Positive Response to Oracle's Commitment

Customers Respond Positively to Oracle's Commitment to JD Edwards - Continuous investment in JD Edwards Products drives customer adoption in New Zealand -

Organisations in New Zealand are responding positively to Oracle's commitment to Oracle's JD Edwards applications, demonstrated by net new customers as well as customers upgrading their pre-acquisition deployments. Renewed focus on the JD Edwards' user community, combined with commitments to support and develop the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne as part of Oracle's "Applications Unlimited" programme has revived this highly respected application suite.

The significant growth of new customer adoption of JD Edwards products represents the culmination of Oracle's efforts in the past 12 months to bring back the JD Edwards brand in New Zealand and to lead its manufacturing and distribution go-to-market strategy with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. A significant focus for Oracle has been on building a strong partner network ? via the Oracle PartnerNetwork ? for JD Edwards through relationships with Fusion5, Deloitte, Ndevr and HP.

"The JD Edwards' user community in New Zealand continues to grow not only from new customer adoption, but from existing customers who remain loyal to the brand and have made the decision to upgrade," said Callum Ross, general manager of applications, Oracle New Zealand. "JD Edwards is widely recognised as the leading world-class enterprise application. We, together with our partners, are fully committed to extending and evolving the solution into the future."

In New Zealand, recent JD Edwards' customer adoption includes Skope Industries, Tenix, Downer EDI and Ngai Tahu. Customers who have recently renewed their investment in JD Edwards and upgraded to later versions of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne include Auckland International Airport, SPEL, Tru-Test, Open Polytechnic, Westfield and PGG Wrightson.

Tenix Alliance New Zealand, one of the leading providers of construction and asset management services to the utilities sector, recently implemented JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. Following Tenix Alliance's acquisition of Powerco Energy Services business late last year, the company needed to separate its core business services from the previous company owner.

Andy Lynn, Information Technology Manager at Tenix Alliance explained, "JD Edwards EnterpriseOne was selected to provide a cost-effective integrated business solution. We need a combined platform that allows us to provide a consistent level of service to customers. With the support of Fusion5, we have deployed JD Edwards EnterpriseOne on time and without any disruptions to the business."

MidCentral District Health Board also remains a committed Oracle customer and has recently added five JD Edwards Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) modules ? Procurement, Inventory Management, Contract Management, Sales Order Processing and Requisition Self Service ? to its existing JD Edwards World product suite.

According to Brian Woolley, manager of MidCentral District Health Board's Information Systems, the benefits are expected to be numerous. "The upgrade will provide us with tighter inventory management and sales order processes, better management reporting and raise productivity and efficiency across the organisation," said Mr Woolley. "JD Edwards is an integral part of MidCentral District Health Board's IT systems and we are well placed to be able to take advantage of future JD Edwards applications."

Today, JD Edwards' customers have a clear understanding of Oracle's strategy moving forward and can be assured that with Oracle's lifetime support and development commitments, there's a safeguard for the lifespan of the solution.

Daniel Strassberg, chairman of the ANZ Quest User Group commented, "There have been three major moves by Oracle to strengthen the JD Edwards user community which had floundered during PeopleSoft's rein. We have seen a continual increase in new membership since June 2005 and many members are upgrading to the new releases or plan to do so in the near future. As a result of this considerable re-investment, the relationship between Oracle and the Quest User group is going from strength to strength."

"Oracle has embraced the passion of the user group community and has harvested this energy into creating an open, independent working society. This society is headed by customers and users where Oracle does the listening rather than the leading," Mr Strassberg said.

In April this year, Oracle announced the availability of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12 in New Zealand. The new release helps organisations lower the total cost of ownership by simplifying the deployment and management activities of a JD Edwards EnterpriseOne implementation.

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12 is also certified on Oracle Middleware. Organisations can now use products such as Oracle Containers for J2EE, Oracle BPEL Process Manager, Oracle Identity Management and Oracle Portal, to support their entire enterprise including business applications, custom applications and standards-based enterprise services.

If organisations remain with existing Oracle Applications, Oracle's Applications Unlimited programme gives them the reassurance that their Oracle, Siebel, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards applications will be supported with dedicated, world-class development and support for years to come. Applications Unlimited is driven by Oracle's commitment to protecting customers' investment. Additionally, Oracle's Lifetime Support Policy covers the entire technology environment, from database to middleware to applications, an industry first, only from Oracle, and puts customers in control of their upgrade strategy.

ENDS

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