Letter from the Editor

Welcome to the latest issue of Oracle's bimonthly newsletter for independent software vendors (ISVs) operating in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In this issue we bring you news of a major forthcoming Oracle event, together with all the latest news, events, opinions, profiles and features from Oracle and its partners.

Oracle PartnerNetwork EMEA ISV Forum

The inaugural Oracle PartnerNetwork EMEA ISV Forum will take place in London on Tuesday 7th September 2004. If you are an ISV operating in EMEA, this is one event you can't afford to miss!

This free one-day conference is an unrivalled opportunity for you to come and hear from the most senior Oracle management about our partnering strategy, commitment to ISVs and the benefits of developing your solutions on Oracle technology.

Featuring presentations from Oracle President Charles Phillips, Oracle EMEA Executive Vice President Sergio Giacoletto, Oracle Vice President of Global Alliances and Channels Bronwyn Hastings, among a host of others, the event will give you an in-depth insight into how you can best work with Oracle and how Oracle can help you build your business.

Find out how Oracle is leading the way with Grid Computing, enabling you to deliver unprecedentedly high-performance, low cost-of-ownership solutions to your customers. Learn how the Oracle Information Architecture can enable you to offer solutions based on a single data model - and which integrate out of the box with other vendors' products. Hear how Oracle can help you cost-effectively offer your solution to a wider range of customers, on a wider range of operating systems and hardware platforms, than ever before.

Read more about the Oracle PartnerNetwork EMEA ISV Forum in our feature article, and find out what vendors, partners and analysts thought of the recent US ISV Forum event.

To register now, click here to go straight to the registration page.

Industry Strategy

Continuing our series of introductions to senior Oracle management, we talk to Dr Juan Rada, senior vice president of Industries for Oracle EMEA. Industry strategy is always a contentious area for "horizontal" software vendors. Find out how Oracle approaches the issue, and how ISVs can benefit from Oracle's inclusive strategy for key industry markets.

Business in Spain

Spain is one of Europe's "tiger economies", providing fertile territory for local and multinational software vendors. In this issue Christian Peter of Oracle Spain explains how Oracle works with ISVs locally.

Partnering under the microscope

As with many things in life, a successful business partnership is about mutual commitment and investment. We examine the outstanding working relationship between Oracle, financial services solution provider TEMENOS and hardware vendor HP, and find out how the effort put into the relationship by all three parties has translated into surging market demand and increased sales.

Join our Growing Community

Finally, subscribers to IT Europa may have noticed a recent article on Oracle's ISV strategy. After noting that Oracle had signed up 451 new ISV partners in fiscal 2004, the editor commented: "Only a few weeks ago IBM and Microsoft told IT Europa they were both poised to poach Oracle partners. Now Oracle confirms it spent much of the last year stealing their ISV allies. Europe's ISV community is so large there will always be some trading of partners and every vendor can cite ISVs it stole from a rival. But signing up more than one partner a day is impressive and Oracle's multi-vendor approach appears to be gaining approval."

With Oracle's EMEA ISV community now totalling more than 4,000 vendors and growing fast, joining us will put you in very good company indeed. I hope this newsletter will give you an idea of the benefits of becoming an Oracle partner, and as ever, if you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Bertram Mandel
Senior Director, Alliances & Channels, Oracle Europe, Middle East and Africa

"We have found Oracle to be very approachable, enthusiastic and committed to ensuring our mutual success. We take the relationship seriously and so does Oracle - and that's great for both of us."
- Stephen Epstein, Head of Product Platform Management, Mantas
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