CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
24 July 2007
Company News
Oracle Launches R&D Network for Asia Pacific & Japan
Oracle announced that it has formed a single research and development (R&D) network by linking its 19 development and solution centers in Asia Pacific and Japan to build, test, and showcase leading-edge technology innovations across the region. To date, Oracle has six Oracle Asia Research and Development Centers (OARDC) in Beijing (China), Gurgaon (India), Seoul (Korea), Shenzhen (China), Singapore, and Tokyo (Japan), and 13 solution centers placed strategically across the Asia Pacific region. These centers focus on developing cutting-edge solutions for the local markets in addition to contributing to global product development.
"This new collaboration will significantly enhance our Asia Pacific innovation development process and ultimately benefit our customers and partners in this region," said Kevin Walsh, chief technology officer, Oracle Asia Pacific & Japan. "With all sides of the globe participating and contributing to technology solutions, our customers will gain access to some of the most cutting-edge IT projects in the world. Customers and partners will also be able to collaborate with Oracle's vast R&D network to apply new thinking in the way software can be used to stimulate global growth and innovation in any industry or country."
The OARDCs engage in research, requirements analysis, prototyping and architecture design with the ultimate aim of solving a specific problem through the delivery of a product. Products can be new features or enhancements on existing products or entirely new products, which are sold either globally or regionally. The OARDCs focus on four main areas: product development, solution development, strategic projects, and partner enablement:
Product Development -- feature developments on new and existing products, requirements analysis, deliverables (software and documentation), product testing and product lifecycle management.
Solution Development -- emerging technology product research, existing product feature enhancement and new product development activities, bringing local or industry-specific solutions to market.
Strategic Projects -- direct customer engagement to support complex or challenging implementations of existing products, or to define new solutions/products and showcase the initial deployments. The scope of these efforts is usually at a national or municipal level.
Partner Enablement -- joint projects with strategic hardware and software partners to bring new solutions to market.
Oracle's solution centers operate as Centers of Expertise, Centers of Excellence, Competency Centers, or Partner Solution Centers and are strategically placed across the region to both represent local requirements and showcase innovative solutions from the OARDCs to the markets they are based in. The focus of the solutions centers vary in terms of industry and market focus, with many dedicated to country-specific projects of national importance.
Oracle engineers use remote collaboration technology and methodologies to enable joint software development between the centers. Customers are invited to visit the nearest development or solution center to see demonstrations of the newest innovations across the regional R&D network.
The Asia Pacific & Japan R&D network is also linked into the global Oracle Development Centers worldwide. Oracle recently reported an investment of US$ 2.2 billion on global research and development during its full fiscal year 2007, a 17% increase from the previous year in fiscal 2006.
10 Years of Global Innovation in Asia Pacific & Japan
Oracle has steadily built its R&D capabilities in the region over the last 10 years, starting with its inaugural offshore global development center in Bangalore in 1994 -- also notable for being only the second offshore development center in India at that time.
Oracle now has two global development centers in India -- Bangalore and Hyderabad -- that focus on developing Oracle products for the global market and together constitute the company's largest development base outside the United States. The OARDC India at Gurgaon, in contrast, will focus on developing innovations to address specific customer requirements in India.
The centre will also work with Oracle's Gurgaon-based Partner Solution Centre, working with strategic partners on joint innovations to the India marketplace.
The opening of the OARDCs in Beijing and Shenzhen in 2002 and 2003, respectively, marked the beginning of the company's commitment to developing local solutions in Asia Pacific.
"Our centers in China began as a way to help address local solution gaps in the China market. Since then, our development expertise has risen tremendously and the China centers are involved in both local and global development projects. China in many ways serves as the hub of our R&D network in the Asia Pacific region," Walsh said.
Solutions currently under development at the OARDCs include:
Embedded Technology -- Research into embedded technologies and industries will develop innovative products, including telecommunications, home appliances, and mobile devices. Products within the Oracle's embedded research include the Oracle TimesTen in- memory database, Berkeley DB, Oracle Database Lite, and Oracle 10g RAC.
Ubiquitous Computing -- RFID research will develop a framework that can manage and control massive numbers and types of Sensor Edge Servers and attached devices. The framework can gather device data, generate strategic business data, and dispatch data to different applications via protocols like HTTP and Web Services.
Social Networking -- Collaboration platform development will increase communication efficiency and security among enterprise users. This technology provides a secure, state-of-the-art blogging platform for Enterprise users to exchange their thoughts and information through an open environment. The platform brings benefits to enterprises that want to increase the efficiency of knowledge management, communication and productivity within different organizations as well as with customers.
Spatial Imaging -- The Oracle Spatial Framework (OSF) manages complicated structures of map data and security access of various applications users. This system provides a fully equipped environment for GIS/LBS applications to run on.
Virtualization -- Research into virtualization aims to develop a platform to leverage the benefits of a virtual machine both on VMware and Xen.
Solution Centers Bring Innovations to Market
Oracle's 13 solution centers focus on special markets or industries ranging from e-Government to Financial Services. They include:
Oracle-HP E-Governance Center of Excellence in India : In July 2003, Oracle and HP established the Oracle-HP e-Governance Center of Excellence in Gurgaon, which works closely with state and central government bodies to understand the requirements of e-Governance in India, and tailor technology solutions to enhance citizen services. This Linux-based center helps governments identify appropriate strategies, methodologies and solutions required for deployment of e-governance at a low, total cost of ownership.
Partner Solution Center in Shenzhen, China : Established in 2004 as the Shenzhen Software Park Oracle Competency Center (SSPOCC), the Shenzhen Partner Solution Center provides ISVs with free porting, testing and migration services -- conducted in a secure environment -- to migrate confidently from other third-party vendor solutions to Oracle technology solutions, including Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware. This center has helped more than 100 ISVs across 16 cities in China either migrate to Oracle from the competition or adopt Oracle Database or Oracle Fusion Middleware for the first time.
E-government Cooperation with Beijing University E-government Institute in Beijing, China : In January 2005, Oracle and Beijing University (commonly known as Peking University) launched a joint e-Government COE in Beijing to create content and methodologies that are practical and meaningful to the development of e-government in China. Oracle continues to work with this prestigious institution to demonstrate Oracle's thought and technology leadership in the rapidly expanding e-government space. Through the joint effort of Oracle China and the university's E-government Institute, e-government solutions and best practices have been successfully introduced to a number of central and local government agencies in China.
Financial Services Industry Center of Expertise in Chengdu, China : In January 2005, Oracle and the Southwestern University of Finance& Economics (SWUFE) launched a COE for the Financial Services Industry to carry out research projects, develop solutions for China's financial sector, with a focus on China's Western regions.
Partner Solution Center in Singapore : In February 2005, Oracle launched the Linux Enterprise Application Porting (LEAP) Center to help Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) migrate to Linux platforms. This center's role has been expanded to include services to help ISV's exploit Oracle's extensive open source portfolio including Oracle Berkeley DB, PHP, Ruby On Rails and Xen Virtualization technology. This COE provides a host of services, including an enterprise Linux and Open Source software development test-bed, Enterprise Linux migration services, and an architecture validation and tuning lab. To date, the LEAP COE has successfully migrated 68 ISVs across the ASEAN region
Enterprise-G Center of Expertise in Singapore : In May 2005, Oracle and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore launched the Enterprise-G COE to help organizations explore the benefits of enterprise grid technology in achieving cost reduction, productivity gains and revenue growth. This COE has piloted multiple grid projects and has developed and deployed a grid project for the Singapore Land Authority.
Philippines e-Governance Center of Expertise : In May 2005, Oracle and the Government of the Philippines launched the Philippines e-Governance COE to support initiatives around the use of information technology to improve quality of life for citizens. This COE provides the infrastructure for government organizations to prototype various projects of national importance.
Sri Lanka e-Government Center of Expertise : In June 2005, Oracle launched the Sri Lanka e-Government COE in partnership with government and private-sector partners, including the President's Office, ICT Agency, Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA), Millennium IT, and PC House. This COE focuses on technology innovation in support of the e-Sri Lanka initiative, which explores ways ICT can foster social integration, peace, growth and poverty reduction. To date, this COE has built more than six prototypes and pilots under the e-Sri Lanka initiative.
Malaysia e-Governance Center of Expertise : In August 2005, Oracle launched this e-Governance COE to support the initiatives of the Government of Malaysia in adopting information technology in governance and society. Projects developed at this COE include the use of RFID and sensor-based technology for e-government, on-demand grid computing for bioinformatics researchers, and a Quality Assurance Framework for e- Governance.
Neusoft-Oracle Center of Expertise in China : Working closely with Neusoft, one of China's leading System Integration and Services firms, Oracle has completed Oracle Lite integration with automobile navigation system, NEUSA for Oracle (Neusoft Solution Architecture) integration with Oracle 10g RAC. Work is currently underway to explore explore innovative uses of Oracle and Neusoft technology in Chinese Domestic markets as well as embedding in other Neusoft products intended for international markets such as Japan.
Oracle Carrier Grade Framework (CGF) Competency Center based in Shenzhen, China : By developing the Carrier Grade Framework, the OARDC drives the adoption of standards-based technology in communications networks worldwide, enabling Communications Service Providers (CSPs) and Network Equipment Manufacturers (NEMs) to more effectively meet customer demands and speed time to market for innovative services. The CGF is a standards-based data management architecture that combines Oracle® Database 10g, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database, on AdvancedTCA (ATCA)-compliant Intel® servers. ATCA is an industry standard that provides a scalable, reliable platform architecture for carrier-grade (99.999% availability) communications applications.
DELL|Oracle Competency Centre in Islamabad, Pakistan : In June 2006, DELL and Oracle launched the DELL|Oracle Competency Centre in Islamabad to provide a platform for showcasing multiple IT solutions for Pakistani companies in diverse industries, including financial services, telecommunication, government and manufacturing. The centre's ultimate objective is to provide research, simulation and concept- proofing needs to the growing business community in Pakistan.
Oracle Retail Center of Expertise in Bangalore, India : In November 2006, Oracle established the Oracle Retail Center of Excellence in order to deliver business value to leading retailers seeking to improve profitability. Located in Bangalore with nearly 200 retail experts, the Oracle Retail Center of Excellence is a platform for the world's largest, most successful retail organizations to exchange ideas, develop concepts and showcase scalable, best-of-breed retail solutions. This center has global expertise in retail disciplines including merchandising, planning, optimization, analytics, store operations, supply chain and enterprise application integration.
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