APPLICATIONS UNLIMITED
panies can function as a unified entity. This customer was able to
tie together its best-of-breed business processes, completing an
upgrade and an expansion of its systems in just five months—
and it anticipates saving US$35 million over five years. <>
O onraIcnlveeFstinmaenncting: Speedy Return
How customers are lowering acquisition and
ownership costs and accelerating the benefits of
Oracle-based solutions
Available in more than 50 countries, Oracle Financing has provided
nearly US$8 billion in acquisition financing and leasing to thousands
of Oracle customers. Profit spoke with Anil Vora, global vice president
of Oracle Financing, about vendor-provided financing and the role it
plays in the new frontier of helping customers acquire, maintain, and
evolve their business systems.
PROFIT: What is Oracle Financing?
VORA: Oracle Financing helps customers buy Oracle products and services so that they can more quickly realize the
value of new, modernized technical business solutions. Oracle
Financing offers payment solutions for Oracle software—
applications, database, and middleware—and services, such as
education and consulting, as well as for multivendor partner
solutions that include partner software, services, and hardware.
PROFIT: Why should customers consider Oracle Financing
over other methods or sources of financing?
VORA: Oracle provides a one-stop shop for technical expertise and competitive financing. Other sources of financing
cannot provide our customers with the same mix of technical
knowledge and financing expertise. Regardless of the scope of
the solution being acquired, Oracle provides flexible payment
structures that are based on master agreements that can be tailored to specific business requirements and usually meet with
quick approval.
PROFIT: Is Oracle Financing a better fit for new customers or
for existing customers?
VORA: Oracle Financing provides for the needs of new and
existing customers. It helps companies take a long-term view
of their technology and business solutions. No matter what
size you are today, we can help you look at the technology you
need now and how it will scale as your needs change—and
we can provide flexible payment structures to help you evolve
your legacy systems without financial constraint. In addition
to new licenses and services, Oracle Financing also assists with
upgrading or expanding systems as well as with license acquisitions and implementation services.
PROFIT: Why do executives like Oracle Financing?
VORA: Oracle Financing can help you map your payments
to budgets or to the specific benefits you will receive from
your implementations, thus creating an executive view that
enhances the analysis of their value proposition and creates
a self-funded project paradigm. Flexible, competitive financing solutions help your company manage its capital so that
your business solutions cost less overall and leave more capital
available for investment in your core business area. By helping
business planners access future budgets and improve budget
predictability, Oracle Financing helps companies evolve business systems quickly while preserving existing capital.
PROFIT: How do customers engage with Oracle Financing?
VORA: Oracle Financing solutions are available to customers
at all stages of acquiring Oracle and multivendor solutions.
We’re a natural fit for Oracle Applications customers that are
often looking for licensing, implementation, consulting, and
education services—but we work across all the Oracle product
lines. We also engage with customers after acquisition, helping
them understand how they want their Oracle implementation
to evolve down the line and providing optimized funding for
their expansion and maintenance plans. The best place to get
started is with your Oracle account manager or partner. <>
Image Is Everything
Four steps to reducing finance overhead
As finance and accounting organizations wrestle with achieving globalization, driving revenue growth, and complying with
new and changing regulations, they also struggle to drive costs
out of organizational processes. In most companies, the CFO
has already led the drive to implement financial management
software to automate payables, receivables, general ledger, and
more—and ensured that automated financial processes are well
documented, repeatable, and reportable.
But where do enterprises go from there? In many companies,
ad hoc or “fringe” processes—those existing outside the realm
of financial systems—remain manual or paper-based. Not only
are these processes inefficient, error-prone, and environmentally
unfriendly; they also create financial strain and legal risk.
With Oracle’s 2006 acquisition of content management
leader Stellent, and the integration of Stellent’s best-of-breed content management capabilities into Oracle Fusion
