Wednesday, March 22, 2000

When the Oracle speaks


That’s an interesting analogy, but when Jeff Henley, Oracle's EVP and CFO spoke to a large gathering of Oracle-ites and other interested parties over breakfast on Wednesday, March 22, we listened. After an early morning networking session over juice and coffee, he spoke on "Strategic Finance in the Internet Age: Increasing Shareholder Value through E-business." Just the title alone wouldn't have made it through the buzzsaw.com, but the information within was interesting. We learned about their various offerings, like Oracle 8i and just how Oracle is going to save  $1billion? We all know that the Internet changes the way companies compete, and if you don't compete, you "get beat." So through increasing internal efficiency, consolidation of various operations and support local requirements with global products, and a few other key points, you can compete.

We saw a demo of their site tracking software. If you haven't seen it, it's quite powerful! And then Jeff showcased their streaming e-business site (http://www.oracle.com/ebusinessnetwork/index2.html), which was quite a business-treat! So after all these suits and skirts filled their stomachs and their minds with nutritious morsels, the breakfast concluded and the day continued.