Roamfree Ltd Achieves Global Implementation of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Oracle today
announced that Roamfree Ltd, the online global accommodation search
company, has implemented the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 in only four months.

With the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, Roamfree Ltd has streamlined and standardized best-practice administrative and financial processes within its global enterprise, and has built a solid and scalable foundation for automating and integrating additional business functions in
the future. Implemented in partnership with Zensar Technologies, a global software solutions provider and member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork, this implementation represents one of the first global go-lives of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 since its availability in January 2007.

Roamfree enables travelers around the world to search and reserve accommodations online in real-time, from more than 100,000 accommodation providers. Roamfree is owned by former Sydney Swans footballer Tony Smith and currently has about 140 staff, including 65 IT professionals with corporate headquarters in Surfers Paradise, Australia. The company chose
the Oracle E-Business Suite over SAP and Microsoft to provide a fully integrated foundation with a best-practice driven global enterprise that leverages standards-based technology to support the company's continued growth and expansion. Additionally, Roamfree plans to simplify and integrate its core system infrastructure onto one platform to reduce the
number of separate information systems the company must maintain, while improving the quality and timeliness of information used in decision-making across the enterprise. Roamfree is currently focusing on Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, with third-party partnerships expected to deliver accommodation search globally. "The Oracle E-Business Suite is the backbone of our business," said Adrian Van Vliet, Global Chief Information Officer at Roamfree Ltd." With undeniable global strength, standards-based technology and leadership in delivering solid financial systems, Oracle was a natural choice for Roamfree. We believe Oracle not only will meet our needs now, but the company's plans for Oracle Fusion Applications to help ensure that we have a solid, state-of-the-art platform for supporting our business in the future."

Platform for Growth

In April 2007, Roamfree completed the first phase of its implementation of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12. This included critical financial management functionality, such as general ledger, trust accounting, accounts receivable and accounts payable, in addition to seamless integration between transactions conducted through its Global Accommodation
Search engine and key financial systems. Roamfree's implementation of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 will continue in two additional phases planned this year. In these phases, Roamfree will focus on deploying internal financial systems, such as purchasing and fixed assets, human resource functionality, including employee self-service, full customer relationship management modules and business intelligence.

About Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

The newly updated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications of the Oracle E-Business Suite provide a centralized financial architecture that enables higher levels of control and transparency while supporting diverse local accounting, tax and employee regulations and standards. The ERP applications of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 also help lower
costs with centralized set-up and maintenance of accounting, tax and banking rules. This release is continued proof of Oracle's "Applications Unlimited" program, the company's long-term plan to provide ongoing enhancements to current Oracle Applications.

About Oracle

Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.


Source: www.oracle.com

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In2M Selects Oracle Database Standard to Support its Subscriber Base

In a bid to support its subscriber base, In2M has opted to go with Oracle (News - Alert) Database Standard Edition. In2M Corporation offers financial productivity applications to personal and business users in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia.

“We use Linux and open source platforms because it's cost effective,” said Jason Law, Vice President of IT and Systems R & D for In2M, in a statement. "But we were not comfortable with an open source database product for delivering high-availability software as a service.

Law continued: “Oracle Database Standard Edition gives us the reliability we need now, and will scale to meet our future needs for some time to come, even despite our aggressive growth plans. Our target is 99.99 percent availability, and Oracle has not failed us since we started using it.”

In2M has declared that Oracle's support services will be a key part of its total Oracle package for In2M. In fact, its next product, Mvelopes Business will be based on Oracle Database Standard Edition. In addition, In2M aims to benefit from another unique Oracle capability, Oracle Real Application Clusters.

"The possibilities in Real Application Clusters were another big reason for us choosing Oracle," said Law. "Right now we're running a proof-of-concept, merging databases under Real Application Clusters, to check out the architecture before moving forward. We believe that Real Application Clusters makes Oracle Database Standard Edition powerful enough to support us for the next four years, even given our high growth rate, the critical need for high-availability and high performance for our customers."

Over the last 12 months, In2M has enrolled over 50,000 users in Mvelopes Personal. The company hoped to add 100,000 subscribers in the next 12 months.

Author: Niladri Sekhar Nath @ TMCnet

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General Motors' CIO Speaks Out On Oracle's Acquisition Strategy

General Motors spends billions of dollars annually on IT and considers Oracle one of its top vendors. Information Week editor-at-large Mary Hayes Weier sat down with GM CIO Ralph Szygenda recently and asked what he thinks about Oracle's aggressive acquisition strategy, and his opinion of president Charles Phillips, who serves as Oracle's customer advocate and acquisition executor and has emerged as a potential successor to CEO Larry Ellison.

InformationWeek: What's your impression of Oracle's acquisition strategy?

Szygenda: Acquisitions are not always successful for the end customer. I like to see competition; I don't want a monopoly situation. Given that, I like companies doing acquisitions [if it means better integration of software]. If they don't do integration in the GM model, I pay systems integrators to do the work, and it costs money.

In the earlier days of Oracle buying PeopleSoft, there was a lot of consternation [among] CIOs. Some in this town [Detroit] were writing letters not supporting Oracle. I refused to do this. I believe I was right in this result. I have been unbelievably impressed by Oracle's acquisition strategy. I've been thrilled by the benefits I've received because of it.

InformationWeek: What do you think of Charles Phillips' performance as president of Oracle?

Szygenda: I think Charles has brought tremendous customer sensitivity to the company. I remember his history on Wall Street. [Larry Ellison's hiring of Phillips] was a little bit of a surprise because Charles traditionally had not been in the business of supporting customer bases. At least in my relationship, Charles is one of the most customer-sensitive individuals in the IT industry. He listens. He addresses problems. And he still makes [Oracle] money.

Oracle has been known to be difficult negotiators, especially on terms and conditions. We've had difficult times with Oracle, and Charles Phillips has basically smoothed those over from prior history. I thought very highly of him prior to Oracle, but he didn't run a major corporation. So Larry Ellison made one of the best moves in the IT industry.

InformationWeek: What do you think of Oracle's decision to continue to support multiple versions of acquired ERP software?

Szygenda: I sat down with [Phillips] early on and told him, "Don't immediately tell me I have to move to a new platform and change the world." They didn't mesh all these [acquired] companies overnight to get cost reductions; who came up with the idea not to do that, I'm not sure, but someone made some really good decisions. That says if I'm using PeopleSoft, Siebel ,or Hyperion, that No. 1, I will not be disadvantaged by an acquisition; and No. 2, they would extend [the acquired software] and make it better. I don't have a history of saying how wonderful IT companies are all the time, but I say every one of those products has gotten better for General Motors. You would think they would lose focus, but they didn't.

InformationWeek: Do you think Phillips will have Ellison's job one day?

Szygenda: I would not be surprised of anything Charles can do. I've worked with a lot of analysts on Wall Street, but I wouldn't expect them to go be president of company, and be a customer advocate, and he's done an amazing job. I would not sell Charles Phillips short of anything. His discipline must come from his background as a Marine, and he's brought a lot of discipline to Oracle. And it's not the discipline of a dictator, it's more of [discipline] of process. It's a much easier company to work with than 10 years ago.

InformationWeek: What's your biggest concern about Oracle's acquisition strategy?
Szygenda: Whether there is continuity to this vision. All of a sudden, a few quarters Oracle doesn't meet numbers, which puts high pressure on cost containment, and then someone says, "This strategy isn't working and needs to change." So, is there continuity to this strategy? That's my question. It feels good, but will it feel good two years from now? I'm watching, and I will be all over Larry, [CFO and co-president] Safra [Catz], and Charles on continuity. I meet with them several times a year, and one day a year visit the headquarters. In those reviews I will be watching continuity. Are they sticking to their strategy, is it delivering what they want?

I have the same [requirements] for SAP(SAP) and Microsoft. I look for continuity. If I'm trying to put in a two, three, or five year plan at GM, [I need a] commitment of products to do that.

...The other concern is that Oracle doesn't close me in. I have to have competition [among vendors].
InformationWeek: Couldn't Oracle's rapid acquisition rate become a distraction for that company?

Szygenda: They've told me they have a very lean acquisition strategy. Companies [can] send in an army and destroy a company by bringing in too much corporate help. Oracle doesn't put tons of people on an acquisition, and they leverage the organization that's been acquired.

InformationWeek: So if you had to sum up Oracle's acquisition strategy in a word or two, what would you say?

Szygenda: Unbelievably encouraging. A year and a half ago, it felt OK.

Author: Mary Haeys Weier @ InformationWeek

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