Oracle and Macromedia announce partnership

Oracle and Macromedia Partner to Drive Next Phase of Enterprise Learning

New Content Resource Centre Helps Companies Increase E-Learning Effectiveness and ROI

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - July 16, 2004 - Oracle Corp. and Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) announced a partnership to improve integration between Macromedia products and Oracle's learning management system. The partnership will help make it significantly easier for companies to develop rich training content and publish it across the enterprise for immediate impact and maximum ROI.

Leading organisations are already using technologies from both companies as a foundation for e-learning initiatives. "America West required a learning infrastructure that enabled us to deploy course materials from a number of different sources, including our own subject matter experts as well as third-party sources," said Tony Willis, director of Training and Development at America West. "Combining the strength of Macromedia's content tools and Oracle's learning management system, we can remove all the barriers to creating rich content and gaining access to the content."

Oracle's new Content Resource Centre, supported by Macromedia, allows companies to develop, share and publish content using Macromedia products, including Macromedia Breeze and Oracle iLearning, an enterprise learning management system that provides a complete infrastructure for organisations to manage, deliver and track training participation in online or classroom-based environments. Joint customers using the Content Resource Centre have direct access to Macromedia products and Oracle iLearning, in addition to resources describing industry standards and best practices for learning content development and publishing.

A recent study conducted by Bersin & Associates, a leading provider of research and consulting services in e-learning technology and implementation, found that 71 percent of learning management customers continue to face problems with content integration. "We are now in the pragmatic phase of e-learning -- when most organisations want their investments to pay off rapidly," said Josh Bersin, president and founder of Bersin & Associates. "Despite the existence of standards, however, content integration remains a major issue. As a partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork, Macromedia is able to leverage Oracle resources and expertise that in turn will help developers and large training organisations make sure that high quality content is tested, certified and supported to run on industry standard platforms like Oracle iLearning."

Content Interoperability and Community Access Oracle and Macromedia's learning expertise and engaged user communities will help improve the interoperability between content creation and deployment systems -- a continuing challenge for companies trying to create and publish content using various tools and infrastructures. By facilitating interoperability between Oracle iLearning, Macromedia Breeze and content created using other Macromedia products (such as Macromedia Flash, Authorware and RoboDemo), the companies are making it easier to realise the benefits of online learning.

The Oracle and Macromedia partnership continues the companies' leadership in the application of standards for online learning technology. Both companies support the major industry standards, including Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC), IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS) and Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), enabling customers to achieve long-term returns on their e-learning investments.

The Content Resource Centre will also provide access to a joint content community site to help enterprises find developers experienced in delivering learning solutions. In addition, Oracle and Macromedia are expanding the Content Resource Centre community by providing users with access to their partner networks, the Oracle PartnerNetwork and the Macromedia Alliance partner program, respectively.

The Content Resource Centre will assist enterprises to ensure that their content suppliers can interoperate with open standards-based technology. Suppliers of online learning content will also gain access to enterprise-class learning management systems and an opportunity to showcase their content as members of the content community.

"Brookwood Media Arts uses Macromedia products to create and deliver great learning experiences for enterprise clients including FedEx, Boeing and Air Products," said Jacqueline D. Beck, vice president of e-learning, Brookwood Media Arts. "With Macromedia and Oracle working together, our clients will have a more robust solution that will enable them to more effortlessly measure results and return on investment for their e-learning efforts."

"Macromedia and Oracle are working together to advance the state of e-learning authoring and delivery through more efficient authoring, better tracking and return on investment, and a deeper commitment to open standards and interoperability," said Kevin M. Lynch, vice president, Macromedia. "By working with the strong developer community and broad line of rich, interactive content creation tools from Macromedia and Oracle's enterprise learning management system, we are starting from an amazing vantage point to move the industry forward."

ENDS

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