1. Pre-market bid is 50 9/16.
2. Oracle and IBM Offer Integrated Enterprise Application
Offerings for Mid-Sized Manufacturing Firms
PR Newswire - January 19, 1999 08:14
Solutions Combine Oracle's Industry-Leading Manufacturing and Financial Applications with Rapid
Implementation by IBM Global Services
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) today
announced turnkey enterprise application solutions for mid-market process and discrete
manufacturers with rapid deployment using IBM's (NYSE: IBM) SMOOTH Implementation
Services for Oracle(R) Applications. These complete offerings, created specifically for manufacturers
with annual U.S. revenue between $50 million and $500 million, feature Oracle's manufacturing and
award-winning financial applications running on IBM Corp.'s Netfinity and RS/6000 servers to help
streamline business processes and improve customer service.
Mid-sized manufacturers, both process and discrete, are faced with enormous competitive pressures,
including the need to decrease inventory and supplier costs, make faster decisions and better
integrate business operations. These new offerings can help manufacturers quickly implement Oracle
Applications, which in turn can help them reduce cycle time and inventory investment while improving
their responsiveness to customers and managing Year 2000 issues.
Process manufacturers, who have to contend with variability in raw material quality attributes as well
as manufacturing processes that often involve chemical reactions with multiple outputs, require a
formula-based solution dedicated to their unique needs. Oracle Process Manufacturing, helps tame
variability by tightly integrating all departments -- from manufacturing to financial accounting -- so
process manufacturers can better track inventory and available resources. Process manufacturers,
which represent about 40% of all manufacturing worldwide, use Oracle Applications to help achieve
significant value, including more consistent product quality, lower manufacturing and supply-chain
costs and superior customer service.
IBM Global Services will deliver rapid implementation services to help companies rapidly and
cost-effectively take advantage of Oracle Applications. As part of IBM's ERP Solution Series, IBM
intends to provide performance protection for Oracle Applications to ensure their customers' return
on investment.
"Mid-sized manufacturing firms are increasingly faced with growing competition and shrinking
margins," said Laurent Pacalin, vice president of Oracle's Mid-Market Business Solutions. "Together,
Oracle and IBM are producing turnkey solutions to offer discrete and process manufacturers the
ability to leapfrog the competition while lowering their total cost of ownership."
"Our mid-sized customers have requested integrated packages for their manufacturing applications,"
said Ronald Hitter, IBM's Industrial Sector Small and Medium Business segment executive for the
Americas. "The combined Oracle/IBM integrated solution with its rapid implementation approach will
help them quickly and cost-effectively get up and running. In addition, to protect our customers'
investments, IBM intends to provide performance protection for Oracle Financials(R) and other
modules in the future at no extra charge."
Configured for 50-, 75-, and 100-users, both offerings include Oracle Financials, consisting of
Oracle General Ledger, Oracle Payables, Oracle Assets, Oracle Purchasing and Oracle Receivables.
Each solution also has the Oracle Applications modules for:
-- Discrete Manufacturing: Oracle Bill of Material, Oracle Capacity,
Oracle Cost Management, Oracle Engineering, Oracle Inventory, Oracle
Master Scheduling/MRP, Oracle Work In Process and Oracle Order Entry;
and,
-- Process Manufacturing: Systems, Formula Management, Inventory
Management, Purchasing Management, Sales Management, Quality
Management, Material Requirements Planning (MRP), Master Production
Scheduling (MPS), Cost Management, Production Management and
Manufacturing Accounting Controller.
Customers may choose IBM's Netfinity servers for cost-effective Intel-based servers or IBM's
high-end, UNIX-based RS/6000 servers for these offerings. IBM's platforms ship complete with
Lotus Domino and Lotus Domino Connector for Oracle (initially available for discrete
manufacturers). Financing is also available from IBM Global Finance.
Availability
The Oracle/IBM offerings for process and discrete manufacturers are scheduled to be generally
available in Q1 1999.
3. FTI Reports Breakthrough Year and Record Growth
Business Wire - January 19, 1999 08:56
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 1999--Financial
Technologies International (FTI) announced today that in 1998, the
financial industry adopted FTI software at a record pace.
Over 20 top financial institutions and Web financial portals licensed
FTI products for strategic data management and real-time processing.
As a result, revenue grew by 58%.
The FTI customer base now includes industry leaders from across the
financial services spectrum, around the world. Top firms in the
Retail/Web Banking & Brokerage, Mutual Fund, Trust/Private
Banking, Investment Management and Insurance, Capital
Markets/Institutional Brokerage, Global Custody/Institutional Trust,
and International Securities Clearing Depository segments have
adopted FTI's architecture as the means for managing their data and
consolidating their processing. "In 1998 companies in all of these
businesses adopted our products, establishing FTI as the industry
standard. Plus, our exceptional revenue growth was accomplished
without incurring most of the incremental costs typically required for
such rapid market penetration," said Predrag Dizdarevic, FTI
President and Chief Operating Officer.
FTI's professional services organization completed over 30 customer
engagements in 1998, serving customers throughout the United States,
United Kingdom, Europe, Eastern Europe and Canada. Over 40 new
employees joined FTI in 1998, significantly expanding the company's
technical, sales and marketing resources. New sales and support
offices opened this year in London and San Francisco, and FTI
relocated its headquarters to modern new facilities in New York's
financial district.
During the second quarter Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) became both a
strategic investor and customer of FTI. "We discovered a strategic
platform and decided to invest," said Bill Harris, Intuit CEO. FTI and
Intuit developers are working together on new highly scalable
network-enabled architectures for consolidating financial information
for consumers. Further details will be disclosed at a later date.
The Box(tm) Universal Financial Server, introduced this year, is a
real-time consolidation platform that provides Straight-Through
Information(SM). This product as well as the Global Financial Data
Model (GFDM(R)), and Real(R) product suite have proven their
functional and technical superiority. In an independent study, a major
financial institution enlisted a group of third party consultants,
hardware and software vendors to perform real world scalability tests
of FTI market data consolidation software. FTI passed these tests on
an enterprise repository of 3.5 million securities comfortably exceeding
throughput expectations. The tests were performed utilizing an Oracle
(NASDAQ:ORCL) database running on a SUN Microsystems
(NASDAQ:SUNW) Solaris platform.
The success of FTI's market data consolidation software has led to
the creation of real-time links to several market data feed vendors
including Reuters (Nasdaq: RTRSY), Bloomberg, Fidelity Action
Service and others.
In 1998, FTI and Oracle agreed to join in sales and development
efforts to combine the real-time consolidation capabilities of The
Box(tm) with the rich functionality of the Oracle General Ledger
product suite and Oracle's global sales and services organization. This
joint effort provides the market with the first and only general ledger to
have integrated roll up and drill down capabilities with ongoing
securities trading and settlement activities.
"With new customers, products, employees and partners, FTI is
looking forward to continued market momentum, growth and success
in 1999," said Predrag Dizdarevic, FTI President and Chief Operating
Officer.
About FTI
Headquartered in New York City, Financial Technologies
International (FTI) offers its clients extensive experience in both
financial operations and advanced technologies. FTI's Global Financial
Data Model (GFDM(R)), the Real(R) integrated back office solution,
and The Box(tm) Universal Financial Server are used today by top
international banks, brokers, investment managers, mutual funds,
insurance companies, investment banks and depositories. Collectively,
FTI customers are responsible for the management, trading, or
custody of over $6 trillion in global investments. FTI maintains
technology and marketing alliances with global leaders in database
technology, systems integration services and distributed computing.
For more information about FTI, please visit ftintl.com.
InSook |
