As Published In September/October 2007

AT ORACLE: Oracle News Briefs

Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition One Now Available

Packaged and preconfigured for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and work groups, Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition One—a complete, integrated business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing solution—is now shipping.

Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition One, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, features all the core BI capabilities SMBs need, including interactive dashboards; formatted reporting; ad hoc query and analysis; extract, transform, and load (ETL) technology; and Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition One.

"Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition One is the only end-to-end BI and data warehousing solution that is based on category-leading technology for every component, offering a complete and compelling solution at an attractive price," says Paul Rodwick, vice president, Oracle Business Intelligence. "The software offers small and medium organizations a proper infrastructure that will serve their immediate BI needs yet easily scale and grow with their needs over time."

Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition One offers customers the right BI foundation to deliver complete, relevant, and timely information for better decision-making across the organization. Developed with business user self-sufficiency in mind, the product features business user interfaces that do not require coding.

Oracle Simplifies User Management in Oracle Database 10g

Oracle has integrated the enterprise user security feature of Oracle Database 10g with Oracle Virtual Directory to allow organizations to centrally manage database user identities through existing corporate directories.

Centralized database user management helps address compliance and insider threat challenges, especially for organizations with large-scale databases and user populations. With enterprise user security, organizations can now use virtualization capabilities to manage database user identities and their highly privileged roles across diverse identity stores without having to migrate or synchronize the data. Oracle Database 10g customers can pair Oracle Virtual Directory with enterprise user security to virtually provision database user accounts, assign database roles, centrally manage user authentication and authorization, and enable self-service features such as password resets in existing corporate directories.

"Given heightened security demands, organizations must implement comprehensive identity and access strategies that span database users and the access rights they typically enjoy," says Sally Hudson, research director, security products and services, IDC. "The integration of Oracle Virtual Directory with enterprise user security is a timely and important offering. The increased flexibility and greater choice helps solve a critical security need for many Oracle Database customers today."

Oracle Database Lite 10g Release 3 Now Available

Now shipping, Oracle Database Lite 10g Release 3 is a comprehensive solution for the rapid development and deployment of applications for mobile and embedded environments. It delivers enhanced synchronization of occasionally connected devices with Oracle Database and support for a broader range of platforms.

Oracle Database Lite 10g is a highly scalable, mobile solution that enables applications to run even when disconnected from the network, while periodically synchronizing to an Oracle Database server. Composed of a mobile server and a mobile relational database, Oracle Database Lite 10g Release 3 helps users reliably and securely exchange data with a corporate database; enables application, device, and user provisioning; and provides centralized management tools. Additionally, the latest release includes an automatic synchronization capability that enables data to be synchronized bidirectionally without user intervention.

"The new enhancements in Oracle Database Lite 10g reflect Oracle's dedication to offering mobile users an identical experience to their connected colleagues—when it comes to continuous data availability," says Rex Wang, Oracle's vice president of embedded product marketing.

The client database of Oracle Database Lite 10g Release 3 supports Windows, Windows CE, Windows Mobile, Linux, and Symbian platforms. It also supports stored procedures for C++, C#/.NET, and Java.

Spring Development Kit Released

The new Oracle Development Kit for Spring is designed to simplify the development, deployment, and management of Spring-based enterprise Java applications and to address demand for integration between Oracle Fusion Middleware and the Spring framework.

The Oracle Development Kit for Spring includes Spring Framework 2.0, the latest version of Spring's lightweight, open source application development framework; Oracle JDeveloper Extension for Spring, which provides wizards and full editor support for both Spring 1.x- and 2.0-style definitions; and Oracle Developer Depot, a free, Spring-based developer productivity tool. It also includes prepackaged sample applications and tutorials and transaction manager integration, which allows developers to leverage the lightweight programming model of Spring with the high-performance transactional capabilities of Oracle Application Server.

"The Oracle Development Kit for Spring is a natural step in our efforts to simplify enterprise Java development," says Steven G. Harris, vice president, Java Platform Group, Oracle. "As more and more customers use Oracle's Java development platform in conjunction with the Spring framework, we see increasingly innovative results."

Oracle's Demantra 7.1.1 Now Shipping

Now available, Demantra 7.1.1 expands on the industry-leading demand management functionality that Oracle obtained through the acquisition of Demantra to deliver better forecasting and demand management capabilities.

New capabilities include support for Oracle Fusion Middleware, improved planner productivity, enhancements to data loading and export, new demand analysis worksheets, and series and data security enhancements. This release also enables companies to model more-precise statistical forecasting, analysis, and collaboration scenarios without special training or IT support.

Demantra 7.1.1 is now part of the Advanced Planning solution within Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, which gives companies the ability to accurately predict demand, shape profitability for their products, and proactively manage complex global supply chains. This integration reduces setup, configuration, and ongoing maintenance costs because Demantra shares the same demand and master data as the Oracle Applications.

"By integrating Demantra into Oracle's Advanced Planning applications, we are giving companies the tools to better predict, shape, and respond to demand in order to uphold the operational and strategic goals of their companies," says Jon Chorley, Oracle's vice president of product strategy.

Oracle Buys Product Lifecycle Management Leader Agile

Oracle has agreed to acquire Agile Software Corporation, a leading provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software solutions. Agile's PLM solutions help engineers, manufacturing and supply chain professionals, and business executives drive the product innovation and introduction process, share product specifications and configurations, and collaborate effectively across the supply chain.

PLM is evolving into an enterprisewide discipline that spans multiple product design systems and interacts with a wide range of enterprise applications. The combination of Agile and Oracle will create an integrated, enterprisewide PLM solution.

"Profitable product innovation is critical to product-based industries, making PLM one of the fastest-growing application segments," says Oracle President Charles Phillips. "The addition of Agile, which will serve as the foundation of our PLM offering, will further Oracle's strategy of delivering industry-specific enterprise applications and allows us to offer yet another strategic application to SAP customers."

Oracle Invests in Sophoi

Oracle has made a minority investment in Sophoi, a privately held provider of enterprise intellectual property management software. Oracle and Sophoi will continue to partner to bring innovative end-to-end solutions to the media and entertainment industry.

"Customers of Sophoi and Oracle can benefit from a comprehensive suite of mission-critical applications for the media and entertainment industry by combining Oracle's integrated applications suite and Sophoi's iPLS [Intellectual Property Licensing Suite] solution," says Lars Wahlstrom, Oracle's group vice president of the Communications, Media and Utilities Global Industries Business Unit.