APPLICATIONS

In an effort to make its enterprise applications accessible to more companies by broadening the distribution, Oracle today announced that effective immediately, select Oracle partners will resell Oracle applications in geographies they serve. These Oracle partners will sell Oracle E-Business Suite Special Edition North America, a package of pre- configured enterprise business applications that can be delivered through low cost, low risk implementations. As a part of this announcement, Oracle will work with its partners to develop a channel that enables them to sell Oracle applications into key market segments. Long Standing Partnerships Oracle is in the process of signing partners who will sell Oracle applications and early entrants include Abaris, Baytree, Core Services Corporation, Dynamic Information Systems, Lucidity Consulting Group, oto Global Solutions, Vertex Systems, Wave Consulting Group and Whitbread Technology Partners. The partners will leverage local expertise to sell Oracle applications to new customers. "We have built a strong, profitable business as a Certified Oracle Partner for the past 10 years and have worked closely with Oracle as it refines its partner strategy. We've already completed our first Special Edition deal with a new Oracle customer, Amerlux, and believe today's announcement creates great opportunity for partners and Oracle alike," said Keith Inouye, vice president of Sales at Core Services Corporation, Certified Partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork. "Throughout the entire process, we have been incredibly impressed with Oracle's willingness to listen to our feedback. Oracle clearly understands the value of partners and the expertise we bring to the table." "Over the past five years Whitbread has gained a preferred implementer status with Oracle by working very hard to make Oracle's customers successful, leveraging the Oracle applications suite to improve efficiencies and competitive position in the markets they serve. We expect that the opportunity to be part of Oracle's applications sales arm will help us drive down the total cost of selling and implementing the Oracle applications. This will enable us to expand our business and is a win-win for both Oracle and Whitbread, and -- most importantly -- our customers," said Joel D'Arcy, president of Whitbread Technology Partners, Certified Advantage Partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork. Partners participating in the program will have Oracle PartnerNetwork membership as well as demand generation experience and success with Oracle applications customer implementations. Expanded Oracle Support for Partners Partners will have access to additional selling resources, including sales consultants, demo centers and executive briefing centers. Each Oracle partner will be paired with sales representatives from Oracle Direct, Oracle's internal telephone sales organization, to provide inside sales support including proof of concept and sales consulting capabilities. To help ensure a partner's readiness to sell, implement and service Oracle applications, Oracle has also developed a wide-ranging curriculum of training courses for its partners. Oracle will offer partners more than 30 classes to train partners on all facets of the customer experience, including sales, implementation and technical support. Oracle will also aid partners with demand generation to help drive sales of Oracle applications. In addition to partners having access to standard Oracle E-Business Suite collateral, Oracle will also provide partner specific collateral on Oracle E-Business Suite Special Edition North America. "Oracle's partner community has long been an important source of knowledge, expertise, demand generation and sales for Oracle," said Charles Phillips, president, Oracle Corp. "By allowing select qualified partners to sell Oracle business applications, we hope to tap our partners' local credibility and trust to expand the reach of the Oracle E-Business Suite while generating more revenue for both Oracle and its partners."