Oracle tops records in incremental revenue

Local Oracle partners have recorded over 100 per cent incremental revenue through Oracle technology and application implementations in the Sri Lankan market over the past two years.

Country Manager, Sri Lanka and Maldives Oracle Dr. Vickum Senanayake said the Sri Lankan market has achieved the set targets of the Oracle Corporation with the current economic condition in the country driving companies to invest in information technology.

Partners such as Millenium IT, MTI, DMS, Interblocks have reported being able to increase their Oracle practices by up to 100 per cent by recruiting skilled Orcale Certified professionals to service customers in Sri Lanka.

"For the first time in Sri Lanka, Oracle is organising Oracle PartnerNetwork day (OPN) to recognise our local partners. Through this OPN, we expect to consolidate our local partners and recruit new partners," Senanayake said.

"At the moment Oracle has 25 local partners in the country. Partners like MTI develop their own solutions using Oracle technologies targeting local and global companies. Sri Lanka has high growth potential in this segment. Our partners play a vital part in our local operations," he said.

Regional Director SAGE West Oracle Corporation Samina Rizwan said Oracle will be looking into industries where real technology is needed in Sri Lanka with their partners.

"We will be focusing on the public and the export sector in Sri Lanka.

"There is a lot of growth potential in middle market companies in the manufacturing and retail sector. Regional Managing Director - ASEAN Managing Director - Oracle Thailand Oracle Asia Pacific Natasak Rodjanapiches said Oracle will collaborate with local universities for using Oracle technologies for their assignments as their CSR initiative.

"The main objective of this is to make local future IT workers more competitive in the global arena," he said.

Author: Anjana Samarasinghe @ www.dailynews.lk

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NAB picks Oracle for IT overhaul

NATIONAL Australia Bank has selected Oracle to roll out the first phase of its $1 billion core banking revamp.
In an announcement made to the Australian Securities Exchange today, NAB said Oracle would replace its core banking systems over the next five years.

The phase one rollout will involve the delivery of a platform for a new business division called Star Direct.

The Star Direct business will include a specialised, low cost, high service direct bank that will be launched later this year, NAB said.

“This is a significant investment for NAB and we plan to take a very phased and measured approach over the next five years,” NAB chief information officer Michelle Tredenick said.

“Our existing IT systems have served the business well to date, however they are not sufficient to support our future strategic direction.”

The second and subsequent phases of NAB’s core banking overhaul will be rolled out in parallel. Planning for the following stages is expected to take another six months, NAB said.

All the big four banks are expected to undergo core system upgrades in the coming years.

Commonwealth Bank recently announced its four-year, $580 million core banking modernisation project would be undertaken by German software vendor SAP and systems integrator Accenture.

ANZ announced it would overhaul legacy systems in its Asian operation, replacing them with the Infosys Finacle platform. The bank also said it would expand this platform to its local operations.

Westpac too was slated to modernise its core banking systems but the process has hit complications as it irons out a proposed merger with St George.

The process of integrating Westpac and St George’s technology operations would involve consolidating not only the core banking operations, but other infrastructure, including the communications network and hardware.

Source: Mitchell Bingemann @ www.australianit.news.com.au

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Oracle acquires Global Knowledge Software

Oracle will acquire Global Knowledge Software for an undisclosed sum, to boost it software training offerings.

Global Knowledge Software (GKS) produces programmes that train users on different business software, including that from Oracle, Microsoft and SAP.

“Our customers are looking for a consistent, cost effective training solution across the enterprise to speed software adoption by end-users,” said Ed Abbo, Senior Vice President of Oracle Application Development.

GKS’ products will complement Oracle’s existing training software, Oracle Tutor, along with its learning management software, iLearning and eLearning. Oracle intends to form a global sales unit to extend all its software training offerings across the enterprise.

The transaction is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2008.


Author: Rosalie Marshall @ www.itweek.co.uk

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