As Published In May 2007

Steve Miranda and Murali Subramanian: Oracle E-Business Suite

Oracle E-Business Suite is the foundation of Oracle's history in the business applications market. Oracle recently announced the newest version: Oracle E-Business Suite 12. Referred to as the Global Business Release, Oracle E-Business Suite 12 enables businesses to think globally to make better decisions, work globally to be more competitive, and manage globally to lower costs and increase performance. Steve Miranda, senior vice president of Applications Development at Oracle, and Murali Subramanian, vice president, Oracle E-Business Suite Development, have more than 25 years of combined experience in Oracle's development organization. Profit spoke with them together.

Steve Miranda Currently: Senior vice president, Applications Development Prior to Oracle: GE Aerospace Education: Bachelor's degree in mathematics and computational science from Stanford University Murali Subramanian Currently: Vice president, Applications Development Prior to Oracle: Joined Oracle directly after college Education: Master's degree in statistics from Madras Christian College and University of Texas, El Paso; master's degree in computer science from University of Texas, El Paso

PROFIT: Oracle E-Business Suite 12 is called the Global Business Release. What does that mean for Oracle E-Business Suite customers, and why should they be considering upgrading to the new release?

MIRANDA: I believe that there is a growing trend toward shared services and globalization. Oracle E-Business Suite 12 is the best offering on the market for customers that want the benefits of instance and IT consolidation toward the shared-services model, much like what Oracle has done over the past several years.

On Oracle Fusion Steve Miranda In Oracle E-Business Suite 12, we leverage Oracle Fusion Middleware's Oracle XML Publisher and Oracle BI Publisher capabilities for desktop integration. With these features, not only are customers going to be able to execute financial consolidations and complex calculations, but they will also be able to integrate them directly with the desktop. Murali Subramanian As we move forward and continue to innovate, one of our primary focuses will be to bring the right aspects of Oracle Fusion technology into the Oracle E-Business Suite product line.

SUBRAMANIAN: Ultimately it means different things to different kinds of businesses, but the important theme here is that if you're a global company, your customers, partners, and suppliers are becoming more and more demanding. To meet these demands and continue to be competitive, businesses of all sizes need to have technology in place that supports globalization of their business, from suppliers to employees, customers, and partners.

PROFIT: What are you hearing from customers about the new release?

SUBRAMANIAN: I recently attended a user group event in the United Kingdom, and it was very clear to me that there is a lot of excitement about Oracle E-Business Suite 12. This is the first major Oracle E-Business Suite release since the PeopleSoft acquisition, so there are a lot of expectations and participants were asking a lot about what's available in the release.

PROFIT: What does the Applications Unlimited announcement mean for Oracle E-Business Suite customers?

SUBRAMANIAN: Applications Unlimited is about being customer-centric and listening to our customers to help make them successful. It brings a lot more clarity to the customer base. To current Oracle E-Business Suite 11i customers, Applications Unlimited means that they can look at what is available in Oracle E-Business Suite 12 and move ahead, knowing that there will be integration among the versions. It shows them that they have a path forward and assures them that we will not have a forced migration to Oracle Fusion. When Oracle Fusion is available, Applications Unlimited will provide assurance that all of our customers can migrate at a pace that makes business sense for them.

PROFIT: In late 2008, customers will be looking for Oracle Fusion. Can you share some specifics about Oracle E-Business Suite 12 that represent the beginning of what Oracle is going to be offering in Oracle Fusion?

I Love My Job Steve Miranda I love the people I work with. We have talented, motivated, and enthusiastic people who like to take on challenging problems and work hard as a team to bring value to the customer base. We have fairly demanding customers— which is another thing I like about my job—that push our teams to deliver better quality and flexibility, and make the product simpler, easier to configure, and easier to install.

MIRANDA: One of the key principles we follow in developing all of our application products is to leverage next-generation technology. In Oracle E-Business Suite 12, we leverage the latest Oracle Fusion Middleware capabilities, including BPEL [Business Process Execution Language] and Oracle BI Publisher for desktop integration. With these features, not only are customers going to be able to execute financial consolidations and complex calculations, but they will also be able to integrate them directly with the desktop. Once customers complete financial consolidations, they typically want board-ready reports that are drawn from their consolidated results. With Oracle BI Publisher for desktop integration, we've integrated Adobe Acrobat into the desktop so customers can create polished, PDF-formatted results.

PROFIT: What are you hoping customers will take away from the recent announcement of Oracle E-Business Suite 12?

SUBRAMANIAN: We have a unique strategy at Oracle, in that we have multiple product lines and are continuing to integrate those products while working on the next generation of applications. For Oracle E-Business Suite customers, the key takeaway message is that we're working hard to deliver more and more value in our current product lines while simultaneously building our next-generation applications, and when they're ready for Oracle Fusion, there will be a definitive path for them. Everything they do today—from adopting Oracle XML Publisher to leveraging our new integration architecture—will help them on that path.

MIRANDA: I completely agree. I'd like to see Oracle E-Business Suite customers take away a full understanding that, through Oracle E-Business Suite 12, they will be able to adopt technology at a pace that is right for their business.