Oracle reaped $8.34 billion from database sales in 2007, giving it 37.6% of the $22.2 billion global market, according to IDC. The 2008 figures are not yet available, IDC said.

MySQL’s sales, meanwhile, were just $38 million in 2007, ranking it just 19th in the market, according to IDC. The open source database placed behind a plethora of unheralded database vendors, such as Siemens, Unisys, Hitachi, even Apple Inc., whose Filemaker personal database had triple MySQL’s revenue.

Also, Oracle has said early on that Sun will continue to operate as a separate entity. That means MySQL will likely at least maintain it independence, as well as staying far enough away from Oracle’s pricey database to prevent inadvertent cannibalization, he said.

Alfresco’s Newton agreed, though he argued that Oracle may try to subtly steer the course of MySQL’s development to slow the addition of features such as more scalable clustering that would compete with Oracle’s main database.

But even if that happens, the open-source community as well as makers of third-party MySQL storage engines could ensure that such options remain available, he said.

Reduced travel and communication costs: Cutting back on plane trips and hotel stays is one of the most obvious ways for companies to save money, but that must be balanced against the value of person-to-person interaction. Today, videoconferencing and new collaboration tools are making virtual meetings much more like face-to-face interaction and companies are finding that in many cases, information sharing and collaboration can be accomplished more efficiently and for much less cost when done virtually. A prime example of this would be Raymond which has reduced costs by 30% using Microsoft UC solutions.

Going virtual: Virtualization makes it possible to run more than one operating system on a single machine, which can help companies reduce costs by enabling them to use more of the computing power that they already own. Virtualization also presents opportunities to consolidate the number of servers companies own and use.

Reduced PC energy consumption: There are incredible power management tools in software today that help companies more effectively manage energy consumption. Companies should make sure they are taking advantage of all power management tools in todays software.

Using business intelligence: Business intelligence delivers on a simple promise to improve business performance by driving better decision-making throughout your organization. BI helps you make better and quicker fact based decisions, enables all types of decision making in the organizationoperational, tactical or strategic, lowers TCO, gets deployed fast and scales with your requirement and enables decision making at all levels of the organizationpersonal, team or organization wide.

Leveraging cloud computing: Many companies are beginning to consider the benefits of a Software-as-a-Service model for their IT environments as a potential cost saving strategy, which provides the flexibility and options for customers to help them make educated decisions. To save costs - customers will now start exploring options to see how they can manage and access softwarewhether its online, on-premises or both.

CRM solutions: CRM offers a robust suite of sales, marketing, and service capabilities; it offers businesses of all sizes a fast, flexible, and affordable solution for finding, winning, and growing profitable customer relationships. Lilliput Retail, a retail company specializing in kidwear has in fact seen a 60% increase in efficiencies of warehouses.

This is the full searchable set of PeopleBooks. It will be updated as the the documentation changes. You can LINK your PeopleSoft applications directly to this site.

This is a publicly accessible site.

You can also access the PDF versions here - http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/psftent.html

Check this link:
Customer Connection References Within PeopleSoft Enterprise Documentation
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E05317_01/psft/acrobat/pb_metalink.pdf

This document lists the new MetaLink navigations for Customer Connection pages

PeopleSoft Related Tips and Training Material:
http://www.itwisesolutions.com/PsftQuiz.html

• If your ERP is going pear shaped, it is better to seek help now rather than try continue swimming in mud.
• Use your industry peers. They will talk reality.
• If that means a brutal assessment then go for it. It only need happen once and you’ll thank the bringer of bad news. Management will also appreciate your honesty.
• Make sure the people you’re hiring have got the stones to stand up to the implementers AND the vendors. That could mean some tough talk but should mean a better outcome.
• Make sure the people you hire are truly independent and do not make their primary living from scratching the vendors’ or implementers’ backs. That could be tricky but there’s a few names to play with here.
• As [Erik] Kimberling says: never be afraid to say ‘No’ and stand your ground.
• Get your vendor and implementer to understand you’re looking for a partnership - not a transaction. If all they see are dollar signs then it’s fair to say you’re on your own. That’s not a good place to be on any project.

Obama had spelt out his views against outsourcing and is opposed to companies shipping jobs overseas. However, one hopes pragmatism will replace the rhetoric, now that he is the US President and that he will see the mutually beneficial, ‘win-win’ strategic advantages of outsourcing.

Post your comments on this topic…

DECLARE
v_connection UTL_SMTP.CONNECTION;
BEGIN
v_connection := UTL_SMTP.OPEN_CONNECTION(’mail.company.com’,25);
UTL_SMTP.HELO(v_connection,’mail.company.com’);
UTL_SMTP.MAIL(v_connection,’contact@company.com’);
UTL_SMTP.RCPT(v_connection,’contact@company.com’);
UTL_SMTP.DATA(v_connection,’Testing Hello Mail’);
UTL_SMTP.QUIT(v_connection);
END;

Function ScheduleNotification(&sRunCntl As string, &nMinuteOffset As number)

&RQST = CreateProcessRequest();
&RQST.ProcessType = “Application Engine”;

&RQST.ProcessName = “MRKCEM_WF_AE”;
&RQST.RunControlID = &sRunCntl;
SQLExec(”SELECT SERVERNAME FROM PS_RB_WF_DEFAULTS”, &WFACTIONSERVER);
If None(&WFACTIONSERVER) Then
&WFACTIONSERVER = “SERVER”;
End-If;


&RQST.RunLocation = &WFACTIONSERVER;
&RQST.OutDestType = “%OutputDirectory%”;
&RQST.OutDestFormat = “SPF”;
&RQST.OutDest = “C:\TEMP\”;
&RQST.RunDateTime = AddToDateTime(%Datetime, 0, 0, 0, 0, &nMinuteOffset, 0);
&RQST.TimeZone = %ServerTimeZone;
&RQST.Schedule();
&PRCSSTATUS = &RQST.Status;

End-Function;

/* Code to write in your code to call Error trap method */

import PKG:CLASS_PKG:*;

Local CLASSname &objName = create CLASSname();

try
—–
catch Exception &ex1
&objName.errorHandler(&ex1, “EOTP_PKG.EOTP_MAIN_PKG.TPMUtil.log”, True);
end-try;

/* Code to write in App Class for Error trap */

method errorHandler(&inputException As Exception, &logToFileName As string, &writeToFile As boolean);

/** This method writes the collection of error messages to a log file.
* Automatically puts the document in the directory specified by the
* TEMP system variable.
*
* So, on Windows, if %TEMP is defined to be C:\temp, then it will put
* the file into C:\temp\<&logToFileName> .
*
* If the &writeToFile parameter is true, then the method will write the
* output to a file. Otherwise, if you just want the output to be written
* to the screen in a MessageBox, you can leave the &logToFileName parameter
* blank (make it “” or something — the method won’t pay attention to it),
* and make the &writeToFile parameter False.
*/

method errorHandler
/+ &inputException as Exception, +/
/+ &logToFileName as String, +/
/+ &writeToFile as Boolean +/
Local number &i;
Local string &strErrMsgSetNum, &strErrMsgNum, &strErrMsgText, &strErrType;

&strErrMsgSetNum = String(&inputException.MessageSetNumber);
&strErrMsgNum = String(&inputException.MessageNumber);
&strErrMsgText = String(&inputException.ToString());
If (&writeToFile) Then
Local File &logToFile = GetFile(GetEnv(”TEMP”) | “\” | &logToFileName, “a”, %FilePath_Absolute);
&logToFile.WriteLine(%Datetime | “:”);
&logToFile.WriteLine(&strErrType | ” (” | &strErrMsgSetNum | “,” | &strErrMsgNum | “) - ” | &strErrMsgText);
Else
MessageBox(0, “”, &inputException.MessageSetNumber, &inputException.MessageNumber, &inputException.ToString());
End-If;
end-method;