Oracle 2007 Annual Report Download - page 11

Table of Contents
use and evolve their IT infrastructure instead of replacing it. The Data Integration Suite can extract data from one
system and load it into another (such as a data warehouse) and then rapidly transform the data into a new format. It
also includes technology to address data quality and data profiling.
Applications Software
Our applications software strategy is designed to provide customers with complete, integrated and open solutions for
industry business process automation, supported by a robust, standards-based technology platform. Central to that
strategy is our commitment to offer customers that purchase software license updates and product support contracts a
choice as to when they wish to upgrade to the next generation of the products they own. Until our customers reach a
decision to upgrade to the next generation of the products they own, we protect their investments in their applications
by offering them the ability to purchase software license updates and product support contracts for their existing
products. New technologies such as Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Business Intelligence Suite, and Oracle
WebCenter are designed to help customers extend the benefits of their IT investments in our applications, to reduce
their investment risk, and to support their evolution to the next generation of enterprise software that best fits their
needs.
Our applications software products combine business functionality with innovative technologies such as role-based
analytics, secure search, identity management, self-service and workflow to deliver adaptive industry processes,
business intelligence and insights, and optimal end-user productivity. Our applications software products enable
efficient management of all core business functions, including:
• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Enterprise performance management (EPM)
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
• Product lifecycle management (PLM), and
• Industry-specific applications.
Our applications software products are offered as integrated suites or available on a component basis, and all are built
on open architectures that are designed for flexible configuration and open, multi-vendor integration. Our
applications are available in multiple languages, and support a broad range of location specific requirements,
enabling companies to support both global and local business practices and legal requirements.
Oracle Application Integration Architecture provides an open, standards-based framework for creating adaptable,
cross-application business processes. For customers looking to quickly deploy integrations between Oracle
applications, Oracle Application Integration Architecture also offers packaged integrations, allowing for rapid
implementation of mission-critical business applications.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
We offer a complete set of CRM applications that manage all of the business processes and associated systems that
touch a customer, including:
• Billing and delivery;
• Sales solutions that provide a single repository for customer and supply chain information; and
• Service solutions that increase customer satisfaction by providing visibility into customer billing and order
information.
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
We offer a full spectrum of EPM applications that are open, industry-specific analytic applications with capabilities
such as interactive dashboarding and embedded analytic functionality for delivering insight across the enterprise. Our
business analytics solution is tailored to 20 industries, giving customers the ability to monitor, analyze and act upon
business intelligence while providing end-to-end visibility into a customer’s operations and financial performance.
With our acquisition of Hyperion in fiscal 2007, we added complementary products to our business
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Source: ORACLE CORP, 10-K, July 02, 2008 Powered by Morningstar® Document Research℠