Upcoming Support Seminars and User Group Meetings

Highlights

· Oracle Buys Primavera

· Oracle’s Launches Beehive

Inside

· Cloud Computing

· Upcoming Support Seminars and User Group Meetings

The Chronicle

The Newsletter • November 2008

Oracle Buys Primvera!

Creates First, Comprehensive Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Solution for Project-Intensive Industries

5 The CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 2008

Redwood Shores, CA – October 8, 2008

Today, Oracle announced it has agreed to acquire Primavera Software, Inc., a leading provider of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solutions, to accelerate its momentum in delivering mission-critical operational applications.

Primavera’s PPM software helps companies propose, prioritize and select project investments, and plan, manage and control the most complex projects and project portfolios.

Together with Oracle’s applications and infrastructure software, Oracle expects to provide the first comprehensive enterprise project portfolio management solution that helps companies allocate the best resources, reduce costs, meet delivery dates and ultimately make better decisions, all by using real-time data.

Oracle Enterprise PPM will be tailored to project-intensive industries such as engineering and construction, aerospace and defense, utilities, oil and gas, manufacturing, and professional services.

Primavera employees and management are expected to join Oracle to form a global business unit (GBU) focused on Enterprise PPM, and to help ensure a smooth transition for Primavera customers and partners. Primavera’s CEO Joel Koppelman is expected to lead the business unit as Senior Vice President and General Manager.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second half of 2008. Until the deal closes, each company will continue to operate independently. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

"Enterprise PPM is moving to the forefront of business strategy for industries managing complex and capital intensive projects, and has emerged as a global driver for value creation and business success," said Oracle President Charles Phillips. “With 20% of the world’s GDP spent annually on projects, the addition of Primavera is expected to extend Oracle’s leadership position in the enterprise application space.”

“As a leader in PPM solutions with over 25 years experience helping customers succeed at managing projects, programs and portfolios, Primavera is a natural addition to accelerate Oracle’s application strategy for project-intensive industries,” said Primavera CEO Joel Koppelman. “We are excited to join Oracle as a new global business unit where we can ensure continuity and success for our current and prospective customers and partners.”

Delivers the Only Complete and Open Platform for Integrated and Secure Collaboration

Oracle Launches Oracle® Beehive

Oracle OpenWorld, San Francisco – September 22, 2008

News Facts

To help organizations secure communications and add collaboration into business processes, Oracle today unveiled Oracle Beehive.

A comprehensive, open-standards based enterprise collaboration platform, Oracle Beehive delivers integrated team workspaces, calendar, instant messaging, and e-mail.

Early adopters and partners are enthusiastic about the benefits Oracle Beehive brings to the enterprise. [see related release, “Customers and Partners Buzzing About Oracle Beehive”]

Today’s announcement supports Oracle’s strategy of delivering complete, integrated and end-to-end product suites on an open, standards-based middleware and database architecture. Oracle’s approach helps customers to simplify computing environments, lower cost and risk, and provides greater choice and flexibility.

Addressing Two Unmet Needs in Enterprise Collaboration - Secure Collaboration and Collaboration within Enterprise Processes

By using a unified object model and taking advantage of the security capabilities in the Oracle Database, Oracle Beehive provides a centralized, secure and auditable collaboration platform that helps organizations reduce the cost and complexity of regulatory compliance and legal discovery.

Oracle Beehive’s integrated services and open hot-pluggable architecture enable organizations to embed collaboration directly into existing business applications and processes. As a result, users can invoke Oracle Beehive’s collaboration services from within applications and a broad range of client interfaces.

Oracle Beehive helps extend IT investments and simplify administration by leveraging existing infrastructure, such as standards-based authentication, role-based access control, and privacy tools.

Availability and Support

Oracle Beehive software is generally available now.

The software can be deployed on premise and is available through Oracle On Demand.

Oracle Customer Services provides complete coverage of Oracle Beehive with the world's leading portfolio of IT lifecycle-based service and support offerings. Oracle Customer Services is focused on helping customers maximize their success with Oracle solutions while lowering the total cost of ownership through continued advances in providing personalized, proactive support and knowledge management capabilities.

Oracle Unveils New Cloud Computing Products and Services

Customers Can Use Amazon Web Services to Run Oracle Software and Backup Data

Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco, CA - September 22, 2008

To help customers benefit from the economies of Cloud Computing, Oracle today announced that customers can license Oracle® Database 11g, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Enterprise Manager to run in a cloud computing environment. The first products will be available for Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) environment. Customers can also use their existing software licenses on Amazon EC2 with no additional license fees.

Enabling customers to deploy Oracle solutions on Amazon EC2 quickly and efficiently, Oracle is delivering a set of free Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). Using Oracle provided AMIs, new virtual machines can be provisioned with Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Enterprise Linux fully configured and ready to use within minutes. Developers can take advantage of the provisioning and automated software deployment to rapidly build applications using Oracle’s popular development tools such as Oracle Application Express, Oracle JDeveloper, Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse and Oracle Workshop for WebLogic.

Additionally, Oracle Unbreakable Linux Support and Amazon Premium support is available for Oracle Enterprise Linux on EC2 providing seamless customer support:

Oracle is also introducing a secure Cloud-based backup solution. Oracle Secure Backup Cloud Module, based on Oracle’s premier tape backup management software, Oracle Secure Backup, enables customers to use the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) as their database backup destination. Cloud-based backups offer reliability and virtually unlimited capacity, available on-demand and with no up-front capital expenditure. The Oracle Secure Backup Cloud Module also enables encrypted data backups to help ensure complete privacy in the Cloud environment. It’s fully integrated with Oracle Recovery Manager and Oracle Enterprise Manager, providing users with familiar interfaces for Cloud-based backups.

For customers with an ongoing need to quickly move very large volumes of data into or out of the AWS cloud, Amazon today allows the creation of network peering connections. Oracle and Amazon are also working on solutions that will enable cost effective, high volume backups and restores, even in network-bandwidth constrained environments, by means of physical import and export.

Advisor Webcasts

Advisor Webcasts bring expert information about services, products, and technologies straight to your desktop through Oracle Web Conferencing.

Upcoming EBS/GRC/AppsServer Advisor Webcasts:

None scheduled for the month of November.

Upcoming JDE E1 Advisor Webcasts:

None scheduled for the month of November.

Upcoming JDE World Advisor Webcasts:

None scheduled for the month of November.

Upcoming PeopleSoft Enterprise Advisor Webcasts:

Title: PeopleSoft Enterprise 1099 Update for 2008 - Get Your Copy B's Out On Time!

November 13

11:00 a.m. (MST)

View summary

For more information and to register, please go to: http://www.oracle.com/support/seminars.html

and select the appropriate product line.

Support Update

OracleMetaLink 3: Essential Training Now Available for Customer Connection Users

The retirement of PeopleSoft, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, and JD Edwards World Customer Connection support portal, and the related transition to OracleMetaLink 3, is scheduled for the weekend of November 7-9, 2008. Prepare for the upcoming transition by enrolling in a free live Internet Seminar detailing the essentials of registration, personalization and navigation. A full list of available Internet Seminar dates and times can be accessed from the Customer Connection Transition Information site. Training will include the following topics:

· Changes for Customer Connection Users

· MetaLink 3 New Account Registration, Log In, and Tour

· Customer User Administration

· Personalizing Your Home Page

· Service Request Management

· Understanding the Knowledge base

· Bugs, Patches and Product Updates

To facilitate a smooth transition, we recommend that you complete the training prior to the transition weekend. We're confident you will experience more efficient use of your online support tools and resources as a result of this training.

It is important to forward this information to any additional employees within your company who would benefit from OracleMetaLink 3 training. If you are unable to attend a live Internet Seminar, you may access the recorded training modules from the Customer Connection Transition Information site.

For additional information, please visit the Customer Connection Transition frequently asked questions or e-mail questions to .

Upcoming events

IOUG Boot Camp Seminar
Presented in partnership with National Capital Oracle Users Group
November 6, 2008

Reston, Va

Register today for the IOUG Boot Camp Seminar, taking place November 6, 2008, in Reston, VA. Sponsored in part by the National Capital Oracle Users Group (NAT-CAP OUG), this is a unique opportunity to receive in-depth, focused Oracle technical knowledge and network with fellow Oracle users near you. Benefit from top-notch education without spending a long time away from the office or having to travel across the country!

Zen and the Art of Database Tuning
Speaker: Michael Ault
In this one day seminar, the attendee will be shown many SQL and Database tuning techniques. From proper table and partitioning design through the proper selection of indexes for a specific database and SQL type to database and OS specific including RAC will be covered. Demonstrations will accompany the lecture to illustrate the techniques covered.

About NATCAP-OUG

National Capital Oracle User Group (NATCAP-OUG or NATCAP for short, at www.natcapoug.org) is the only official WDC/VA/MD area Oracle user group meeting on a monthly or quarterly basis. NATCAP covers all aspects of Oracle, including DBA, Design, Development, Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence, E-Business, and Oracle Applications/ERP, as well as third party tools which leverage Oracle server, middleware, or other technologies.

MEETINGS typically occur on the first or third Wednesday or Thursday of the month. Usual location is at the big Oracle Corporation building with the small DOME on it in Reston, VA (see below) –– the building is visible from Dulles Toll Road (267) off the Reston Parkway exit North. NATCAP-OUG has hosted other locations (e.g. Rockville, Maryland), and over the next year will try to better accommodate Maryland and WDC folks.

To for more information, see meeting schedules or become a member go to:

http://natcapoug.org/sst_NATCAPOUG/

Advisor Webcasts: New R12 Product Features

Metalink Note: 744894.1

The Oracle Advisor Webcast program brings interactive expertise straight to your desktop using Oracle Web Conferencing technology. This technology brings you and Oracle experts together to access information about support services, products, technologies, best practices and more. Oracle support customers can find these Oracle Advisor Webcasts via the various Oracle Support applications like MetaLink and Customer Connection.

Welcome to the Oracle Advisor Webcast Program! provides an overview of the global program and links to further Oracle Advisor Webcasts.

To learn more about the method of our Advisor Webcast or the interpretation of the schedule please read:

Advisor Webcasts: User Guide for participants

Advisor Webcasts: How to find the right session for my time zone

To add extended value, the Oracle Advisor Webcast program also includes seminars about new R12 product features designed to help you efficiently leverage your business processes. Each session is provided by a devloper, conducted live and includes an open question and answer session at the end of each presentation.

The following list provides a summary of the available Advisor

Webcasts about new R12 product features:

R12 Financials Upgrade

What to expect when upgrading to Release 12, new upgrade architecture, best practices and how to manage a successful upgrade.

Speaker - Matt Halliday, Applications Architect

Schedule:

Wednesday November 5

11:00 AM ET

R12 Payables

New features in Oracle Payables and things you should be aware of when planning your payables upgrade or implementation.

Speaker - Simer Sahani, Senior Product Strategy Manager

Schedule:

Wednesday November 12

11:00 AM ET

R12 Close Process & Reconciliation

Changes to the financials period close process as well as how Oracle Subledger Accounting and new Release 12 reports help improve the reconciliation process between subledgers and general ledger.

Speaker - Helle Hennings, Product Strategy Director

Schedule:

Wednesday November 19

11:00 AM ET

R12 Payments

New features in Oracle Payments and upgrade considerations to help you streamline your inbound and outbound payment process.

Speaker - Annette Dall, Principal Product Strategy Manager or Elise Mattei, Product Strategy Director

Schedule:

Wednesday December 10

11:00 AM ET

Support seminars –

Working effectively with support

Learn how to save time by partnering with Oracle Support. Get details on leveraging your support investment, customer best practices, and an introduction to MetaLink or Customer Connection -- Oracle Support Services' premier web tool that enables you to be more self-sufficient.

Metalink: the seminar is offered next on :

Wed, Nov 26 8:00 AM

To register, please access Metalink Note ID 418294.1.

Customer Connection (PSFT): the seminar is offered next on :

None offered in Nov at this time

Customer Connection (JDE): the seminar is offered next on:

Mon, Nov 17 10:00 am

To register, please access Customer Connection.

6 The CHRONICLE nOVEMBER 2008