Oracle banks on e-business to zap economic crisis

Oracle banks on e-business to zap economic crisis

By Johannes Simbolon

SINGAPORE (JP): Global database software maker Oracle Corp.
has launched a new product to boost business through the Internet
in the Asia Pacific region amid the economic crisis.

The region lags behind other parts of the world, particularly
Europe and North America, in the number of Internet users, but
the company believes electronic business (e-business), or
electronic commerce (e-commerce), will establish a strong
foothold in the region.

There are 27 million Internet users in the Asia Pacific,
compared to 87 million users in the United States and Canada and
34 million in Europe.

Oracle senior vice president for the Asia Pacific Derek
Williams said the 20-month-long economic crisis would not stop e-
business from growing in the region.

He believed more of the region's businesspeople would realize
the effectiveness of the Internet to promote their business
expansion and exports in the economic doldrums.

"The traditional definition of markets is fast disappearing.
Geographical boundaries are no longer major barriers. The
information infrastructure and the Internet add a new dimension
to the market," Williams said during a media meeting from March 9
to March 10 to launch the company's latest database software in
the region.

Reporters from across the region attended the meeting, which
was followed by a three-day exhibition of the new product, Oracle
OpenWorld Asia Pacific '99.

The new product package is called Oracle's Internet Platform
with the main product named Oracle8i

Oracle said rapid growth in numbers of Internet users required
those in business to obtain a highly reliable, scalable and
secure database to handle thousands of customers around the
clock, seven days a week.

The company claims Oracle8i is the answer.

It said Oracle8i includes many functions to develop and deploy
Internet applications and to improve the scalability,
performance, availability, manageability and security of data
warehouse, transaction processing and electronic commerce
applications.

Functions include Oracle JServer which hosts application logic
within the database engine.

It also has the Oracle InterMedia function which enables
websites owners to manage multimedia contents such that the Web
applications can incorporate images, audio, video, text and
location information.

Oracle8i is also equipped with the Oracle Internet File System
functionality, which makes data that is stored in the Oracle8i
servers appear as if it were simply another file system volume in
the network.

It also boasts Oracle Partitioning, which stores large tables
and indexes in pieces, instead of as one large monolithic object.

Among its other functions is Summary Management, providing a
mechanism for storing multiple dimensions and summary
calculations of a table. When a query requests a summary of
detail records, the query is transparently rewritten to access
the stored aggregates, rather than summing the detail records
every time.

Oracle8i also provides the Standby Database feature which
supports the maintenance of a "shadow" database backup on an
alternative machine, possibly at an alternative site.

User

Company senior vice president of marketing Mark Jarvis claimed
during the conference that nine of the 10 world's biggest and
best Web sites, including Amazon com. and Yahoo!, use Oracle to
handle their huge number of users and information.

He said Amazon com., currently the most popular book retailer
on the Internet, demonstrated how a Web-based business could
develop to the level that traditional retailers cannot compete.

Amazon allows Internet users to search for any book in print,
then use a credit card to order selections.

By connecting its network to publishing companies, bookstores
and courier service companies, Amazon will deliver the books
ordered by Internet users at the right time.

Jarvis said using Oracle to manage its database enabled Amazon
not only to track customer interests and purchases, but also
interact with them in a cost-efficient way and create personal
profiles about each customer's habits and buying preference.

Company vice president for the Asia Pacific region Paul Burrin
noted that electronic business and trading in the Asia Pacific
was not yet popular as in Europe and North America. He said it
was due to several reasons, including that companies in the
region prefer dealing with their business partners face to face.

The strong hierarchy in Asian companies' management also
hampers its development, he added.

He noted that Asian firms' cost-consciousness would provide
opportunities for the electronic business to grow since business
through the Internet would reduce costs.

Today, several e-commerce web services have established
themselves in the Asia Pacific, including Singapore-based
Advanced Manufacturing On-Line (AMO) and the Asian Sources Group,
both of which use Oracle to handle their database systems and
queries through the Internet.

AMO runs a website connected to most of the major
manufacturing companies across the Asia Pacific, including one
Indonesian business unit of Japanese electronic maker Sony Corp.

Interested parties from across the world can order Asian
products through AMO's website. AMO then passes the orders to any
companies and receives a fee from processing the supply-demand
contact.

"By using the Internet, export-oriented companies can promote
their products globally the most efficient way," AMO vice
president James L. Hetcher.

Oracle managing director for South Asia Loke Soon Choo said
Indonesia was behind its neighbors, including Singapore, in
developing the electronic business.

"Indonesians have to do that now. Otherwise, people from
outside the country will do that for them," Loke said.