A steadily increasing number of small businesses and owner-managed businesses across the country are running key business functions online through Oracle Small Business Suite without the hassle and expense of maintaining their own information-technology infrastructure in-house.

Companies such as Mount Real Corporation, Bookkeeping.com and Nutrisana Naturals are reporting cost savings through streamlined operational efficiencies resulting from their use of the Oracle Small Business Suite, which provides small companies with an integrated, easy-to-use suite of online application services that manage key business processes, including financials, customer relationship management, purchasing, and e-commerce. Oracle Small Business Suite helps companies sell more and spend less by seamlessly integrating a company's business processes.

Mount Real Corporation
Financial and information-management services firm Mount Real Corporation (MRF:TSX) provides its Tactical Marketing Intelligence (TMI) solution to its clients in Canada and the United States. The Montreal-based company has been using the Oracle Small Business Suite since it was released last Spring.

"The breadth, depth, and flexibility of the applications, combined with its user-friendly interface, make Oracle Small Business Suite unlike any other solution in the marketplace," says Paul D'Andrea, controller at Mount Real. "Since we implemented Oracle Small Business Suite last year, we've been able to integrate all our internal and external financial through its single, integrated, and centralized database."

By leveraging the Oracle Small Business Suite's complete, Web-enabled reporting capabilities, Mount Real's employees can now access key financial information online from any desktop any time. This makes it possible to provide clients with accurate, timely financial reports in hours, rather than days or even weeks. The automated workflow capabilities have freed employees from tedious administrative tasks, which, in turn, enable them to focus on providing more services to more clients. As a result, the company has increased its revenues without increasing its headcount.

Bookkeeping.com
Ottawa-based bookkeeping.com uses the Oracle Small Business Suite's complete offering of online services to help its clients build and market bookkeeping businesses, as well as offer its own bookkeeping services to companies around the country. From its Web site, bookkeeping.com is now able to capture leads and help turn them into sales. Once a sale is complete, the client can view its entire transaction history through the company's Customer Centre.

Similarly, bookkeeping.com's vendors can also view their entire transaction history through the company's Vendor Centre.

"In the 12 years I've performed accounting-system evaluations, this is the most integrated business solution I've ever seen," says Paul Doucet, president and chief executive officer at bookkeeping.com. "With Oracle Small Business Suite's Web-based functionality, there's no need to worry about systems compatibility, networking, installation or other hardware issues that can take time and increase costs."

Nutrisana Naturals
Nutrisana Naturals, a natural supplement manufacturer for therapeutics based in Montreal, is taking advantage of the Oracle Small Business Suite's centralized database, Web-enabled reporting capabilities and user-friendly interface to better manage its sales offices in Germany and France.

"The ability to access the Suite through a desktop browser and password has allowed us to expand our sales operations to Europe without incurring additional implementation and training costs," says Christian Gaumerd, president of Nutrisana Naturals. "The Web-enabled, centralized database has all but eliminated obstacles related to time-zone differences. Our European sales offices input information into the database, which can be accessed instantly by our Montreal head office at any time. Relying on faxes and e-mails to deliver critical sales information is now a thing of the past."

About Oracle Small Business Suite
Oracle Small Business Suite, powered by NetLedger, is one completely integrated application to help small businesses manage all of their business processes more efficiently and effectively, including accounting and finance, sales and service, Web presence, and employee management. Companies can save time and money and get unprecedented visibility into their operations by using one centralized and up-to-date database, ending the headache of using multiple incompatible applications. With anytime, anywhere Web access, the award-winning solution is the first and only complete multi-user, multi-location, small-business management solution.

About Oracle
Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit our website at . The Canadian site is /ca.

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