscribers. At 100 million subscribers the application processed 176 million call-detail records per hour. Further, the test proved that the application can bill all 100 million subscribers in approximately 14 hours – meeting the needs of even the world's largest service providers.

· These results were four times higher than any achieved before and demonstrate the capability of the IBM Power 570 server and the Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management application running on the AIX 6.1 operating system to manage and deliver a real-life workload in a high-end production environment with excellent performance.

· The benchmark tested Oracle's application running on a database cluster of IBM POWER6 processor-based Power 570 servers, with IBM AIX version 6.1 operating system and IBM PowerVM virtualization technology, hosted by an IBM DS8300 storage subsystem.

Source: www.hardwarezone.com

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