Oracle Executives Report the Company is Halfway through the Oracle Fusion Applications Development Process

Oracle(R) Marks a Year of Success, Details Milestones for Oracle Fusion Architecture and Oracle Fusion Applications
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. 18-JAN-2006 At an event today hosted by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in San Francisco’s City Hall, Oracle provided a progress report and outlined the next level of detail for Oracle(R) Fusion Architecture and Oracle Fusion Applications. Executives from the world’s largest enterprise software company reaffirmed their commitment to the company’s diverse customer base and further defined the roadmap for new functionality that will help customers prepare for the upgrade to Oracle Fusion Applications.
“We are already halfway through the development process of Oracle Fusion Applications, and we remain on track for the 2008 target delivery of the Oracle Fusion Applications,” said Oracle President Charles Phillips. “Our customers and partners participating on the Fusion Customer Council have been enthusiastic about the significant progress we’ve made in such a short period of time. We have defined Oracle Fusion Architecture, certified all Oracle applications on our world-class Oracle Fusion Middleware, which includes a set of mature tools that are being used to develop the Oracle Fusion applications. Additionally, we have defined the data model and mapped the functionality that is planned for future releases of Oracle Fusion Applications.”

“We have engaged our customer base in the Fusion development process, and feel confident that 80% of our customers will be able to upgrade to Oracle Fusion Applications and can plan to find functionality they had in earlier application versions, as well as new features coming from other applications,” Phillips continued.

On the Path to Fusion
Oracle Senior Vice President of Applications Development John Wookey detailed new functionality Oracle plans for release in 2006 that will lay the groundwork for customers who choose to upgrade to Oracle Fusion Applications. Wookey discussed a Web Services Repository intended to help customers integrate disparate systems in a standards-based way, define business processes in their existing applications and easily develop extensions. Leveraging the Web Services Repository, customers could build custom composite applications using Oracle Portal or any JSR168 compliant portal. Oracle BPEL Process Manager will be able to leverage the Web Services Repository to design and implement standards-based adaptable business processes. Additionally, the Web Services Repository helps expose the integration points of Oracle Fusion Applications.

Wookey discussed new reporting capabilities that utilize Oracle XML Publisher and can be used with the existing Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise or JD Edwards EnterpriseOne applications. The new library of reports is scheduled to be available for download in 2006, and will augment existing reporting capabilities. These are the same reports that are planned for release with Oracle Fusion Applications, giving customers a chance to move a key element of their business and applications system to the Oracle Fusion structure.

Finally, Wookey discussed the work the company has done to help ease the upgrade to Oracle Fusion Applications. “We’ve already developed the upgrade architecture and will begin working with a customer advisory board later this year to help us determine the best ways to automate and ease the upgrade process. A key priority is for us to make the upgrade as automated as possible, and to reduce cost and downtime,” Wookey continued.

Protecting Existing Investments: New Releases of Current Applications
Wookey reiterated Oracle’s commitment to protecting customers’ current investment by continually developing enhanced versions of Oracle applications in 2006: Oracle E-Business Suite 12, PeopleSoft Enterprise 9 and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12. In 2007, a new version of JD Edwards World is planned. Additionally, in future releases, customers will begin to see the benefits of Oracle Fusion functionality designed to streamline their eventual upgrade to Oracle Fusion Applications.

Oracle Fusion Architecture
Oracle Senior Vice President of Server Technologies Thomas Kurian detailed Oracle Fusion Architecture, Oracle’s standards-based technology blueprint for Service-Oriented Architecture-based enterprise solutions, and the benefits of Oracle Fusion Middleware. Organizations that build and deploy systems built on Oracle Fusion Architecture will be able to realize key benefits from extending their current investments by easily adding and integrating new functionality, and reducing total Information Technology (IT) ownership costs. Oracle Fusion Architecture is based on three IT trends that provide business value to customers, including:

* Service-Oriented Architecture - which enables flexible business applications and processes.
* Enterprise Information Architecture - which provides comprehensive business intelligence.
* Grid Computing Architecture - which allows deployment and management of all key infrastructure components that power business applications: databases, middleware and storage on low-cost hardware and storage.

Kurian also summarized the key benefits of Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle’s highly popular family of middleware software that simplifies the development, deployment, integration and management of applications. Available today in its seventh major release, Oracle Fusion Middleware is the technology infrastructure that powers Oracle Fusion Applications and has been broadly adopted by a customer base of more than 28,500. Oracle Fusion Middleware is also supported by a growing ecosystem of 4,500 partners, which includes 2,500 ISVs and more than 28,500 consultants.

Customers who have been using Oracle Fusion Middleware will continue to be able to:
* Integrate Oracle applications in heterogeneous environments;
* Improve business agility with flexible business processes;
* Improve corporate performance with better business intelligence;
* Improve business productivity with enterprise portals and desktop integration; and
* Lower total cost of ownership with Grid computing and Oracle Identity Management.

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

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Karen Tillman

Oracle

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