Special Report: Latin America

Latin America will be the focus of the enterprise IT world when Oracle OpenWorld Latin America arrives in Sao Paolo in early March 2009. Brazil's rapid expansion, even in the face of global economic malaise, continues to drive IT investment in the region. But Brazil isn't the only story; Colombia, Peru, and Mexico also lead the way in Latin America. As Oracle executive vice president Luiz Melsier points out, not only have these countries prospered over the past decade, but they have a longer history of facing (and addressing) market volatility and uncertainty. This special report will give you the background you need to see how IT had magnified success in Latin America, a snapshot of the state of IT in the region, and the information you need to join other IT leaders at Oracle OpenWorld Sao Paolo. Read more in our special report.

Podcast: Oracle in Latin America
n advance of Oracle OpenWorld Latin America, Profit Online speaks with Oracle Executive Vice President Luiz Meisler about the upcoming show, the state of the Latin American economy and how information technology continues to push innovation in the region's emerging economies.

Restaurantes Toks Orders IT to Go
Rather than installing and maintaining its core applications in-house, Mexico City-based Toks opted for an on-demand solution that tapped into IT resources maintained hundreds of miles away at Oracle’s data center in Austin, Texas. The decisions paid off. After requiring just eight months to launch the hosted financial, purchasing, and supply-chain modules in Oracle E-Business Suite, the company cut the time required for its daily financial transactions up to 30 percent in some cases such as reconciliation process.

3M Mexico Uses CRM On Demand to Gain Efficiency, Better Information
Maintaining a good grasp on customer and business connections requires 3M Mexico to do much more than follow a paper trail of yellow squares. It requires looking for cost-effective ways to address common business questions, such as “how do you parse out customer information in a way that helps sales and marketing hone in on a particular segment?”

Trading Up; Biciclo Improves Operations And Grows in the Face of Global Competition
Characterizing the company's process of investigating its new IT solution as studied and methodical, Biciclo's Emma Bocanegra explains how this approach to IT for the twenty-first century had the company's executives carefully weighing their options, looking intently for a vendor/solution mix that was appropriate for both cost reduction and process optimization.

Colombian Cookie Maker Finds Sweet Rewards in RFID Pilot Ahead of Mandates
“Noel has always embraced technology to stay ahead of the competition,” said Noel SA's Logistics Manager Pedro Alfonso Blanco. “We sell crackers, cookies and other candies that must be closely managed according to shelf life and customer demand. RFID has the potential to give us a real competitive advantage, help improve order fulfillment and boost customer satisfaction.”

Oracle Data Warehouse Helps Perú's Banco de Crédito Service—and Sell to—Its Customers.
CIO Ricardo Guillermo Bustamante realized he needed to make a change while planning a capacity upgrade. Updating his existing software would cost US$3 million. After doing some research, he discovered that he could migrate to an Oracle Database data warehouse and effect instant savings. He learned that he could accomplish the Oracle implementation for half what he would have paid for upgrading his existing software, says Bustamante. And the savings wouldn't stop there.