Independent Research Firm Finds PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management Enables Best-In-Class Performance

Latest Study from Aberdeen Group Finds Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management Users Perform Above Industry Average

On March 5, 2008 Oracle announced that Aberdeen Group, Inc., an independent research firm, found that fully integrated Human Capital Management (HCM) systems, such as Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM, enable organizations to achieve demonstrable gains in performance over the industry average.

The research brief "PeopleSoft Customers Are Not Average When It Comes to Human Capital Management," found that PeopleSoft customers fare better in terms of key performance indicators including increasing revenue per employee, improving the ability to forecast annual retirement rates, reducing cost per hire and improving the ability to determine project growth by job category.

Aberdeen also discovered that organizations using PeopleSoft HCM systems were more likely than industry average organizations to enjoy higher performance improvements in areas such as employee engagement, time to productivity, new hire processing time and compliance scores.

Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management enables organizations to place the right people in the right jobs, develop and reward top performers, retain key talent for the long term, and helps increase efficiency and operating performance.

"As organizations seek to achieve and sustain competitive advantage, human capital management has taken on heightened strategic importance," said Kevin Martin, Research Director, Human Capital Management at Aberdeen Group.

"We consistently hear that integrating human capital management with ERP functionalities and core business processes is a feature that PeopleSoft customers consider a top priority. The Aberdeen Group's research brief confirms the benefits of integrating human resources data, as well as the distinct advantages customers receive from PeopleSoft HCM," said Doris Wong, Group Vice President of PeopleSoft Enterprise, Oracle.

"As our data has shown, PeopleSoft provides users the technology and the tools needed to achieve best-in-class status in HCM." Aberdeen Group, "PeopleSoft Customers Are Not Average When It Comes to Human Capital Management" Dec. 2007

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Oracle Acquires Web Application Testing Software Assets from Empirix

Oracle announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the e-TEST suite products from Empirix, a provider of Voice and Web application testing and monitoring solutions. Empirix’s e-TEST suite is a set of Web application testing solutions that help customers deploy higher quality applications more efficiently and at lower cost. The e-TEST suite products will be incorporated into Oracle Enterprise Manager and Oracle Real Application Testing, and the combination is expected to result in a comprehensive solution for testing packaged and custom-built applications.

Application testing is becoming increasingly important as customers seek to deploy applications faster, at a lower cost and with higher quality of service,” said Leng Leng Tan, Oracle Vice President, Applications and Systems Management. “Customers are looking for automated application testing solutions that help prevent costly application performance problems, avoid unplanned outages of business-critical applications, and automate the manual steps involved in application testing. We expect that the combination of Empirix’s e-TEST suite and Oracle Enterprise Manager will create a best-of-breed systems management portfolio spanning the full application life cycle, from development and testing to production deployment and management.”

“Empirix and Oracle have a shared commitment to provide industry- leading, standards-based offerings focusing on Web and SOA application development,” said Larry Timm, VP and GM of Empirix’s Web Business Unit. “We are excited that Oracle is adding the e-TEST suite to the Oracle Enterprise Manager portfolio and believe that customers and partners will benefit from being better able to deploy performance-optimized applications.”

The transaction is subject to certain closing conditions, and Empirix’s Web application testing business continues to be part of Empirix until the deal closes. Financial details were not disclosed. More information is available at http://www.oracle.com/Empirix.

About Oracle Enterprise

Manager 10g
Spanning applications, middleware, and database management, Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g delivers integrated enterprise management for Oracle and non-Oracle systems to more than 21,000 customers worldwide. Employing a unique "top- down" approach to managing

application and IT infrastructure resources, Oracle Enterprise Manager allows customers to focus on what matters for its business – greater agility, better service quality and lower operational costs. With a broad set of administration, configuration management, provisioning, end-to-end monitoring, service level management, and security capabilities, Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g helps customers manage service levels, proactively isolate business exceptions before they become emergencies, and remediate issues at any level spanning application and heterogeneous infrastructure – all within one management solution. To learn more, click here!

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IDC Finds That Oracle is at the Forefront of the Grid Technology Movement

In its March 2008 report, Grid Computing with Oracle Database 11g (pdf), leading analyst firm IDC states, “Oracle Database, with its RAC [Real Application Clusters] and ASM [Automatic Storage Management] features, represents a comprehensive approach to the use of grid computing to provide flexible, scalable, and reliable database environments.”

In its report, IDC discusses the evolution of the datacenter toward the adoption of grid computing and details the benefits derived from this develop-ment. It considers the implications for database systems and details the requirements of a database for successful deployment in a grid-computing context.

IDC then reviews the features of Oracle Database 11g and shows how, “The Oracle approach to grid computing in general, and its

database grid in particular, as

expressed in Oracle Database 11g

with RAC and ASM, is designed to deliver on the promises of grid computing.”

For example, IDC discusses the following benefits of Oracle grid computing:

§ Scalability with low-cost servers

§ High Availability via RAC node failover, and ASM mirroring

§ Easy addition and deletion of servers and storage via Enterprise Manager’s Grid Control (EMGC)

§ Incremental node/storage addition to eliminate over provisioning

§ Faster throughput via parallelized tasks

§ Flexibility to assign compute/ storage resources as needed to application/databases

“IDC confirms that Oracle Database 11g delivers the key benefits of grid – RAC, ASM, and EMGC -- to enable better business agility by allowing companies to quickly reallocate server and storage resources,” said Willie Hardie, Vice President, Database Product Marketing, Oracle.

Also in its report, IDC discusses the eight-year maturity of RAC, as well as Oracle Grid success and momentum, by highlighting four Oracle Database 11g customer profiles: Burlington Coat Factory, Chesapeake Energy, ESPN, and Starwood.

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Forrester Ranks Oracle as the Market Leader in Identity and Access Management

In its March 18, 2008, report, The Forrester Wave: Identity And Access Management, Q1 2008 (pdf), independ- ent analyst firm Forrester, “evaluated leading identity and access manage-ment (IAM) vendors across 117 criteria and found that Oracle has established itself as the IAM market Leader due to its solid technology base across the IAM landscape and its compelling, aggressive strategy around what it refers to as application-centric identity.”

In this report, vendors such as BMC, CA, IBM, Novell, and Sun all lag behind Oracle both in terms of current offering and vendor strategy. Among other things, Forrester believes that Oracle has excellent enterprise role management and risk-based authentication capabilities, noting, "we already see Oracle reaching into the small enterprise space more successfully than similar-size competitors."

Forrester segmented the IAM market based on several technologies, including directories, meta directories, virtual directories, provisioning, role management, password management, enterprise single sign-on (E-SSO), Web single sign-on (Web SSO), and federation, along with emerging areas, including entitlement management and identity auditing.

Serving as the security backbone for Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Identity Management helps customers and partners decrease security threats across diverse IT environments while helping address governance, risk, and compliance needs. Oracle Identity Management was the fastest growing suite of Identity Management products in 2006, based on total software

revenues worldwide. Oracle Identity Management's support of industry standards such as WS*, XACML, SAML, and SPML helps enable customers and partners to more easily integrate applications with the framework.

The family of best-in-class software includes Oracle Identity Manager, Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Adaptive Access Manager, Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite, Oracle Identity Federation, Oracle Virtual Directory, Oracle Internet Directory, Oracle Management Pack for Identity Management, and Oracle Web Services Manager -- all of which can be used in its entirety or as individual components.

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Innovative K-12 School Districts Implement Oracle Applications, Infrastructure Software

Oracle’s community of K-12 education customers continues to grow as several U.S. K-12 school districts have recently purchased, implemented or upgraded Oracle applications and infrastructure software to help increase operational efficiency, reduce administrative costs, and enhance services to students and teachers.

These schools include: Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland; Douglas County School District and Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado; Omaha Public Schools in Nebraska; Manatee County Public Schools and Orange County Public Schools in Florida; and Syracuse Public Schools in New York.

“Public school districts nationwide face increased pressure for accountability

and compliance with state and federal

regulations. At the same time, they are challenged with providing improved services to parents and teachers with shrinking operational budgets,” said Mark Johnson, Senior Vice President, Oracle Public Sector. “Using Oracle software, school districts are reducing administrative overhead and improving customer service and information access through self-service applications and personalized dashboards in a secure, integrated IT architecture.”

Prince George’s County Public Schools Addresses No Child Left Behind

As one of the largest and most diverse U.S. school districts with 134,000 students, Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) in Maryland leverages Oracle E-Business Suite to keep pace with legislative requirements, including No Child Left Behind. Through the implementation of Oracle Human Resources Management System, part of Oracle E-Business Suite, PGCPS recognized a significant increase in the percentage of classes taught by “highly qualified” teachers from 48.6 percent in the 2003-2004 school year to 66.3 percent in 2006-2007.

Additionally, PGCPS recently broadened its use of Oracle E-Business Suite by implementing Oracle iRecruitment, Oracle Self-Service Human Resources, Oracle iProcurement, Oracle iSupplier, Oracle User Productivity Kit, and Oracle Time and Labor. PGCPS also plans to use Oracle BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) Process Manager, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware.

Douglas County School District Reduces IT Costs and Improves Security

As one of the fastest growing school districts in the United States, Douglas County School District (DCSD) in Colorado is challenged with providing a growing number of teachers and

students with access to Web-based applications while maintaining the security of personal information. The school district is implementing Oracle Identity Management, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, to help ensure security of student and employee data. Additionally, the school district estimates a $5 million cost savings over five years through automation of account provisioning, single sign-on, and password re-set.

DCSD is also using Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle Database with Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Human Resources Management System, and Oracle Purchasing.

Omaha Public Schools Improves Productivity and Employee Service

Omaha Public Schools, the largest school district in Nebraska and one of the 30 largest school districts in the nation, recently upgraded to Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 8.9 to streamline business processes throughout its human resources system. The district has improved operational efficiency and reduced costs, while freeing staff from time-consuming, manual processes and allowing them to focus more attention on their core mission of educating children. Ultimately, the district’s workforce of more than 8,000 has also benefited from the simplicity of the time tracking and absence management functionality. Omaha Public Schools worked with Oracle Consulting to deliver the enhanced solution in just nine months.

The district also uses PeopleSoft Enterprise Financial Management, integrating the applications for an optimized enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, including financial management, procurement, human resources, benefits administration, absence management, time and labor, and payroll, as well as PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal. To learn more about these three customers, click here.

Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative Implements Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Oracle Database to Expand Services, Enhance Responsiveness

Bill Creation and Processing is 12 Times Faster

To support increasing energy demand and new customers, SMECO, a member-owned electric cooperative that serves more than 150,000 customers in four southern Maryland counties, required an enhanced customer information system (CIS) that is rapidly deployable, scalable and supports new services to continually enhance customer support. SMECO selected Oracle to gain a single platform that supports its critical business applications.

Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing improves visibility into customer data, allowing SMECO customer service representatives to provide superior service and reduce issue- resolution times.

SMECO is also using the application to streamline bill printing and distribution, as well as rapidly address past-due accounts. With Oracle, SMECO's debt recovery, billing and bill print extract is now 12 times faster - the organization can complete the daily process in slightly more than one hour. As a result, SMECO now generates and mails customer invoices one day faster than its previous billing process. New customer care capabilities enable SMECO to transfer past-due accounts to a collection agency after 60 days, rather than waiting 90 days using the old system.

Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing required little customization, allowing SMECO to accelerate the implementation and realize benefits more quickly. Additionally, Oracle Database provides the underlying reliability and scalability to support evolving business operations.

"Just as the local hardware store outmaneuvers its national big-box competitors by responding to community needs, co-op utilities are also uniquely positioned to maintain loyal members by focusing on customer care and providing new services. SMECO continues to excel by providing excellent customer care and expanding operations to capitalize on new opportunities. Oracle provides the demonstrated reliability and full solution set to play an integral role in SMECO's growth," said Quentin Grady, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Utilities. "We maintain an unwavering focus on system reliability, competitive rates and superior customer service. SMECO is revitalizing key operations to support our community's growing needs and achieve cost savings from increased efficiency. Oracle is instrumental in our efforts to achieve short-term reliability and service benchmarks, while enabling us to achieve long-term cost savings," said Joe Trentacosta, vice president and chief information officer, Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative.

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Oracle’s Siebel Applications Are Transforming the Customer Experience

With solutions tailored to more than 20 industries, learn how Oracle's Siebel Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions are helping organizations worldwide!

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JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.9 End of Premier Support

Just a reminder that Premier Support for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.9 ends on September 18, 2008 and Premier Support for Tax, Regulatory and Legislative issues ends on September 18, 2009. Tools release 8.97 will be the last certified Tools release for 8.9. If you would like to discuss Oracle’s release retirement schedule, product lifecycle or upgrade initiatives please don’t hesitate to contact your account team. Oracle has also published several resources to help customers through this transition. For additional information please review Solution 201063018 posted on Customer Connection. The Lifetime Support Policy document details Oracle, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards product support time frames. Solution also posted on the EnterpriseOne Knowledge Browser.

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Coming Soon...New Portal Delivers Simplified Support and Streamlined Service for Hyperion Customers

Oracle is pleased to notify you, as a Hyperion customer, that you will soon experience the benefits of managing all of your online support tasks from a new, personalized portal. In the near future, OracleMetaLink 3, our online customer support portal, will replace your current support portal, e-Support, providing you with simplified support and a higher level of efficiency.

OracleMetaLink 3 is an important part of streamlining your customer support experience and is an essential component of Oracle's transition to Siebel CRM 8.0, the industry's leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Together, OracleMetaLink 3 and Siebel CRM 8.0 create a winning combination designed to provide you with a number of benefits, including:

Faster problem resolution:

· Reduced time to resolution with quick access to the information you need using a new personalized dashboard

· Faster information access through a robust knowledgebase and powerful self-service tools

· Optimized system availability with enhanced Service Request (SR) management

Increased personalization

· Experience increased personalization and knowledge integration via the new user interface of OracleMetaLink 3 for powerful information management

· Personalize your homepage content for easier access to self-service tools and configuration data

· Quickly access your Service Request history with MySRs

Next Steps
Deployment for Hyperion customers is currently scheduled for the weekend of May 30 – June 1, 2008. The following channels will be used to communicate details regarding timelines, updates, specific changes, training, obtaining login credentials and other useful information:

· Hyperion e-Support

· E-mail Announcements

This change demonstrates Oracle's continued commitment to delivering the highest quality technical support solutions. We're confident that by leveraging these solutions, you can maximize your return on investment and enjoy a superior customer experience. If you have further questions or inquiries regarding this transition, please e-mail: Transition-Team_ww@oracle.com.

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^{UPCOMING
EVENTS}

Users groups provide a forum to discuss, share information and learn more about Oracle's products and services. The following local groups hold regular meetings, provide training sessions and invite Oracle representatives to demonstrate new products.

Also visit the Global User Group Meeting Calendar.

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REGIONAL USER GROUP MEETINGS

Northwest OUG: UPK Lunch and Learn

Bellevue
April 7, 2008

Orange County Oracle Users Group (OCOUG)

Costa Mesa

April 8, 2008

Calgary Oracle User Group (COUG) Embedded Database Overview

Calgary

April 24, 2008

2008 Western Canada Regional User Group (WCRUG) Conference

Vancouver

June 3-4, 2008

2008 Eastern Canada Regional User Group (ERUG) Conference

Toronto

June 19, 2008

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CONFERENCES

COLLABORATE 08

Denver, CO

April 13-17, 2008

COLLABORATE 08, presented by Quest in partnership with the IOUG and OAUG, is designed to help users of the full family of Oracle business applications and database technologies gain greater value from their Oracle investments. Quest's special events and educational content are focused on PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and other Oracle applications, such as Hyperion, Agile, Oracle Utilities (SPL and LODESTAR).

CIO FORUM 2008

Denver, CO

April 13-14, 2008

Quest International Users Group and the CIO Executive Council are once again partnering to present The CIO Forum 2008, a thought-provoking educational and networking event for information technology executives. The CIO Forum is open to top-level IT executives (customers only), but an invitation is required. If you or someone from your organization would like to be considered, please e-mail. The number of participants is limited so register now.
Get more information.

GLOBAL OHUG ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Las Vegas, NV

June 22-25

This focused event draws human resource professionals from across North America to learn about updates to—and best practices for—using PeopleSoft Enterprise and Oracle E-Business Suite HR/HCM applications.
Learn More.

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PUBLIC SECTOR SEMINARS

Oracle is pleased to announce a new asset for customers. We have launched a series of Internet Seminars on the public sector industry pages on oracle.com at http://www.oracle.com/government.

The Internet Seminars can be accessed from the Internet Seminars tab on the right side of this and the subsidiary pages (click on the tab to expand).

The first Internet Seminars are:

· Oracle Solutions for Government

· Oracle GRC Applications Suite for Public Administrations: The Path to Strengthening Citizen Confidence

· Drowning in Your Data? Find the Answers with Enterprise Business Intelligence for the Public Sector

The Internet Seminars are intended to be brief (15 minute) introductions to a topic. Oracle plans to rollout more Internet Seminars each month. Future topics can include Oracle, customer or partner presentations.

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ADVISOR WEBCASTS

View the current Support Services Web Seminar Schedule

E-Business Suite

Title: Understanding the Critical Patch Update Program for Oracle Application Server

April 22

7:00 a.m. (MDT); 3:00 p.m. (MDT)

View Summary

Oracle Server Tech

Title: Overview of the Transparent Gateway for DB2

May 14

8:00 a.m. (MDT)

View Summary

Fusion Middleware

Title: WEBUTIL – US

April 2

10:00 a.m. (MDT)

View Summary

PeopleSoft Enterprise

Title: PS/nVision Configuration and Troubleshooting

April 2

10:30 a.m. (MDT)

Highlights

Inside

Coming Soon...New Portal Delivers Simplified Support and Streamlined Service for Hyperion Customers

UPCOMING EVENTS

^Highlights

^Inside

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EVENTS}