Oracle gets to grips with euro

Oracle this month unveiled Release 11 of its Applications software family, and fulfilled its promise to deliver enterprise-wide software, based on its network computing architecture.

The latest version is the first one configured to handle the rounding and triangulation requirements stipulated for euro transactions. Version 10.7 of Oracle Applications will be developed and ‘retro-fitted’ with some euro functions until the end of 2000, but if customers want full euro functionality they will have to migrate to the Web-based Release 11 family and version 8 of the underlying relational database system.

Oracle was unrepentant, claiming that most of the user companies already had the necessary Internet infrastructure to run Release 11 applications and that customers were buying into the company’s Internet-based vision.

‘We shouldn’t apologise for being out ahead of the technology curve,’ said Oracle European marketing manager Nick Barley. ‘We’re out there with a superior product based on technology that everyone else will be using in five years’ time.’

The Release 11 Financials package now includes a built-in consolidation routine, a corporate cash forecasting tool and a raft of pre-configured management reports that can be tailored with the Oracle reporting routine.

The consolidation system would let companies generate pro-forma figures while the consolidation was taking place, said UK applications director Dave Andersen. ‘We’re accelerating the close so users can spend their time making business decisions rather than counting beans,’ he said.

The management information elements of the new suite are down to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, said Dick Leitch, financial product manager for Europe.

‘In January, Larry Ellison told the developers to see what they could do with Oracle Reports 3.0.’