Oracle acquires BEA, finally

ORACLE has taken another step in march toward domination of the business software market, acquiring BEA Systems after a lengthy struggle for US$8.5 billion (A$9.67 billion).

The deal brings to an end month of acrimony between the companies, after BEA had rebuffed earlier bids from Oracle. It also brings to more than US$35 billion the amount that Oracle has spent on acquisitions over the past three years.

The California-based Oracle has acquired in recent years PeopleSoft and Siebel among dozens of other smaller business software companies.

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison said the addition of BEA products and technology would enhance and extend Oracle's Fusion middleware software suite.

“Oracle Fusion middleware has an open ‘hot-pluggable’ architecture that allows customers the option of coupling BEA's WebLogic Java Server to virtually all the components of the Fusion software suite,” Mr Ellison said.

“That's just one example of how customers can choose among Oracle and BEA middleware products, knowing that those products will gracefully interoperate and be supported for years to come,” he said.

Mr Ellison said its combination with BEA gave the company a leadership position “at every level of the software stack.”

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Oracle buys Web apps specialist

BUSINESS software Goliath Oracle has acquired a Dutch software vendor Mobiforce, which specialises in monitoring the availability and performance of web applications.

Oracle said Moniforce’s technology was expected to strengthen its Enterprise Manager suite that lets application administrators to proactively detect and resolve end-user experience and application logic issues.

Moniforce boasts customer spanning key industries, including financial , retail, and government. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“The transaction underscores Oracle's strategy of lowering total cost of ownership and delivering higher quality of service for customers running packaged or custom applications in Oracle or non-Oracle environments,” said Oracle Product Development executive vice-president Chuck Rozwat.

Moniforce chief executive Willem-Jan Scholten said real end-user information was essential for improving application usage and business performance – and for lowering total cost of ownership.

“We're proud to become part of the world's largest enterprise software company and look forward to delivering solutions that maximise our customers' return on their application investments by ensuring the highest end-user satisfaction.” Mr Scholten said.

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Yarra Valley Water chooses Oracle

MELBOURNE utility Yarra Valley Water has selected an Oracle platform for a massive rip and replace billing system renewal project.

The company, which is the water and sewerage provider 1.5 million people in the Melbourne area, selected Oracle Utilities package to build a scalable new billing platform.

Yarra said its legacy billing system had grown too difficult and costly to upgrade and maintain. Coupled with changing customer demands, the legacy system could not easily accommodate changes in Yarra Valley Water's business, and persisting with it only increased business risk.

The new billing system will be built on Oracle Utilities applications to deliver the scalability and flexibility Yarra Valley Water requires in updating billing service and maintaining high standards of quality customer care.

“Accelerating our customer service from ‘good to great’ is critical to our business,” Yarra Valley Water managing director Tony Kelly said.

“We selected Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing over other competing solutions because Oracle offered the flexibility, scalability and service our company requires to effectively meet the service standards demanded by our customers while remaining cost competitive.”

Yarra Valley Water wanted a commercial-off-the-shelf billing solution that would accommodate the company's specific needs with minimal customization, thereby reducing the costs associated with implementing and maintaining the system and lowering the total cost of ownership.

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Oracle Suite release adds supply chain functions

ENTERPRISE software giant Oracle has unveiled new capabilities aimed at manufacturers within its E-Business Suite 12 that it says gives users better control and lower operating costs.

Among a series of advances, Oracle said the latest E-Business Suite release delivered capability that simplified compliance processes, increased performance for leaner, global operations.

“Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 offers many, new process-industry capabilities enabling our manufacturing customers to lower operating costs, increase efficiencies and effectively compete in today's global economy,” Oracle process manufacturing industries vice-president Doug Souza said.

It includes new collaboration-style functions to better develop and execute enterprise-wide plans, and to improve product innovation. The new release functions are especially aimed at process manufacturers, the company said.

Process manufacturers are challenged with supply chain complexities including shelf life limitations, product customisations and regulatory surveillance.

The release includes improvements to Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning software, including sequence-dependent setups, shelf life, and support for complex process routings.

A new distribution planning capability in Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning software includes support for fair share allocation, multiple inventory policies, circular sourcing, global forecasting with local allocation of supply and ship method.

Customers can use out-of-the-box integration between Oracle Process Manufacturing and Oracle Production Scheduling to pre-empt supply chain disruptions and maximise shop-floor efficiency while minimising cost, the company said.

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