Oracle Press Release

Oracle Launches North America Sales Readiness Initiative for Oracle Partners

New Initiative Drives New Partner Opportunities, Rewards Investment in Oracle® Fusion Middleware, Database and Grid Skills

Redwood Shores, CA – March 19, 2009

News Facts

Continuing its commitment to build business with partners, Oracle today announced the Sales Readiness Verification initiative for Oracle partners in North America with proven expertise in Oracle® Fusion Middleware, Oracle Database and the Oracle Grid.

The new initiative provides sales training to Oracle partners that will help enable them to go to market with Oracle in strategic technology areas such as Identity Management, Business Intelligence, and Enterprise 2.0. The training is intended to help drive net new license and services business for partners.

Oracle plans to verify the Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware selling skills of 75 partners through the end of the calendar year and bring these partners into Oracle sales opportunities.

This announcement continues Oracle’s strategy of extending sales and technical enablement to partners through Enablement 2.0 and builds on Oracle’s commitment to both expanding its partner presence in North America and improving the value proposition for partners investing in building skills around Oracle technology.

Additional Information

The new initiative has three key benefits for Oracle partners:

Establishes a baseline measurement for expert partner skills expertise in selling Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Database and Oracle Grid solutions, including customer references.

Fosters collaborative selling with partners, including joint business planning and lead passing from Oracle to partners.

Acknowledges and promotes partner expertise to existing and prospective Oracle customers.

Supporting Quotes

“The Sales Readiness Verification initiative is a key pillar of Oracle’s commitment to driving net new business to expert partners in North America,” said Ted Bereswill, senior vice president, Oracle North America Alliances and Channels. “We’re serious about improving the value proposition for partners who have invested to build their Oracle skills. By working with Oracle’s Enterprise Solutions Group for enablement and Field Sales Teams to bring partners into new opportunities, we expect to start helping build new business for partners immediately.”

“Sales readiness verification is exactly the kind of sales support we’re looking for,” said John Ezzell, co-founder and executive vice president at BIAS Corp. “This initiative validates the investment we’ve made in developing our Oracle expertise and we’re confident that this will help drive net new business for BIAS.”

“BizTech is excited about the chance to collaborate more closely with Oracle Field Sales. This kind of commitment from Oracle makes it easy for us to put a value on our over all relationship, and especially on our investment in Oracle skills,” said Margot McDonnell, vice-president of sales and partners at Business Technology Services Inc. “We've been an Oracle partner for more than 15 years and this initiative, with Ted's guidance, is a strong message that Oracle is committed to its partners and more importantly to the customers."

Supporting Resources

Oracle Partners

Oracle PartnerNetwork Portal

Oracle PartnerNetwork Competency Center

Oracle Unveils Partner Enablement 2.0

About Oracle PartnerNetwork

Oracle PartnerNetwork is a global business network of more than 20,000 companies who deliver innovative software solutions based on Oracle software. Through access to Oracle’s premier products, education, technical services, marketing and sales support, the Oracle PartnerNetwork program provides partners with the resources they need to be successful in today’s global economy. Oracle partners are able to offer their customers leading-edge solutions backed by Oracle’s position as the world's largest enterprise software company. Partners who are able to demonstrate superior product knowledge, technical expertise and a commitment to doing business with Oracle qualify for the Certified Partner levels. http://oraclepartnernetwork.oracle.com

About Oracle

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest business software company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact Info

Carol Sato
Oracle
+1.650.633.5551
carol.sato@oracle.com

Kristin Reeves
Blanc & Otus
+1.415.856.5145
kreeves@blancandotus.com