NEW SPATIAL APPS PROMISE “VAST” EFFICIENCY PAYBACK

Location-aware business applications become more pervasive and accessible

by Alan Joch, July 2008

As automobile navigation systems and Web mapping programs spur demand among mainstream users for spatial applications, sources for new location-based technologies and information is growing rapidly. Jim Steiner, Oracle senior director of server technology, explains what these developments mean for enterprises and their ongoing quest for more efficient business processes and improved customer service.

PROFIT Online: Is the success of consumer spatial applications driving demand for spatial technologies in the enterprise?

STEINER: This has been an important factor because people get familiar with the technology and recognize the value. But in addition to this, there’s been a tremendous expansion of the location-aware

infrastructure--the ability to get an address or location and incorporate it into an application. The quality of location data has dramatically increased, and it’s more readily available in formats that are appropriate for business applications.

PROFIT Online: What lines of business stand to benefit the most from these developments?

STEINER: The ones that have traditionally used spatial were responsible for land and infrastructure management in verticals such as the public sector, utilities, telecos, and energy. Now we’re seeing map displays and location queries being added to business-activity monitoring applications, business intelligence, call centers, retail merchandising management, insurance, to name a few.

PROFIT Online: How might the insurance industry, for example, make use of these maps and location queries?

STEINER: One of the largest re-insurance companies in the world does portfolio risk assessment with spatial applications. It creates predictive models for natural

disasters by mapping out how many policies are in a region and the value of the policies within a high-risk zone. It can perform financial-exposure planning when a disaster is occurring or in the offing. For example, analysts can bring in meteorological information from NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) that predicts the path of a hurricane and see how that might affect the company’s portfolio. Finally, they can decide where best to deploy service personnel and insurance assessors.

PROFIT Online: What is there about Oracle’s technology that makes it especially adaptable to spatial applications?

STEINER: Oracle is unique in the breadth of technologies it offers for managing spatial information. We’ve made spatial capabilities as familiar and as native as possible in our database, applications server, our development tools. For example, all of the Oracle database products support spatial data types, spatial indexing, and spatial analysis. In addition, the Enterprise Edition includes advanced geospatial capabilities for geo coding, which is the ability to take an address and turn it into a longitude/latitude location. Spatial support flows up to

the application server and the JDeveloper platform. Oracle also has Web services with spatial capabilities that integrated into its standard Web Services platform. Lastly, we are integrating geospatial capabilities into Oracle’s applications. So Mobile Workforce Management and Work and Asset Management products from the Oracle Utilities Group are enabled with geospatial capabilities to handle proximity queries.

PROFIT Online: If I’m in an enterprise, and I see the potential of spatial applications, what advice do you have for bringing more of them into my infrastructure?

STEINER: First, evaluate all the applications that might benefit from location information, including those for call centers, case management, asset management, sales territory management, and field and customer services. Then make certain that your existing address and location information for these applications is accurate. Then extend your database schema to accommodate location data associated with the reasons.

Next, evaluate what mapping data is available for these applications. You’ll find it in GIS departments from government agencies and from commercial companies like DigitalGlobe, NavTeq, TeleAtlas.

Finally, start with simple steps that have a big ROI. For example, if you enable a geographic query and display sales territories or service coverage areas on maps you can potentially see a big payback. If you have assets, enable them to be displayed and analyzed using map technologies. Base data for work orders, call center records, and case loads on location and proximity information because this can

produce a vast payback by helping you utilize your assets more efficiently. For more information click here!

Can You Guess Which Database is the Fastest Growing on Windows?

That’s right: organizations are moving from Microsoft to Oracle to achieve better performance, scalability, and availability.

transactional processes such as quote-to-cash and develop-to-release to deliver what EPM leaders are calling "management excellence."

In the new report, Market Share: Relational Database Management System Software by Operating System, Worldwide, 2007, Gartner, an independent analyst firm, announced that the RDBMS market grew 13 percent in 2007 to $17 billion. In 2007, Oracle grew 14.9 percent and maintained its lead in this market with 48.6 percent market share, while IBM and Microsoft remained in second and third place, respectively. The report also noted that Oracle’s growth on Windows outpaced other vendors’ growth on Windows—even Microsoft’s.

Moving from Microsoft SQL Server to Oracle
Organizations are moving from Microsoft to Oracle to achieve better performance, scalability, and availability. For example, CaseCentral, the leading secure software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for corporations looking to take control of eDiscovery, has

migrated its SaaS platform to Oracle Database and Oracle Real Application Clusters.

"At a moment's notice, a new or existing client can send us millions of documents and terabytes of data to support an eDiscovery matter,” said Ted Sergott, chief technology officer, CaseCentral, “and thanks to our architecture, we are fully prepared to accommodate that volume of mission-critical data.”

CaseCentral will migrate customers currently supported by Microsoft SQL Server to the clustered Oracle Database environment.

Metro St. Louis Runs Oracle E-Business Suite on an Oracle Grid

Fred Linnenbrink, director of data architecture for Metro St. Louis, discusses how running Oracle E-Business Suite on an Oracle Grid helps manage the City of St. Louis' fleet of buses, light rail, and other vehicles.
Listen to the podcast.

ORACLE DELIVERS APPLICATION TESTING SUITE

Enabling customers to deploy higher quality applications with less cost, complexity, and effort, Oracle Application Testing Suite—the newest addition to Oracle Enterprise Manager's suite of Application Quality Management products—is now available.

“With Oracle Application Testing Suite, Oracle has delivered a comprehensive testing solution for service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Web applications to help customers deliver high-quality, mission-critical applications faster and with less effort,” said Leng Leng Tan, VP, Applications and Systems Management, Oracle. “With this unique testing platform, customers can tackle small to very large testing projects and save time in both functional and load testing efforts. Oracle Application Testing Suite is a valuable addition to Oracle Enterprise Manager's existing product portfolio, including Real Application Testing for database testing and Data Masking Pack for secure data sharing. The combined solution is the most complete testing solution for Oracle environments.”

Application quality management plays a key role in Oracle Enterprise Manager's top-down approach to application management by enabling applications to perform well under peak load with maximum throughput, even in the face of evolving technology, limited understanding of test parameters, and resource constraints.

Helping organizations address testing needs for the entire

application environment, Oracle's Application Quality Management solution:

Offers strong synthetic load testing, real-workload testing, functional testing, secure data sharing, and comprehensive test management capabilities
Employs an open and integrated scripting platform for load and functional testing that can help cut scripting time in half and reduce weeks from a typical project’s testing schedule
Features a functional and load testing accelerator for Oracle's Siebel CRM

Key components of the suite include Oracle Load Testing for Web Applications, Oracle Functional Testing for Web Applications, and Oracle Test Manager for Web Applications

For more details, read our press release.

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ORACLE VM TEMPLATES

Easier...Faster...Lower Cost...Fully Supported for Production Deployments

Oracle VM Templates provide an innovative approach to deploying a fully configured software stack by offering pre-installed and pre-configured software images. Use of Oracle VM Templates eliminates the installation and configuration costs, and reduces the ongoing maintenance costs helping organizations achieve faster time to

market and lower cost of operations.

Oracle VM Templates of many key Oracle products are available for download:

• Oracle Database 11g
• Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.3)
• Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g (10.2.0.4)
• Oracle Siebel CRM 8
• Oracle Enterprise Linux

The use of Oracle VM offers full benefits of server virtualization including optimizing resource utilization with server consolidation, energy and power savings, and space savings, all of which lead to further lowering the cost of operations and enabling Green IT for users.

Just copy the software images provided on your server that has Oracle VM installed on it, and within minutes you will have a fully installed and configured Oracle environment without having to install products from scratch.

For more information click here!

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FORRESTER NAMES ORACLE A LEADER IN ENTERPRISE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE PLATFORMS

According to a July 2008 report from independent analyst firm Forrester Research, Oracle is a leader in enterprise business intelligence (BI) platforms.

The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Business Intelligence Platforms, Q3 2008 (pdf), written by principal analyst Boris Evelson, states that “Oracle moves into the leadership category as it enriches its BI portfolio, and the company brings the best of its recently acquired technologies from Siebel and Hyperion into (Oracle Business Intelligence Suite) Enterprise Edition Plus.”

The report also finds that “The BI suite includes a powerful BI Server with a ROLAP engine and enterprise information integration (EII) technology, qualifying Oracle’s BI suite as a heterogeneous, not just Oracle-centric, BI platform.”

“Forrester’s Wave reflects the experience of thousands of Oracle BI customers,” said Paul Rodwick, VP, Product Management, Oracle Business Intelligence. “Oracle BI is ideal for enterprise BI consolidation whether in Oracle, non-Oracle, or mixed environments. For Oracle customers, the integration of Oracle BI with Oracle Applications, Oracle Database, and Oracle Fusion Middleware helps to deliver rapid deployments and low total cost of ownership to enable pervasive BI across an enterprise. Furthermore, Oracle BI is a foundation component of Oracle Enterprise Performance Management, which helps organizations extend operational excellence and achieve management excellence.”

Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation provides comprehensive BI and analytic capabilities based on category-leading products for OLAP, interactive dashboards, ad hoc analysis, proactive detection and alerts, advanced reporting and publishing, mobile analytics, desktop gadgets, and more. The software’s hot-pluggable design enables organizations to take advantage of existing Oracle and non-Oracle data sources and applications, including SAP. The Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation, consisting of Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus, Oracle Essbase, and Oracle Real-Time Decisions, is the technical foundation for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System, including prebuilt Oracle BI Applications.

To learn more, watch the Pervasive Business Intelligence podcast (mp3).

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ORACLE PODCASTS YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS!

NEW PODCASTS

Live with Cliff Godwin:

Regulatory Compliance for Public Organizations—Achieving Stronger Controls and Better Management Practices (10 min.)

Executive Update: Oracle's Strategy for Industries (13 min.)

Oracle's Shared Services Model Can Bring You Tremendous Savings (11 min.)

See all Oracle podcasts

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GET READY . . . . COLLABORATE 2009 IN ORLANDO – CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

Share Your Oracle Knowledge at COLLABORATE 09!

The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG), Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) and Quest International Users Group (Quest) invite you to share your Oracle knowledge at the premier annual conference for Oracle customers - COLLABORATE 09: Technology and Applications Forum for the Oracle Community
May 3-7, 2009, Orange County Convention Center West
Orlando, Florida.

Submit a presentation proposal by Friday, October 31 to be considered to speak at this leading user-driven event and have the chance to:

Share best practices and tested solutions for Oracle technologies and applications.
Enhance your own Oracle knowledge through the peer networking and exchange.
Learn from Oracle experts and leaders through other education sessions.

You don't have to be an expert - in fact, some of our best presentations are from users who have just gone through challenging projects.

What do you get in return? If your session is selected, you'll be given a complimentary conference registration - only one per session, though! We'll also send you e-mail notifications before the conference outlining everything you need to know, and when you are onsite, you'll have plenty of time and space to prepare.

If you're a PeopleSoft user - submit your idea now to be one of Quest's PeopleSoft user speakers at the conference. In 2008, Quest offered the vast majority of PeopleSoft sessions at COLLABORATE -- and we're only going to grow it in 09!

If you're a JD Edwards user - submit your idea now to be one of Quest's JD Edwards user speakers at the conference. Quest is the main provider of JD Edwards content at COLLABORATE 09, and the only umbrella users group that represents JD Edwards users at the conference.

If you're an Oracle Utilities user - Don't miss your chance to get in on another great slate of Utilities education at COLLABORATE for a second straight year.

Get your thoughts together, talk to your co-workers or vendor partners for ideas, and submit now!
DEADLINE TO SUBMIT IS OCTOBER 31, 2008. Have questions about presenting? Contact education@questdirect.org.

Also, mark your calendars for registration, which opens early November. Our registration process is easy, and if you register early, you'll get the discounted Early Bird rate. If you're a Quest member, it's even less. Remember: anyone employed at a Quest corporate member company is eligible for the member discount rate -- even if you're not listed on your company's membership. If you are budgeting, plan on registration rates similar to 2008 - early bird members can expect to pay in the $1300 range.

ORACLE TO HOST CANADA FEDERAL FORUM –

NOVEMBER 6^th, 2008

Oracle and its partners plan to host forums for Federal Government agencies in Washington, DC (October 29) and in Ottawa (November 6). Each event will be very similar to last year's, with keynote presentations from Oracle, our customers, and partners. Over 400 attendees and a dozen partners are expected to join us in each city, and the sessions will cover key public sector focus-for-growth initiatives on the apps and tech sides, with tracks covering Oracle Technology, HCM, Financial and Performance Management, and CRM. Each event will drill into national government issues specific to the US and Canada respectively.

Go to the DC save-the-date evite.
Go to the Ottawa save-the-date evite.

LEADING ANALYST FIRM POSITIONS ORACLE IN LEADERS QUADRANT IN MAGIC QUADRANT FOR MASTER DATA MANAGEMENT FOR CUSTOMER DATA

Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management for Customer Data positions Oracle's Siebel Universal Customer Master (UCM) in the Leaders Quadrant.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant positions vendors within a particular market segment based on their completeness of vision and their ability to execute on that vision.

Oracle has a strong focus on Master Data Management, strong sales momentum and customers across a range of industries, including specific strength in telecommunications.

Oracle's Siebel Universal Customer Master (UCM) is Oracle’s leading customer data application for Master Data Management (MDM). Siebel UCM’s functionality enables an enterprise to manage customer data over the entire lifecycle: capturing customer data, standardization and correction of names and addresses; identification and merging of duplicate records; enrichment of the customer profile; enforcement of compliance and risk policies; and the distribution of the “single source of truth” best version customer profile to operational systems.

According to Gartner, "Vendors in the Leaders quadrant have strong results and delivery capabilities now, and will continue to have them in the future. They typically possess a large, satisfied customer base and enjoy high visibility in the market. The size and financial strength of the leaders enable them to remain viable in a challenging economy. Leaders have mature offerings and a track record of successful deployments, even in the most challenging environments, across all geographies and in many vertical industries. Leaders have the strategic vision to address evolving client requirements; however, they're not always the best choice in all cases."

"Oracle’s Master Data Management applications enable organizations to centralize information from heterogeneous systems, creating a single view of customer information that can be leveraged across all functional departments and analytical systems. We are quite pleased to see Oracle’s placement in this report, especially in light of the comprehensive assessment and analyses of the technology reflected in the research," said Pascal Laik, vice president, Master Data Management Strategy, Oracle. "In our opinion, Oracle’s position in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management for Customer Data demonstrates the strength of our proven solutions."

For more information click here!

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ORACLE A LEADER IN MAGIC QUADRANT FOR ENTERPRISE GOVERNANCE, RISK, AND COMPLIANCE PLATFORMS

Oracle Governance, Risk and Compliance Manager (Oracle GRC Manager) has been positioned in the Leaders Quadrant in Gartner’s Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance Platforms Magic Quadrant, 2008.

“In this new era of accountability, organizations around the world recognize the value of having a single platform that improves the quality and effectiveness of compliance programs, and provides powerful mechanisms for understanding and managing risk,” said Chris Capdevilla, Vice President, GRC, Oracle. “We believe Oracle’s position in the Leaders Quadrant in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance is a testament to our ability to provide customers across a wide variety of industries with a comprehensive GRC platform that helps reduce the complexity and cost of managing global compliance requirements.”

The Gartner Magic Quadrant provides guidance for organizations that are seeking to purchase, replace, or upgrade their solutions, and it positions vendors within a particular market segment based on their completeness of vision and their ability to execute.

According to Gartner, vendors in the Leaders Quadrant have proven GRC functionality in all four primary GRC management functions — audit management, compliance management, risk management, and policy management — and they have executed horizontally across several industries.

Oracle GRC Manager automates the management of internal controls and helps improve the efficiency of an organization’s’ compliance processes. Built on industry-leading content-management technology, Oracle GRC Manager is the orchestration hub for all GRC initiatives, enabling compliance and risk officers to unify fragmented GRC activities across multiple business units, geographies, and information systems.

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Check Out Oracle Newsletter Subscriptions

Inside news and original content you won't find anywhere else, delivered to your inbox each quarter, on Oracle applications and technology solutions. For more information and to subscribe click here!

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Implementing or Upgrading? Key Project Milestones Quickly Approaching?

Oracle offers a number of tools and resources to help customers through key project milestones. Working together Oracle can bring heightened visibility and support to your upgrade or implementation projects. Contact your account representative to discuss go live support and value add resources!

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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.

REGIONAL USER GROUP MEETINGS

Rocky Mountain User Group Meeting

Denver, CO

September 17, 2008

PeopleSoft Desert RUG Meeting

Phoenix, AZ

October 2, 2008

PeopleSoft Northwest Regional User Group

Tulalip, WA

October 28-29, 2008

Northern California PeopleSoft/JDE Regional User Group

Newark/Fremont, CA

November 7, 2008

Quest West

San Diego, CA

February 11-13, 2009

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PUBLIC SECTOR SEMINARS

New Internet Seminars Target Public Sector Challenges

Oracle has launched a new series of seminars delivered via the Internet that examine the latest technologies and best practices for addressing today’s most critical challenges in the public sector.

The seminars are formatted to deliver information quickly, with sessions lasting 15 minutes or less. New seminar topics will be added regularly featuring experts on a range of technologies and public sector issues. The first group of topics now available for viewing include:

· 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.

To view the seminars go to oracle.com/industries/government/index.html and click on the links under “Internet Seminars” at the bottom right.

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CONFERENCES

Oracle CIO Executive Summit

November 5-6, 2008

Chicago, IL

This year's CFO Summit offers CFO’s the opportunity to meet, network with, and learn from some of the most-recognized thought leaders in the world. This unique gathering offers Oracle's top customers an unparalleled environment for exploring new ways to develop and capitalize on innovations that can transform businesses and promote growth over the next 12 to 24 months. The summit never fails to provoke meaningful discussion and deliver insight into the most pressing information and technology challenges that CFOs face day in and day out.

Colorado Digital Government Summit

November 17, 2008

Denver, Colorado

Don't miss this opportunity to see the latest in digital government solutions, keep abreast of current policy issues and network with key government executives, technologists and industry specialists.

BIWA Summit 2008

December 2-3, 2008

Redwood Shores, California

The only national conference devoted exclusively to Oracle-based Business Intelligence, Warehousing and Analytics, BIWA Summit 2008 provides Oracle professionals an unprecedented opportunity to share with and learn from other professionals.

The BIWA Summit 2008 conference committee is building on the enormous success of BIWA summit 2007, which had over 300 participants from across the world. We will meet at Oracle’s worldwide headquarters in their Conference Center.

The BIWA Summit 2008 will completely fill the Center, with dozens of technical talks and multiple hands-on sessions where you can work with the latest software and learn firsthand from Oracle's product managers and executives.

Oracle CIO Executive Summit

December 3-5, 2008

Beverly Hills, CA

Keith Block, Executive Vice President, Oracle, will host the upcoming Oracle CIO Executive Summit, Wednesday, December 3 – Friday, December 5, 2008 at the world-famous Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills California. This year's CIO Summit offers CIOs the opportunity to meet, network with, and learn from some of the most-recognized thought leaders in the world. This unique gathering offers Oracle's top customers an unmatched environment for exploring new ways to develop and capitalize on innovations that can transform businesses and promote growth over the next 12 to 24 months. The summit never fails to provoke meaningful discussion and deliver insight into the most pressing information and technology challenges that these CIO's face day in and day out.

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ADVISOR WEBCASTS

View the current Support Services Web Seminar Schedule

Oracle E-Business

No E-Business sessions scheduled at this time.

Oracle Server Tech

Title: Overview of the Transparent Gateway for DB2

September 16 8:00 a.m. (MDT)

View Summary

Oracle Fusion Middleware

Title: From HTTP to HTTPs in 3 Simple Steps

October 1

10:00 a.m. (MDT)

View Summary

Title: Oracle Forms 10g – Forms Look and Feel Project

December 3

Time: TDB

View Summary

PeopleSoft Enterprise

No PeopleSoft Enterprise sessions scheduled at this time.

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

Title: JD Edwards EnterpriseOne: Troubleshooting Item Ledger/Item Balance Integrity Issues

September 17

10:00 a.m. (MDT)

Highlights

Inside

UPCOMING EVENTS

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